Washington, D.C. – Companion legislation to U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly’s bipartisan National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act was signed into law by President Trump. The legislation passed the House in July and the Senate earlier this month. Donnelly introduced the Senate version of this bill with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in May 2017.
Donnelly said, “At a time where the suicide rate is increasing both in Indiana and across the country, we must ensure that those in crisis have access to mental health resources. This bipartisan legislation will provide needed oversight of our suicide hotline system and determine how we can improve it and provide better service for those in need of assistance.”
The bipartisan National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act will increase the effectiveness of the current suicide prevention lifeline system and Veterans Crisis Line by requiring the Federal Communications Commission—in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs—to study the current national suicide hotline system and make recommendations to Congress on how we can improve it, including whether to use an easy to remember 3-digit suicide hotline number to better connect those in peril to crucial crisis resources.
Donnelly has worked tirelessly and effectively to improve mental health care and address the scourge of suicide. Those efforts have included authoring legislation that has been signed into law to combat suicide among servicemembers and to help law enforcement agencies establish or enhance mental health services for their officers. To read more about those efforts, click here.
