Push after spate of deaths at shopping centres
Warning: Confronting
There are calls for the mandatory implementation of safety nets in large shopping centres following a devastating streak of preventable deaths in recent years.
A woman died on October 14 in front of crowds of shoppers at a packed western Sydney Westfield – the same shopping centre another woman died at in May 2019.
In the same year, a dad died at a different mall on the city’s north shore and about a year earlier, another man died at a Westfield in Sydney’s east.
There was another death at a Westfield in Canberra in 2020, and a teenage boy died at a shopping centre in Sydney’s CBD in 2015.
In the wake of the recent death, Australians have thrust themselves behind a push for fall arrest safety nets to be installed at all multi-level malls with exposed internal balconies.
When news of the woman’s death – which is now in the hands of the coroner – flooded the internet, distressed Australians pleaded for action to prevent it happening again.
Among those to share their grief online were dozens who said they had witnessed one of the traumatising deaths themselves, some as recently as the one on Friday.
“People walking on the ground floor need to be protected from falling objects. Every single time I go to Westfield I look up … and I hurry back under cover,” one respondent wrote to social media.
“I think it’s about time they put up nets. This happens way too often,” another agreed.
“Why don’t they keep some sort of safety nets at a first floor level? I see them in other countries,” a third said.
“I’ve seen so many comments where people witnessed it and since it’s such a large open shopping centre at a minimum, putting in safety measures could prevent traumatising potentially hundreds of people who may just happen to witness it or hear it,” someone else said.
While the installation of safety netting may serve as a Band-Aid solution to reduce deaths inside big malls, more focus was needed in addressing mental illness at large, Australian surfing legend and prominent mental health advocate Layne Beachley argued.
Ms Beachley told news.com.au despite millions being invested in organisations like the Black Dog Institute, Lifeline and Beyond Blue, “people still feel lost and isolated and unable to reach out and ask for the support they need”.
“There’s still a stigma around mental health,” she said, adding that suicide was “really complex and extremely complicated”.
“It runs so deep and it’s incredibly distressing,” she said.
Ms Beachley, in acknowledging the merit in the installation of safety nets, encouraged centre managements to engage in conversations with families of people who had lost their lives at malls.
“If people are reticent to do that for any reason, then it would be worth having conversations with families who have been impacted by this scenario, and seeing how they feel about it,” she said.
The trauma experienced by unsuspecting onlookers should also be considered, Ms Beachley added.
“There’s not only the pain and suffering of the person taking their life that way, but there’s also the trauma associated with people around them, and the collateral damage of what witnessing that can cause,” she said.
“I want to advocate for more deeper conversations and more precautionary measures being invested in when it comes to mental health.
“I feel the opportunity here is to look a little deeper into the cause, more so than just putting a Band-Aid or a net in place. The people who it impacts the most, you need to have them in the room.”
Westfield’s parent company Scentre Group declined to comment on whether it would consider installing fall arrest safety nets to prevent future deaths.
Not a ‘one size fits all’ approach
Crisis support service Lifeline said there were three key evidence-based approaches to suicide prevention in public sites including restricting access to means, encouraging help-seeking behaviours, and increasing the likelihood of third party interventions.
“Depending on the context, one or a number of approaches can be applied: Signage to encourage help-seeking may be appropriate, sometimes it might be early detection systems to enable staff to intervene and support people experiencing distress, sometimes it might relate to re-designing a site to eliminate or reduce secluded areas,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.
“Lifeline will not make comment about specific settings but we can share that best practice is to tailor the approach to the specific context. Typically, it is not a one size fits all approach.”
Shopping Centre Council of Australia CEO Angus Nardi told news.com.au the industry was “incredibly serious” about the safety of the community.
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“Our industry takes community safety issues incredibly seriously, and has a dedicated initiative in relation to self-harm and suicide prevention,” Mr Nardi said.
“On behalf of our members, we work closely with and collaborate with relevant experts and external organisations, such as Lifeline, police and others on community awareness and support for mental health.”
Keep the conversation going, email brooke.rolfe@news.com.au
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