It is a tragedy often cloaked with euphemisms.

“Personal injury at track level.”

“Trespasser incident.”

But, breaking from tradition, two spokespeople from the TTC and Metrolinx have been using straightforward language about suicide and suicide attempts on their train tracks in hopes of fostering understanding and pushing conversations around suicide prevention forward.

Brad Ross, the TTC’s executive director of communications, has taken an approach that some Twitter users have described as “brutally honest.”

When questioned by frustrated passengers on Twitter about a 90-minute subway service suspension on Line 2, Ross responded, “somebody has taken their life. We’re doing all we can under the circumstances.”

Over the summer, he offered another to-the-point answer when asked about who the people “injured at track level” are.

“They’re people who are distressed and choose to tragically end their lives,” Ross tweeted.

An average of 23 suicide-related incidents have occurred each year on the subway system between 1998 and 2014.

“When people question me … about what is happening and why there is yet another delay, for example, it’s important, I think, that I, as a face, as an individual who works for the TTC, to put some empathy and some compassion around what exactly is happening,” Ross said in an interview.

While the TTC will continue to use “injury at track level” in announcements or when sending out alerts from “faceless” accounts, Ross said he tries to convey compassion about suicide and suicide attempts when using his personal Twitter.

The approach isn’t about “deflecting” blame from the TTC, he added, nor was there a corporate order or conversation about what language to use.

“It’s about ensuring that people understand that there are many times when there is a delay that is caused by the TTC, absolutely, and there are times when it’s not,” Ross said.

“And it’s those times that there’s a suicide … It’s not an incident. It’s not a statistic. It is somebody’s son or daughter, or mother or father, or brother or sister, or friend or lover or spouse who has tragically chosen to end their life and I think that perspective is important for all of us to understand.”

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said she began advocating for using more transparent language when she started at the agency four and a half years ago. For about two years now, GO Transit alerts about certain delays note when there’s been a “fatality.”

Metrolinx uses “fatality,” Aikins explained, because unlike the TTC, most deaths do not occur at stations where witnesses can confirm what happened but in “open-rail areas” after dark where circumstances aren’t always immediately clear.

“It’s a push that we have from an organization point of view to be more open to talking about suicide, to reach out to people, to acknowledge these are real people that have now chosen to end their lives, and that they have people in their lives that are going to be devastated,” Aikins said.

Metrolinx also partners with ConnexOntario to offer phone-counselling and awareness programs.

Aikins also often talks about suicide prevention and mental health on her Twitter account, something she said is important to her.

“I’ve had people in my life as well that have been impacted, whether through suicide or having committed suicide,” she said. “I think we all have, if we look around, and it’s important when I have to talk about a fatality, it’s important for my own mental health to talk about it as well, out loud, to feel like I’m doing something, however little that is.”

Ross and Aikins’ openness to naming and talking about suicide are consistent with a shift in how the public talks about mental illness, said Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Dr. David Goldbloom.

“Some of the previous prohibitions, if you will, in talking about suicide have been replaced by, I think, a more nuanced, and honest, and ultimately constructive public discussion,” Goldbloom said.

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“What I saw of the Tweets – it wasn’t simply about acknowledging there was a suicide. It was about acknowledging that there was a human tragedy that played out on the TTC, and for all of people’s impatience and frustration with delays, putting it in the context of human tragedy, hopefully makes people more tolerant and more accepting. Because what is the consequence of being late for work versus a human life being lost, where somebody is in that dark space where suicide seems like the only option?”

Distress Centres executive director Karen Letofsky said Ross’ approach is consistent with how the TTC addresses suicide overall.

“I think that that’s probably one of the lesser-understood things about TTC – is that it’s had a long-time, long-term commitment to suicide prevention,” Letofsky said.

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