Congress seeks suicide lifeline number that’s easy to remember

“We have heard time and again that one phone call could have saved a life, and we want to make that one phone call easier,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. When he announced the proposal on the Senate side, he said the current number was “not an intuitive or easy number to remember, particularly for those experiencing a mental health emergency.”

Under the bill, the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act, the Federal Communications Commission, the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs would determine how doable it would be to set up a three-digit number, suggest which number to use, and look into how well the current lifeline works. The study would include recommendations to improve the suicide prevention program, as well as an analysis on how well it addresses the needs of veterans, 20 of whom die by suicide every day.

The implementation would cost less than $500,000 over five years, projected the Congressional Budget Office, the government’s scorekeeping agency.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously in November. In the House, the bill had a hearing, markup, and was passed by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, part of the Energy and Commerce Committee, where it is headed next.

The legislation’s current momentum is occurring in the shadow of suicides among high-profile figures this month such as fashion designer Kate Spade and chef and CNN host Anthony Bourdain.

Federal data released around the same time shows that suicide rates have risen by more than 30 percent since 1999, surpassing 45,000 in 2016. Every state except Nevada saw increases.

Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, it is the second-leading cause of death.

Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, the Democratic author of the bill, said he hoped the House would quickly pass the bill, adding that the rise in suicide rates “warrants a significant and sustained response, as each death devastates loved ones, friends, and the community.”

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, one of the authors on the House side, said it was “not only time but past time” to consider a different helpline, and said he had been frustrated by how slowly the legislation has moved through Congress. He hopes it will be sent to President Trump before of the August recess.

“Most people have been touched by this, whether through suicide in the family or someone they love attempting suicide,” he said. “I have gotten to know these families … This is heartbreaking. We can’t promise this will never happen again, but we can try to minimize it.”

The legislation has the support of the Mental Health Liaison Group, a coalition of about 45 organizations including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and Mental Health America.

While untreated mental health conditions can contribute to suicidal thoughts, cases often involve challenging life circumstances, such as a physical illness, drug use, or difficulty with finances. Phone calls to the lifeline during times of emotional distress can cause people to change their minds about harming themselves.

“Just the right word from someone just reaching out and having someone to talk to them can mean the difference between life and death,” Stewart said. “In many cases it’s caused by life circumstances that are temporary, but for that person it feels permanent or forever.”

The lifeline has existed since 2005, and over the past 13 years, it has fielded more than 11 million calls allowing people from across the country to access help for free and at any time.

The recent volume of calls has surpassed expectations, said John Draper, director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. In 2017, more than 2 million calls were answered — triple the number in 2010 — and this year the baseline of calls is even higher. Calls tend to increase after celebrity deaths, when reporters and people on social media are sharing the lifeline.

“Call volume increases every year and the last year it has been extremely high,” Draper said. “2017 and 2018 have proven to be fairly extraordinary years.”

The program is funded by the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration and is managed by Vibrant Emotional Health, formerly known as the Mental Health Association of New York City. The organization establishes the best ways to handle the calls, routes them, and pays the phone bill, but the 160 centers across the country, and their 10,000 staff and volunteers, are funded by local communities.

“This national service is dependent on local funding,” Draper said. “As call volume continues to increase, their budgets are either flat or being cut … Our public safety net is being strained.”

If the bill making its way through Congress becomes law, officials will evaluate whether additional resources are needed.

John Madigan Jr., vice president and chief public policy officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said in a March hearing that his organization sees a possible change in the phone number as “one piece of the puzzle” to reverse the trend of rising suicides.

“Imagine you’re in the middle of a suicidal ideation,” Madigan said. “Unless it’s written somewhere, it’s hard to remember. I even think a 5-year-old knows to dial 911 when they need to call the police.”

He added that because people are particularly familiar with 911, they often tend to dial that number when their needs would be best met by the suicide lifeline. Having more people call the lifeline would reduce the number of people who head to emergency rooms or the need to call police or other emergency responders, he said.

Madigan stressed that a phone number must be coupled with resources to respond to the volume of calls coming in. He said he told Hatch, “It’s a great idea, but if you make it easier to call and there is no one there on the other end to answer the call, or they are not competent to answer the call then, that’s a big problem.”

He cited the example of the lifeline ensuring that veterans are available to speak with peers when they call in. Last year, the lifeline fielded more than 700,000 calls from people who were a veteran, a member of the military, or a family member concerned about them.

During a recent markup of the bill in the House, lawmakers signaled that deaths among high-profile people and the latest CDC information have brought the issue to the forefront.

“With the deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, Americans are looking for things we can do to prevent these senseless tragedies,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the Communications and Technology Subcommittee chairwoman.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, who also authored the House bill, said that while the high-profile suicides “have brought the issue of mental and emotional health to the forefront of our political discussions,” lawmakers must remember the thousands of people who not only die from suicide but who attempt it.

“These harrowing statistics serve as a stark reminder that we can and must do more to provide individuals the support that they need, with the intent of preventing them from claiming their own lives,” she said.