Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act

IIB 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2862 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 13, 2021 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions AN ACT To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a national suicide prevention media campaign, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 HR 2862 RFS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Campaign to Prevent 2 Suicide Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE. 4 Section 520E–3(b)(2) of the Public Health Service 5 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c(b)(2)) is amended by inserting 6 after ‘‘suicide prevention hotline’’ the following: ‘‘, under 7 the universal telephone number designated under section 8 251(e)(4) of the Communications Act of 1934,’’. 9 SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM- 10 PAIGN. 11 (a) NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM- 12 PAIGN.— 13 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the date that 14 is 3 years after the date of the enactment of this 15 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 16 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), in 17 consultation with the Assistant Secretary for Mental 18 Health and Substance Use (referred to in this sec- 19 tion as the ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’) and the Director 20 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 21 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Director’’), shall 22 conduct a national suicide prevention media cam- 23 paign (referred to in this section as the ‘‘national 24 media campaign’’), in accordance with the require- 25 ments of this section, for purposes of— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 HR 2862 RFS (A) preventing suicide in the United 1 States; 2 (B) educating families, friends, and com- 3 munities on how to address suicide and suicidal 4 thoughts, including when to encourage individ- 5 uals with suicidal risk to seek help; and 6 (C) increasing awareness of suicide preven- 7 tion resources of the Centers for Disease Con- 8 trol and Prevention and the Substance Abuse 9 and Mental Health Services Administration (in- 10 cluding the suicide prevention hotline main- 11 tained under section 520E–3 of the Public 12 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c)), 13 any suicide prevention mobile application of the 14 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or 15 the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services 16 Administration, and other support resources de- 17 termined appropriate by the Secretary. 18 (2) ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION.—In addition 19 to consulting with the Assistant Secretary and the 20 Director under this section, the Secretary shall con- 21 sult with, as appropriate, State, local, Tribal, and 22 territorial health departments, primary health care 23 providers, hospitals with emergency departments, 24 mental and behavioral health services providers, cri- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 HR 2862 RFS sis response services providers, first responders, sui- 1 cide prevention and mental health professionals, pa- 2 tient advocacy groups, survivors of suicide attempts, 3 and representatives of television and social media 4 platforms in planning the national media campaign 5 to be conducted under paragraph (1). 6 (b) TARGET AUDIENCES.— 7 (1) TAILORING ADVERTISEMENTS AND OTHER 8 COMMUNICATIONS.—In conducting the national 9 media campaign under subsection (a)(1), the Sec- 10 retary may tailor culturally competent advertise- 11 ments and other communications of the campaign 12 across all available media for a target audience 13 (such as a particular geographic location or demo- 14 graphic) across the lifespan. 15 (2) TARGETING CERTAIN LOCAL AREAS.—The 16 Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 17 use amounts made available under subsection (f) for 18 media that targets certain local areas or populations 19 at disproportionate risk for suicide. 20 (c) USE OF FUNDS.— 21 (1) REQUIRED USES.— 22 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, if 23 reasonably feasible with the funds made avail- 24 able under subsection (f), carry out the fol- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 HR 2862 RFS lowing, with respect to the national media cam- 1 paign: 2 (i) Testing and evaluation of adver- 3 tising. 4 (ii) Evaluation of the effectiveness of 5 the national media campaign. 6 (iii) Operational and management ex- 7 penses. 8 (iv) The creation of an educational 9 toolkit for television and social media plat- 10 forms to use in discussing suicide and rais- 11 ing awareness about how to prevent sui- 12 cide. 13 (B) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.— 14 (i) TESTING AND EVALUATION OF AD- 15 VERTISING.—In testing and evaluating ad- 16 vertising under subparagraph (A)(i), the 17 Secretary shall test all advertisements 18 after use in the national media campaign 19 to evaluate the extent to which such adver- 20 tisements have been effective in carrying 21 out the purposes of the national media 22 campaign. 23 (ii) EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS 24 OF NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN.—In eval- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 HR 2862 RFS uating the effectiveness of the national 1 media campaign under subparagraph 2 (A)(ii), the Secretary shall take into ac- 3 count— 4 (I) the number of unique calls 5 that are made to the suicide preven- 6 tion hotline maintained under section 7 520E–3 of the Public Health Service 8 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c) and as- 9 sess whether there are any State and 10 regional variations with respect to the 11 capacity to answer such calls; 12 (II) the number of unique en- 13 counters with suicide prevention and 14 support resources of the Centers for 15 Disease Control and Prevention and 16 the Substance Abuse and Mental 17 Health Services Administration and 18 assess engagement with such suicide 19 prevention and support resources; 20 (III) whether the national media 21 campaign has contributed to increased 22 awareness that suicidal individuals 23 should be engaged, rather than ig- 24 nored; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 HR 2862 RFS (IV) such other measures of eval- 1 uation as the Secretary determines 2 are appropriate. 3 (2) OPTIONAL USES.—The Secretary may use 4 amounts made available under subsection (f) for the 5 following, with respect to the national media cam- 6 paign: 7 (A) Partnerships with professional and 8 civic groups, community-based organizations, 9 including faith-based organizations, and Gov- 10 ernment or Tribal organizations that the Sec- 11 retary determines have experience in suicide 12 prevention, including the Substance Abuse and 13 Mental Health Services Administration and the 14 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 15 (B) Entertainment industry outreach, 16 interactive outreach, media projects and activi- 17 ties, public information, news media outreach, 18 outreach through television programs, and cor- 19 porate sponsorship and participation. 20 (d) PROHIBITIONS.—None of the amounts made 21 available under subsection (f) may be obligated or ex- 22 pended for any of the following: 23 (1) To supplant current suicide prevention cam- 24 paigns. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 HR 2862 RFS (2) For partisan political purposes, or to ex- 1 press advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly 2 identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initia- 3 tive, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory 4 proposal. 5 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 6 months after implementation of the national media cam- 7 paign has begun, the Secretary, in coordination with the 8 Assistant Secretary and the Director, shall, with respect 9 to the first year of the national media campaign, submit 10 to Congress a report that describes— 11 (1) the strategy of the national media campaign 12 and whether specific objectives of such campaign 13 were accomplished, including whether such campaign 14 impacted the number of calls made to lifeline crisis 15 centers and the capacity of such centers to manage 16 such calls; 17 (2) steps taken to ensure that the national 18 media campaign operates in an effective and effi- 19 cient manner consistent with the overall strategy 20 and focus of the national media campaign; 21 (3) plans to purchase advertising time and 22 space; 23 (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure 24 that Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 HR 2862 RFS advertising time and space and eliminate the poten- 1 tial for waste, fraud, and abuse; and 2 (5) all contracts entered into with a corpora- 3 tion, a partnership, or an individual working on be- 4 half of the national media campaign. 5 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For pur- 6 poses of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 7 be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 8 through 2026. 9 Passed the House of Representatives May 12, 2021. Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, Clerk. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS