Suicide Prevention

She saw that the usual way of trying to solve a problem was not working well. So, she had an idea for a better way, which was immediately helpful and used widely. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

BS was born in Newark, N.J., one of four children. Her father worked as a tool-and-die maker. Her mother worked in the claims department of an insurance company. 

Neither of her parents’ careers forecasted their daughter’s influential research into suicide prevention. 

CHILDHOOD INTERESTS

(Editor – BS’ obituary provided no information regarding her childhood interests and whether such formed a basis for her eventual, adult career path but the basics of BS’ career story are included within this collection of career stories because they demonstrate the importance of pursuing new and creative ways to solve a problem which had not been previously addressed with any measurable success.)

EDUCATION

BS earned a Bachelor’s degree at a state college, followed by a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology awarded by a professionally well-regarded university.

INTEREST IN A PROBLEM LEADS TO SIMPLISTIC, OFTEN SUCCESSFUL PLAN

While working within her ‘clinical’ practice (‘clinical’ psychologists work directly with patients, usually one-on-one) and authoring – or co-authoring – more than 200 peer reviewed papers, later serving as a professor of psychology at an Ivy League university, BS helped propel a major shift in the field of mental health as researchers began to view suicide as a distinct problem that could be directly addressed, rather than as a symptom of another disorder.

BS’ idea to help prevent suicide was to develop a written document for patients to carry with them for reference when needed. However, the idea of carrying a written document was not new. For years, clinicians had asked patients to sign a ‘no-suicide’ contract, which would hopefully serve as an unbroken promise to not engage in self-harm. Sadly, there was little evidence that these agreements had much effect. 

So, BS and a collaborator from the University of Pennsylvania, developed a ‘safety plan” – asking patients struggling with suicidal urges to compose a written plan that lists coping strategies, as well as sources of support or distraction that could help them weather a suicidal crisis. 

When they first tested the written safety plans, BS and her collaborator envisioned them as a short-term measure to tide adolescent patients over while they waited for slow, labor-intensive courses of therapy – ‘the real treatment’– to have an effect. But patients immediately singled out the written safety plan as so helpful that the team developed it as a free-standing intervention. 

BS recalled hearing from two separate patients who, while standing on bridges considering suicide, changed their minds because they pulled out their safety plan and read it. Even years after composing a safety plan, BS said, “almost everybody could tell you the exact location, where it was at that exact moment.” 

CAREER SATISFACTION

BS went to great lengths to support young scientists, said a senior research investigator at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She recalled being overawed when she met BS for the first time, at an academic conference in Baltimore. Later, they randomly saw each other at the train station on their way back to Philadelphia. BS insisted that the two ride the same train back together so they could have time to talk. “No one else at that conference would have gone up to the ticket counter and said, ‘No, I need her on my train!’ “

BS’ daughter said that her mother was modest about her professional success but was always thrilled to hear from clinicians in far-flung places who had used the techniques she developed to help patients. “She was deeply touched by that, no doubt, “said her daughter. “She found it very, very, very meaningful, and very passionate. The work was so fulfilling to her, both on a personal level and on a larger level, to have been of service.”

This career story is based on an obituary written by Ellen Berry, published within The New York Times on 1/29/23.