United States HR 5035: Child Suicide Prevention and Lethal Means Safety Act

Bill Text

I
117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 5035
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants
to establish or expand programs to implement evidence-aligned practices
in health care settings for the purpose of reducing the suicide rates
of covered individuals, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AUGUST 13, 2021
Ms. UNDERWOOD (for herself and Ms. SCHRIER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in
addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to award grants to establish or expand programs to
implement evidence-aligned practices in health care set-
tings for the purpose of reducing the suicide rates of
covered individuals, 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 ‘‘Child Suicide Preven-4
tion and Lethal Means Safety Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:23 Aug 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5035.IH H5035kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

2
•HR 5035 IH
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM TO ADDRESS YOUTH SUICIDE 1
AND LETHAL MEANS. 2
(a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning not later than 1 year 3
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 4
shall award grants to eligible entities to establish or ex-5
pand programs to implement evidence-aligned practices in 6
health care settings for the purpose of reducing the suicide 7
rates of covered individuals. 8
(b) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity seeking a grant 9
under this section shall submit an application to the Sec-10
retary at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by 11
such information as the Secretary may require. 12
(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—In this section, the term ‘‘el-13
igible entity’’ includes— 14
(1) a State; 15
(2) a State or local health department; 16
(3) a professional membership organization that 17
specializes in health care; 18
(4) a hospital that serves covered individuals; 19
(5) a nonprofit organization; or 20
(6) an institution of higher education. 21
(d) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 22
a grant under this section shall use the grant funds to 23
establish or expand programs to educate or train health 24
care providers as described in subsection (a), including 25
education and training on— 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:23 Aug 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5035.IH H5035kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

3
•HR 5035 IH
(1) identification of covered individuals who 1
may be at a high risk of suicide or self-harm using 2
validated, developmentally and age-appropriate, and 3
evidence-aligned screening and risk assessment tech-4
niques; 5
(2) communication with covered individuals and 6
the family members or guardians of such individuals 7
on lethal means safety and injury prevention, includ-8
ing the safe storage of firearms; 9
(3) covered risk factors and the relationship of 10
such factors to suicide and self-harm; 11
(4) suicide prevention and intervention; 12
(5) support strategies for covered individuals 13
after the occurrence of a suicide or suicide attempt; 14
(6) racial and ethnic disparities with respect to 15
covered individuals who attempt suicide or self-harm, 16
disaggregated by the age and gender of covered indi-17
viduals; 18
(7) methods and means used by covered individ-19
uals to attempt suicide and, with respect to such 20
methods and means, best practices to ensure the 21
safety of a covered individual, including safety plans 22
and plans that address such methods and means; 23
(8) State and Federal laws with respect to the 24
use and possession of firearms; 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:23 Aug 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5035.IH H5035kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

4
•HR 5035 IH
(9) communication strategies to discuss such 1
laws with covered individuals and the family mem-2
bers or guardians of such individuals; and 3
(10) procedures for referring covered individ-4
uals who may be at a high risk of suicide or self- 5
harm to other health care providers, social services, 6
or crisis resources. 7
(e) SECURE GUN STORAGE OR SAFETY DEVICES.— 8
(1) IN GENERAL.—An entity receiving a grant 9
under this section may use not more than 15 per-10
cent of the funds received through the grant to make 11
secure gun storage or safety devices available at re-12
duced or no cost to residences with at least one cov-13
ered individual. 14
(2) APPLICATION.—If an applicant for a grant 15
under this section seeks to use the grant as de-16
scribed in paragraph (1), the applicant shall include 17
in its application under subsection (b)— 18
(A) a strategy to m