YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Congress Just Passed an Important Bill for Suicide Prevention

"A piece of legislation that has the ability to save lives.”

A bill to establish a national three-digit code for suicide prevention was passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives Monday night.

According to Into, Federal government agencies will be required to, as Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson explains: “Perform a cost and benefit analysis of the hotline’s creation and provide recommendations to improve the overall effectiveness of the current system.”

Getty

Depressed teen.

The bill, H.R. 2345, establishes that the hotline would work similar to 911: Callers would be able to dial a three-digit number that would reach trained mental health professionals staffing the hotline. The idea is to give more dedicated resources to those in need, and considering the high amount of people who are affected by suicidality and struggle with their mental health, these kinds of resources are desperately needed.

The passing of H.R. 2345 is expected to assist LGBTQ youth the most, which is important considering that they have the highest rates of attempting suicide — The Trevor Project reports that queer youth are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight and cisgender peers. These rates grow even higher for trans individuals.

“Every nine minutes someone commits suicide in the U.S., and for every suicide-related death, there are 25 attempts,” Rep. Chris Stewart, who co-authored the bill, said in a statement. “These are truly heartbreaking statistics and sadly they hit close to home. […] The National Suicide Prevention Hotline Improvement Act is a bipartisan and commonsense piece of legislation that has the ability to save lives.”

Latest News