I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2044
To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant program to
provide self-harm and suicide prevention services in primary care offices,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH11, 2025
Mr. D
ESAULNIERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant
program to provide self-harm and suicide prevention
services in primary care offices, 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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Suicide Prevention As-4
sistance Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. GRANTS TO PROVIDE SELF-HARM AND SUICIDE 1
PREVENTION SERVICES. 2
Subpart 3 of part B of title V of the Public Health 3
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–31 et seq.) is amended by 4
adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 520O. GRANTS TO PROVIDE SELF-HARM AND SUICIDE 6
PREVENTION SERVICES. 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 8
Human Services, acting through the Assistant Secretary 9
for Mental Health and Substance Use (referred to in this 10
section as the ‘Secretary’), shall award grants to primary 11
care offices to provide self-harm and suicide prevention 12
services. 13
‘‘(b) A
CTIVITIESSUPPORTED.—A primary care office 14
awarded a grant under subsection (a) shall use amounts 15
under the grant to carry out the following: 16
‘‘(1) The primary care office shall hire 1 or 17
more clinical social workers to carry out the activi-18
ties described in paragraphs (2) through (4). 19
‘‘(2) A primary care physician at the primary 20
care office shall screen patients for self-harm and 21
suicide in accordance with the standards of practice 22
described in subsection (f)(1) and shall, as appro-23
priate, notify a clinical social worker hired under 24
paragraph (1) of screenings that yield an indicator 25
of self-harm or suicide. 26
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‘‘(3) A clinical social worker hired under para-1
graph (1) shall provide patients short-term self-harm 2
and suicide prevention services in accordance with 3
the results of the screenings described in paragraph 4
(2). 5
‘‘(4) A clinical social worker hired under para-6
graph (1) shall, as appropriate, refer patients to a 7
health care facility for purposes of receiving long- 8
term self-harm and suicide prevention services. 9
‘‘(c) M
AXIMUMNUMBER OFGRANTS.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may not 11
award more than 10 grants under subsection (a). 12
‘‘(2) W
ITH RESPECT TO A PRIMARY CARE OF -13
FICE.—A primary care office may not be awarded 14
more than 1 grant under subsection (a). 15
‘‘(3) W
ITH RESPECT TO A STATE .—Not more 16
than 1 primary care office in any State may be 17
awarded a grant under subsection (a). 18
‘‘(d) G
RANTTERMS.—A grant awarded under sub-19
section (a)— 20
‘‘(1) may not exceed $500,000; 21
‘‘(2) shall be for a period of 2 years; and 22
‘‘(3) may be renewed subject to the require-23
ments of this section. 24
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‘‘(e) APPLICATIONS.—A primary care office seeking 1
a grant under subsection (a) shall submit an application 2
to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accom-3
panied by such information as the Secretary may require. 4
‘‘(f) S
TANDARDS OFPRACTICE.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 6
after the date of the enactment of this section, the 7
Secretary shall develop standards of practice for 8
screening patients for self-harm and suicide for pur-9
poses of carrying out subsection (b)(2). 10
‘‘(2) C
ONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall de-11
velop the standards of practice described in para-12
graph (1) in consultation with stakeholder groups 13
with expertise in self-harm and suicide prevention, 14
including public, private, and non-profit entities. 15
‘‘(g) R
EPORTING.— 16
‘‘(1) R
EPORTS TO THE SECRETARY .— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A primary care office 18
awarded a grant under subsection (a) shall, at 19
least quarterly for the duration of the grant, 20
submit to the Secretary a report evaluating the 21
activities supported by the grant. 22
‘‘(B) M
ATTERS TO BE INCLUDED .—The 23
report required under subparagraph (A) shall 24
include— 25
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‘‘(i) the number of patients receiv-1
ing— 2
‘‘(I) screenings carried out at the 3
primary care office; 4
‘‘(II) short-term self-harm and 5
suicide prevention services at the pri-6
mary care office; and 7
‘‘(III) referrals to health care fa-8
cilities for the purposes of receiving 9
long-term self-harm and suicide pre-10
vention; 11
‘‘(ii) information on the adherence of 12
the primary care office to the standards of 13
practice described in subsection (f)(1); and 14
‘‘(iii) other information as the Sec-15
retary determines appropriate to evaluate 16
the use of grant funds. 17
‘‘(2) R
EPORTS TO CONGRESS AND IN THE DE -18
PARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES .— 19
Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact-20
ment of this section, and biennially thereafter, the 21
Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congres-22
sional committees and the subcomponents of the De-23
partment of Health and Human Services described 24
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in paragraph (3) a report on the grant program 1
under this section, including— 2
‘‘(A) a summary of reports received by the 3
Secretary under paragraph (1); and 4
‘‘(B) an evaluation of the program by the 5
Secretary. 6
‘‘(3) R
EPORTING IN THE DEPARTMENT OF 7
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES .—The subcompo-8
nents of the Department of Health and Human 9
Services described in this paragraph are the Centers 10
for Disease Control and Prevention and the National 11
Institute of Mental Health. 12
‘‘(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
‘‘(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -14
TEES.—The term ‘appropriate congressional com-15
mittees’ means— 16
‘‘(A) the Committee on Energy and Com-17
merce of the House of Representatives; and 18
‘‘(B) the Committee on Health, Education, 19
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 20
‘‘(2) P
RIMARY CARE OFFICE .—The term ‘pri-21
mary care office’ means a health care facility that 22
provides primary care services. 23
‘‘(3) S
TATE.—The term ‘State’ means— 24
‘‘(A) a State; 25
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‘‘(B) the District of Columbia; 1
‘‘(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; or 2
‘‘(D) any other territory or possession of 3
the United States.’’. 4
Æ
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