Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act of 2021

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1324) to amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a program to improve the identification, assessment, and treatment of patients in hospital emergency departments who are at risk of suicide, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1324.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1324, the Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous suffering in our country over the past year and has negatively impacted the mental health of so many Americans. In fact, rates of mental health disorders, like depression and anxiety, that may lead to suicide have gone up almost fourfold.

According to the National Centers for Health Statistics, over 44,000 people died from suicide last year. However, these numbers may not fully reflect the deaths that occurred secondary to despair from the pandemic. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 34, impacting children and people in the prime of their lives.

We also saw this during the pandemic with a spike in suicide deaths for first responders. For example, who can forget the story of Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency room physician in New York, who dedicated herself to fighting the pandemic, but then tragically died from suicide after experiencing extreme burnout?

To counter these unnecessary deaths, we need to provide more resources to our providers on the front lines of emergency departments across the country. It is particularly important that we focus on those with limited resources, including Critical Access Hospitals, facilities serving Native Americans, and emergency departments in communities with high rates of suicide.

Resources for healthcare providers in the emergency department are important since they are often in the position of providing for patients at the highest risk for suicide with approximately 10 percent of emergency department patients presenting for treatment of suicidal ideations. Unfortunately, almost 40 percent of patients visiting an emergency department following a suicide attempt will go on to reattempt suicide within a year.

Madam Speaker, this bill will assist emergency departments by providing better training to emergency healthcare providers, establishing policies to improve identification and treatment of individuals at risk for suicide, employing additional behavioral health professionals, and improving access to care for patients.

I thank Representatives Bilirakis and Soto and their staff for their tireless effort on this bill. Again, bipartisan.

Madam Speaker, suicide deaths are a preventable tragedy that negatively impact families and loved ones and rob us of young people in the prime of their lives. So whatever we can do to prevent this is going to be so important.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1324, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I also urge support for this bill. Again, this is dealing with trying to alert potential problems or potential for suicide in the emergency department, a very important part of this package.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, this is a real problem in this country. We have a mental health crisis, and, collectively, these bills address that. So I thank the chairman and the ranking member for bringing these bills to the floor. Let's get them through today, and then passed in the Senate and have the President sign because it will make a real difference in the lives of these people who are suffering with mental illness.

Madam Speaker, our Nation remains in the midst of a suicide crisis. Over the past several decades, the suicide rate has risen sharply, increasing by 31 percent since 2001, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death, and claiming an estimated 47,000 lives annually.

A 2016 study found that 11 percent of all emergency department patients exhibited suicidal ideation. However, only 3 percent of those patients were diagnosed by current screening tools. Furthermore, about 70 percent of patients who leave the emergency department after a suicide attempt never attend their first outpatient follow-up appointment. This is just reality, and we have got to do something about this.

The Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act creates a voluntary HHS grant program to assist emergency departments in developing protocols for identifying, assessing, and treating individuals at risk for suicide with preference given to either critical access hospitals or hospitals located in a geographic area with a suicide risk that is higher than the national average rate.

Grants last for 2 years and grantees must submit a report annually on their efforts to improve the identification, assessment, and discharge policies for individuals who are at risk for suicide. This proactive approach is vital because emergency departments often are the first-- and, sadly, too often the only--point of contact within the healthcare system for those most at risk for suicide.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate, again, the bipartisan support of my colleague, and I worked on this with Congressman Soto.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 1324, the Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act, to further equip our health providers to recognize and assist these patients in crisis.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1324, the Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act of 2021, introduced by Representatives Bilirakis, Soto, and Burgess.

This legislation will authorize the grant program to improve the identification, screening, assessment, and treatment of patients in emergency departments who are at risk for suicide.

Consideration of this bill could not come at a more pressing time. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have impacted the mental health of many Americans. Due to the pandemic, tens of thousands of additional Americans have died from suicide or substance misuse.

Emergency departments are key locations to intervene and assist those who may be contemplating suicide. Past research has identified one in every eight emergency department visits in the United States were related to a mental health or substance use disorder.

By creating grants for emergency departments to develop policies for screening those at risk of suicide, and enhancing their post-discharge care coordination, this bill will improve our frontline providers' ability to intervene when someone is in crisis, ultimately reducing deaths from despair during this difficult time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), my friend.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I would just say that these series of bills is so important in dealing with the suicide and prevention, in preventing this tragic epidemic from becoming a pandemic as well.

Madam Speaker, I urge the support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 6 of House Resolution 380, I move to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 297, H.R. 433, H.R. 478,

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.