II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1062
To authorize a pilot program to expand and intensify surveillance of self-
harm in partnership with State and local public health departments,
to establish a grant program to provide self-harm and suicide prevention
services in hospital emergency departments, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH13, 2025
Mr. R
EED(for himself and Mr. MORAN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To authorize a pilot program to expand and intensify surveil-
lance of self-harm in partnership with State and local
public health departments, to establish a grant program
to provide self-harm and suicide prevention services in
hospital emergency departments, 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 4
Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE OF SELF-HARM BEHAV-1
IORS PROGRAM. 2
Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended 3
by inserting after section 317V of such Act (42 U.S.C. 4
247b–24) the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 317W. SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE OF SELF-HARM 6
BEHAVIORS PROGRAM. 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 8
grants to State, local, Tribal, and territorial public health 9
departments for the expansion of surveillance of self-harm. 10
‘‘(b) D
ATASHARING BYGRANTEES.—As a condition 11
of receipt of such grant under subsection (a), each grantee 12
shall agree to share with the Centers for Disease Control 13
and Prevention in real time, to the extent feasible and as 14
specified in the grant agreement, data on suicides and self- 15
harm for purposes of— 16
‘‘(1) tracking and monitoring self-harm to in-17
form response activities to suicide clusters; 18
‘‘(2) informing prevention programming for 19
identified at-risk populations; and 20
‘‘(3) conducting or supporting research. 21
‘‘(c) D
ISAGGREGATION OF DATA.—The Secretary 22
shall provide for the data collected through surveillance 23
of self-harm under subsection (b) to be disaggregated by 24
the following categories: 25
‘‘(1) Nonfatal self-harm data of any intent. 26
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‘‘(2) Data on suicidal ideation. 1
‘‘(3) Data on self-harm where there is no evi-2
dence, whether implicit or explicit, of suicidal intent. 3
‘‘(4) Data on self-harm where there is evidence, 4
whether implicit or explicit, of suicidal intent. 5
‘‘(5) Data on self-harm where suicidal intent is 6
unclear based on the available evidence. 7
‘‘(d) P
RIORITY.—In making awards under subsection 8
(a), the Secretary shall give priority to eligible entities that 9
are— 10
‘‘(1) located in a State with an age-adjusted 11
rate of nonfatal suicidal behavior that is above the 12
national rate of nonfatal suicidal behavior, as deter-13
mined by the Director of the Centers for Disease 14
Control and Prevention; 15
‘‘(2) serving an Indian Tribe (as defined in sec-16
tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-17
cation Assistance Act) with an age-adjusted rate of 18
nonfatal suicidal behavior that is above the national 19
rate of nonfatal suicidal behavior, as determined 20
through appropriate mechanisms determined by the 21
Secretary in consultation with Indian Tribes; or 22
‘‘(3) located in a State with a high rate of cov-23
erage of statewide (or Tribal) emergency department 24
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visits, as determined by the Director of the Centers 1
for Disease Control and Prevention. 2
‘‘(e) G
EOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.—In making 3
grants under this section, the Secretary shall make an ef-4
fort to ensure geographic distribution, taking into account 5
the unique needs of rural communities, including— 6
‘‘(1) communities with an incidence of individ-7
uals with serious mental illness, demonstrated suici-8
dal ideation or behavior, or suicide rates that are 9
above the national average, as determined by the As-10
sistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance 11
Use; 12
‘‘(2) communities with a shortage of prevention 13
and treatment services, as determined by the Assist-14
ant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use 15
and the Administrator of the Health Resources and 16
Services Administration; and 17
‘‘(3) other appropriate community-level factors 18
and social determinants of health such as income, 19
employment, and education. 20
‘‘(f) P
ERIOD OFPARTICIPATION.—To be selected as 21
a grant recipient under this section, a State, local, Tribal, 22
or territorial public health department shall agree to par-23
ticipate in the program for a period of not less than 4 24
years. 25
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‘‘(g) TECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 1
provide technical assistance and training to grantees for 2
collecting and sharing the data under subsection (b). 3
‘‘(h) D
ATASHARING BY HHS.—Subject to sub-4
section (c), the Secretary shall, with respect to data on 5
self-harm that is collected pursuant to this section, share 6
and integrate such data through— 7
‘‘(1) the platform of the National Syndromic 8
Surveillance Program Early Notification of Commu-9
nity-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE) (or any suc-10
cessor platform); 11
‘‘(2) the National Violent Death Reporting Sys-12
tem (or any successor platform), as appropriate; or 13
‘‘(3) another appropriate surveillance program, 14
including such a program that collects data on sui-15
cides and self-harm among special populations, such 16
as members of the military and veterans. 17
‘‘(i) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTIONREGARDINGAPPLICA-18
BILITY OFPRIVACYPROTECTIONS.—Nothing in this sec-19
tion shall be construed to limit or alter the application 20
of Federal or State law relating to the privacy of informa-21
tion to data or information that is collected or created 22
under this section. 23
‘‘(j) R
EPORT.— 24
