Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act

IIB 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 4585 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 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 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 HR 4585 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: ‘‘, which, 7 beginning not later than one year after the date of the 8 enactment of the Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act, shall 9 be a 3-digit nationwide toll-free telephone number,’’. 10 SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM- 11 PAIGN. 12 (a) NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM- 13 PAIGN.— 14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the date that 15 is three years after the date of the enactment of this 16 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 17 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), in 18 coordination with the Assistant Secretary for Mental 19 Health and Substance Use (referred to in this sec- 20 tion as the ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’) and the Director 21 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 22 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Director’’), shall 23 conduct a national suicide prevention media cam- 24 paign (referred to in this section as the ‘‘national 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 HR 4585 RFS media campaign’’), in accordance with the require- 1 ments of this section, for purposes of— 2 (A) preventing suicide in the United 3 States; 4 (B) educating families, friends, and com- 5 munities on how to address suicide and suicidal 6 thoughts, including when to encourage individ- 7 uals with suicidal risk to seek help; and 8 (C) increasing awareness of suicide preven- 9 tion resources of the Centers for Disease Con- 10 trol and Prevention and the Substance Abuse 11 and Mental Health Services Administration (in- 12 cluding the suicide prevention hotline main- 13 tained under section 520E–3 of the Public 14 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c)), 15 any suicide prevention mobile application of the 16 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or 17 the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services 18 Administration, and other support resources de- 19 termined appropriate by the Secretary. 20 (2) ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION.—In addition 21 to coordinating with the Assistant Secretary and the 22 Director under this section, the Secretary shall con- 23 sult with, as appropriate, State, local, Tribal, and 24 territorial health departments, primary health care 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 HR 4585 RFS providers, hospitals with emergency departments, 1 mental and behavioral health services providers, cri- 2 sis response services providers, first responders, sui- 3 cide prevention and mental health professionals, pa- 4 tient advocacy groups, survivors of suicide attempts, 5 and representatives of television and social media 6 platforms in planning the national media campaign 7 to be conducted under paragraph (1). 8 (b) TARGET AUDIENCES.— 9 (1) TAILORING ADVERTISEMENTS AND OTHER 10 COMMUNICATIONS.—In conducting the national 11 media campaign under subsection (a)(1), the Sec- 12 retary may tailor culturally competent advertise- 13 ments and other communications of the campaign 14 across all available media for a target audience 15 (such as a particular geographic location or demo- 16 graphic) across the lifespan. 17 (2) TARGETING CERTAIN LOCAL AREAS.—The 18 Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 19 use amounts made available under subsection (f) for 20 media that targets individuals in local areas with 21 higher suicide rates. 22 (c) USE OF FUNDS.— 23 (1) REQUIRED USES.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 HR 4585 RFS (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, to 1 the extent reasonably feasible with the funds 2 made available under subsection (f), carry out 3 the following, with respect to the national media 4 campaign: 5 (i) The purchase of advertising time 6 and space, including the strategic planning 7 for, and accounting of, any such purchase. 8 (ii) Creative services and talent costs. 9 (iii) Advertising production costs. 10 (iv) Testing and evaluation of adver- 11 tising. 12 (v) Evaluation of the effectiveness of 13 the national media campaign. 14 (vi) Operational and management ex- 15 penses. 16 (vii) The creation of an educational 17 toolkit for television and social media plat- 18 forms to use in discussing suicide and rais- 19 ing awareness about how to prevent sui- 20 cide. 21 (B) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.— 22 (i) TESTING AND EVALUATION OF AD- 23 VERTISING.—In testing and evaluating ad- 24 vertising under subparagraph (A)(iv), the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 HR 4585 RFS Secretary shall test all advertisements 1 after use in the national media campaign 2 to evaluate the extent to which such adver- 3 tisements have been effective in carrying 4 out the purposes of the national media 5 campaign. 6 (ii) EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS 7 OF NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN.—In eval- 8 uating the effectiveness of the national 9 media campaign under subparagraph 10 (A)(v), the Secretary shall take into ac- 11 count— 12 (I) the number of unique calls 13 that are made to the suicide preven- 14 tion hotline maintained under section 15 520E–3 of the Public Health Service 16 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c) and as- 17 sess whether there are any State and 18 regional variations with respect to the 19 capacity to answer such calls; 20 (II) the number of unique en- 21 counters with suicide prevention and 22 support resources of the Centers for 23 Disease Control and Prevention and 24 the Substance Abuse and Mental 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 HR 4585 RFS Health Services Administration and 1 assess engagement with such suicide 2 prevention and support resources; 3 (III) whether the national media 4 campaign has contributed to increased 5 awareness that suicidal individuals 6 should be engaged, rather than ig- 7 nored; and 8 (IV) such other measures of eval- 9 uation as the Secretary determines 10 are appropriate. 11 (2) OPTIONAL USES.—The Secretary may use 12 amounts made available under subsection (f) for the 13 following, with respect to the national media cam- 14 paign: 15 (A) Partnerships with professional and 16 civic groups, community-based organizations, 17 including faith-based organizations, and Gov- 18 ernment or Tribal organizations that the Sec- 19 retary determines have experience in suicide 20 prevention, including the Substance Abuse and 21 Mental Health Services Administration and the 22 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 23 (B) Entertainment industry outreach, 24 interactive outreach, media projects and activi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 HR 4585 RFS ties, public information, news media outreach, 1 outreach through television programs, and cor- 2 porate sponsorship and participation. 3 (d) PROHIBITIONS.—None of the amounts made 4 available under subsection (f) may be obligated or ex- 5 pended for any of the following: 6 (1) To supplant current suicide prevention cam- 7 paigns. 8 (2) For partisan political purposes, or to ex- 9 press advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly 10 identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initia- 11 tive, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory 12 proposal. 13 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 14 months after implementation of the national media cam- 15 paign has begun, the Secretary, in coordination with the 16 Assistant Secretary and the Director, shall, with respect 17 to the first year of the national media campaign, submit 18 to Congress a report that describes— 19 (1) the strategy of the national media campaign 20 and whether specific objectives of such campaign 21 were accomplished, including whether such campaign 22 impacted the number of calls made to lifeline crisis 23 centers and the capacity of such centers to manage 24 such calls; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 HR 4585 RFS (2) steps taken to ensure that the national 1 media campaign operates in an effective and effi- 2 cient manner consistent with the overall strategy 3 and focus of the national media campaign; 4 (3) plans to purchase advertising time and 5 space; 6 (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure 7 that Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase 8 advertising time and space and eliminate the poten- 9 tial for waste, fraud, and abuse; and 10 (5) all contracts entered into with a corpora- 11 tion, a partnership, or an individual working on be- 12 half of the national media campaign. 13 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For pur- 14 poses of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 15 be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 16 through 2025. 17 Passed the House of Representatives September 21, 2020. Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, Clerk. VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:54 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.RFS H4585 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS