On September 9, the House approved, 352-64, amendments to a bill (S. 2634) that would authorize grants for state suicide prevention programs. The Senate approved the House amendments by unanimous consent on the same day. The bill will now go to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
S. 2634 would authorize $82 million through FY2009 for the implementation of state-sponsored youth suicide early intervention and prevention strategies. The measure also would authorize grants aimed at suicide prevention programs on college campuses “to increase access to, and enhance the range of, services for students with mental and behavioral health problems that can lead to school failure, such as depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts.” In addition, the bill would establish a technical assistance center to help local and state providers of suicide prevention programs.
As amended by the House, the bill would provide federal funding for those programs targeted only at individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. The underlying Senate bill would have included programs for children as young as age 6. In addition, the measure would require that entities receiving funds obtain prior written consent from parents for assessment services, school-sponsored programs, or treatment involving medication. The consent could be waived in an emergency situation or if the consent of the parent cannot be reasonably obtained.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) explained that with the House amendments the bill “provides educational and support programs for children at risk of suicide. These suicide programs would be administered through a grant program through the States. It reflects a balanced and reasonable compromise that allows parents to have a direct role in determining whether their children participate in these long-range programs. At the same time, when there is a young man or woman in our country who is actively contemplating suicide, the bill would allow that emergency intervention could be done without any consent so that we stabilize that individual and prevent them from actually committing the suicide act at the time they are contemplating it.”
Speaking in opposition to the parental consent requirement, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) stated, “Suicide is a silent epidemic in this country. There are about 600,000 teen suicide attempts each year that require emergency room care and hundreds of thousands more that are never reported. It is the third leading cause of death for older teens and the fourth leading cause of death for ages 10 to 14. Making it harder for schools to sponsor suicide-prevention programs undermines the goals of this legislation, and it perpetuates the very stigma that we are trying to overcome, and that is it is not okay to talk about youth suicide.”
Sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act is named for the son of Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) who died last September at age 21.
