Legislators taking steps to prevent suicide among Arkansas teens

Legislators taking steps to prevent suicide among Arkansas teens

Last year in Arkansas, 571 people took their own life. We lost more people to suicide than we did car accidents. The suicide rate is 2 ? times as high as the homicide rate in our state.

And now Arkansas ranks number 10 in the country when it comes to suicide rates.

This is a public health crises that we must and have addressed in this legislative session.

One piece of legislation we passed this week addresses the fact that suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24.

HB1666 requires institutions of higher education to provide information on mental health and suicide prevention services to new students.

The House passed HB1775, which establishes a state suicide prevention hotline.

Currently calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline are routed to hotlines in the callers home state. Arkansas is one of two states that does not have its own hotline.

The bill changes that and directs the Department of Health to establish and maintain the Suicide Prevention Hotline. The hotline must be staffed 24 hours a day and provide statewide accessibility through a toll-free number. It will be part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network by utilizing existing phone, text and online chat communications.

Although operators elsewhere in the country are trained and will answer calls from Arkansas, they are not as familiar with resources available nearby.

Operating our own hotline will help to direct individuals to help close to home. Both of these measures are now headed to Senate for a vote.

The House will take a short break on Thursday and return Monday afternoon. We expect to begin consideration of our state budget upon our return.

I will continue to update you. And remember you can watch all House committee meetings held in the Capitol and House floor proceedings at www.arkansashouse.org.

From State Representative Deborah Ferguson