The government has mapped out a plan aimed at preventing suicides by encouraging the troubled to seek help, and making sure treatments and medicines are there when they do.
Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
Thirty thousand people commit suicide each year, and more than 650,000 people make the attempt. The surgeon general's plan presents a wide range of strategies, including creating a uniform way that hospitals and police can report suicide deaths and injuries. Some policy-makers want to focus on getting help to the troubled long before they consider taking their lives. R-N.M. Domenici is trying to expand laws that force insurance companies to offer the same level of coverage for mental health as they do for physical conditions. It is really a serious problem.