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‘‘(1) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 3 years 1
after the date of enactment of the Suicide Preven-2
tion Act, the Secretary shall evaluate the suicide and 3
self-harm syndromic surveillance systems at the Fed-4
eral, State, and local levels and submit a report to 5
Congress on the data collected under subsection (b) 6
in a manner that prevents the disclosure of individ-7
ually identifiable information, at a minimum, con-8
sistent with all applicable privacy laws and regula-9
tions. 10
‘‘(2) C
ONTENTS.—In addition to the data col-11
lected under subsection (b), the report under para-12
graph (1) shall include— 13
‘‘(A) challenges and gaps in data collection 14
and reporting; 15
‘‘(B) recommendations to address such 16
gaps and challenges; and 17
‘‘(C) a description of any public health re-18
sponses initiated at the Federal, State, or local 19
level in response to the data collected. 20
‘‘(k) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 21
carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro-22
priated $30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 23
2030.’’. 24
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SEC. 3. 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 shall award 8
grants to hospital emergency departments to provide self- 9
harm and suicide prevention services. 10
‘‘(b) A
CTIVITIESSUPPORTED.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A hospital emergency de-12
partment awarded a grant under subsection (a) shall 13
use amounts under the grant to implement a pro-14
gram or protocol to better prevent suicide attempts 15
among hospital patients after discharge, which may 16
include— 17
‘‘(A) screening patients for self-harm and 18
suicide in accordance with the standards of 19
practice described in subsection (e)(1) and 20
standards of care established by appropriate 21
medical and advocacy organizations; 22
‘‘(B) providing patients short-term self- 23
harm and suicide prevention services in accord-24
ance with the results of the screenings de-25
scribed in subparagraph (A); and 26
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‘‘(C) referring patients, as appropriate, to 1
a health care facility or provider for purposes of 2
receiving long-term self-harm and suicide pre-3
vention services, and providing any additional 4
follow up services and care identified as appro-5
priate as a result of the screenings and short- 6
term self-harm and suicide prevention services 7
described in subparagraphs (A) and (B). 8
‘‘(2) U
SE OF FUNDS TO HIRE AND TRAIN 9
STAFF.—Amounts awarded under subsection (a) 10
may be used to hire clinical social workers, mental 11
and behavioral health care professionals, and sup-12
port staff as appropriate, and to train existing staff 13
and newly hired staff to carry out the activities de-14
scribed in paragraph (1). 15
‘‘(c) G
RANTTERMS.—A grant awarded under sub-16
section (a)— 17
‘‘(1) shall be for a period of 3 years; and 18
‘‘(2) may be renewed subject to the require-19
ments of this section. 20
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATIONS.—A hospital emergency depart-21
ment seeking a grant under subsection (a) shall submit 22
an application to the Secretary at such time, in such man-23
ner, and accompanied by such information as the Sec-24
retary may require. 25
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‘‘(e) STANDARDS OFPRACTICE.— 1
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 2
after the date of the enactment of this section, the 3
Secretary shall develop standards of practice for 4
screening patients for self-harm and suicide for pur-5
poses of carrying out subsection (b)(1)(C). 6
‘‘(2) C
ONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall de-7
velop the standards of practice described in para-8
graph (1) in consultation with individuals and enti-9
ties with expertise in self-harm and suicide preven-10
tion, including public, private, and nonprofit entities. 11
‘‘(f) R
EPORTING.— 12
‘‘(1) R
EPORTS TO THE SECRETARY .— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A hospital emergency 14
department awarded a grant under subsection 15
(a) shall, at least quarterly for the duration of 16
the grant, submit to the Secretary a report 17
evaluating the activities supported by the grant. 18
‘‘(B) M
ATTERS TO BE INCLUDED .—The 19
report required under subparagraph (A) shall 20
include— 21
‘‘(i) the number of patients receiv-22
ing— 23
‘‘(I) screenings carried out at the 24
hospital emergency department; 25
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‘‘(II) short-term self-harm and 1
suicide prevention services at the hos-2
pital emergency department; and 3
‘‘(III) referrals to health care fa-4
cilities for the purposes of receiving 5
long-term self-harm and suicide pre-6
vention; 7
‘‘(ii) information on the adherence of 8
the hospital emergency department to the 9
standards of practice described in sub-10
section (e)(1); and 11
‘‘(iii) other information as the Sec-12
retary determines appropriate to evaluate 13
the use of grant funds. 14
‘‘(2) R
EPORTS TO CONGRESS .—Not later than 15
2 years after the date of the enactment of the Sui-16
cide Prevention Act, and biennially thereafter, the 17
Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Health, 18
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and 19
the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 20
House of Representatives a report on the grant pro-21
gram under this section, including— 22
‘‘(A) a summary of reports received by the 23
Secretary under paragraph (1); and 24
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‘‘(B) an evaluation of the program by the 1
Secretary. 2
‘‘(g) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 3
carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro-4
priated $30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 5
2030.’’. 6
Æ
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