Exploring the role of the railroad industry in promoting suicide prevention

This document reports on a forum where executives from U.S. railroad companies came together with suicide prevention experts to answer the guiding question, “What is known about effective suicide prevention measures, broadly speaking, and what role, if any, can the railroad industry play in supporting and advancing these efforts?” Using the public-private partnership model of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, the meeting was innovative in exploring whether and how a major industry might contribute to reducing the overall societal toll of suicide. Therefore, the focus was on suicide as a broad national problem, rather than on any specific type of suicide. The goal was not to develop an industry-wide strategy, but rather for each company to become better educated about suicide prevention and decide its own next steps following the meeting. The agenda was structured to enable suicide prevention experts to educate railroad industry representatives about best practices in suicide prevention, followed by an opportunity for dialogue and brainstorming about what role the industry might play in promoting these solutions.