Washington, DC - Today, legislation championed by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and aimed at preventing youth suicide overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill will now go to the president who has strongly supported the legislation.
"This bill will help people who suffer from mental illnesses so devastating that their lives are at risk. No family should experience the pain of losing a child and no child should face the challenges of mental illness alone," Smith said. "This legislation tells parents and children that we know their struggles and that help is out there."
The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act creates a program within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to enhance suicide prevention efforts at the state and local level, and on college campuses. Specifically, the bill:
- authorizes $82 million over three years for suicide prevention programs
- provides funding to states and tribes to develop statewide youth
- suicide prevention and intervention strategies
- allows states to fund a variety of local programs related to suicide prevention and intervention. These may include screening programs for youth that identify mental health and behavioral conditions that place youth at risk for suicide, providing referrals for community-based treatment, and providing training activities for child care professionals and community care workers.
- establishes the federal Suicide Technical Assistance Center that will provide guidance to state and local grantees for implementing state strategies, establish standards for data collection, and collect, evaluate and disseminate data related to the program.
- provides grant funding to colleges and universities to establish or enhance their mental health outreach and treatment centers, and enhance their focus on youth suicide prevention and intervention.
- funds a variety of programs including development of networks to which students can be referred for treatment, raise awareness about the risks of youth suicide, train faculty and students to provide assistance to at-risk students, and evaluate and disseminate outcomes of mental and behavioral health.
"Today, we were able to put our differences aside and passed an important piece of legislation," Smith said. "Because of this cooperation, thousands of America's children, whose names we will never know, can be saved from Garrett's tragedy."
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