Title: Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act
This bill requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop, implement, and evaluate a national media campaign focused on suicide prevention. In addition, the national suicide prevention hotline must be a three-digit, toll-free number.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4585 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4585

    To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention to conduct a national suicide prevention media campaign, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 1, 2019

  Mr. Beyer (for himself and Mr. Gianforte) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention to conduct a national suicide prevention media campaign, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE.

    Section 520E-3(b)(2) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
290bb-36c(b)(2)) is amended by inserting after ``suicide prevention 
hotline'' the following: ``, which, beginning not later than one year 
after the date of the enactment of the Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act, 
shall be a 3-digit nationwide toll-free telephone number,''.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAMPAIGN.

    (a) National Suicide Prevention Media Campaign.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than the date that is three 
        years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director 
        of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (referred to 
        in this section as the ``Director''), in coordination with the 
        Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use 
        (referred to in this section as the ``Assistant Secretary''), 
        shall conduct a national suicide prevention media campaign 
        (referred to in this section as the ``national media 
        campaign''), in accordance with the requirements of this 
        section, for purposes of--
                    (A) preventing suicide in the United States;
                    (B) educating families, friends, and communities on 
                how to address suicide and suicidal thoughts, including 
                when to encourage individuals with suicidal risk to 
                seek help; and
                    (C) increasing awareness of suicide prevention 
                resources of the Centers for Disease Control and 
                Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
                Services Administration (including the suicide 
                prevention hotline maintained under section 520E-3 of 
                the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb-36c)), 
                any suicide prevention mobile application of the 
                Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the 
                Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, 
                and other support resources determined appropriate by 
                the Director, in coordination with the Assistant 
                Secretary.
            (2) Additional coordination.--In addition to coordinating 
        with the Assistant Secretary under this section, the Director 
        shall coordinate with State, local, Tribal, and territorial 
        health departments, primary health care providers, hospitals 
        with emergency departments, mental and behavioral health 
        services providers, crisis response services providers, first 
        responders, suicide prevention and mental health professionals, 
        patient advocacy groups, survivors of suicide attempts, and 
        representatives of television and social media platforms in 
        planning the national media campaign to be conducted under 
        paragraph (1).
    (b) Target Audiences.--
            (1) Tailoring advertisements and other communications.--In 
        conducting the national media campaign under subsection (a)(1), 
        the Director, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, may 
        tailor culturally competent advertisements and other 
        communications of the campaign across all available media for a 
        target audience (such as a particular geographic location or 
        demographic) across the lifespan.
            (2) Targeting certain local areas.--The Director, in 
        coordination with the Assistant Secretary, shall, to the 
        maximum extent practicable, use amounts made available under 
        subsection (f) for media that targets individuals in local 
        areas with higher suicide rates.
    (c) Use of Funds.--
            (1) Required uses.--
                    (A) In general.--The Director, in coordination with 
                the Assistant Secretary, shall use amounts made 
                available under subsection (f) for the following, with 
                respect to the national media campaign:
                            (i) The purchase of advertising time and 
                        space, including the strategic planning for, 
                        and accounting of, any such purchase.
                            (ii) Creative services and talent costs.
                            (iii) Advertising production costs.
                            (iv) Testing and evaluation of advertising.
                            (v) Evaluation of the effectiveness of the 
                        national media campaign.
                            (vi) Operational and management expenses.
                            (vii) The creation of an educational 
                        toolkit for television and social media 
                        platforms to use in discussing suicide and 
                        raising awareness about how to prevent suicide.
                    (B) Specific requirements.--
                            (i) Testing and evaluation of 
                        advertising.--In testing and evaluating 
                        advertising under subparagraph (A)(iv), the 
                        Director, in coordination with the Assistant 
                        Secretary, shall test all advertisements after 
                        use in the national media campaign to evaluate 
                        the extent to which such advertisements have 
                        been effective in carrying out the purposes of 
                        the national media campaign.
                            (ii) Evaluation of effectiveness of 
                        national media campaign.--In evaluating the 
                        effectiveness of the national media campaign 
                        under subparagraph (A)(v), the Director, in 
                        coordination with the Assistant Secretary, 
                        shall take into account--
                                    (I) the number of unique calls that 
                                are made to the suicide prevention 
                                hotline maintained under section 520E-3 
                                of the Public Health Service Act (42 
                                U.S.C. 290bb-36c) and assess whether 
                                there are any State and regional 
                                variations with respect to the capacity 
                                to answer such calls;
                                    (II) the number of unique 
                                encounters with suicide prevention and 
                                support resources of the Centers for 
                                Disease Control and Prevention and the 
                                Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
                                Services Administration and assess 
                                engagement with such suicide prevention 
                                and support resources;
                                    (III) whether the national media 
                                campaign has contributed to increased 
                                awareness that suicidal individuals 
                                should be engaged, rather than ignored;
                                    (IV) whether the national media 
                                campaign has contributed to any 
                                reduction in suicide rates, reduction 
                                in suicide attempts, reduction in 
                                suicidal ideation, and increase in 
                                self-outreach for support or outreach 
                                for supporting others; and
                                    (V) such other measures of 
                                evaluation as the Director, in 
                                coordination with the Assistant 
                                Secretary, determines are appropriate.
            (2) Optional uses.--The Director, in coordination with the 
        Assistant Secretary, may use amounts made available under 
        subsection (f) for the following, with respect to the national 
        media campaign:
                    (A) Partnerships with professional and civic 
                groups, community-based organizations, including faith-
                based organizations, and Government or Tribal 
                organizations that the Director determines have 
                experience in suicide prevention, including the 
                Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
                Administration.
                    (B) Entertainment industry outreach, interactive 
                outreach, media projects and activities, public 
                information, news media outreach, outreach through 
                television programs, and corporate sponsorship and 
                participation.
    (d) Prohibitions.--None of the amounts made available under 
subsection (f) may be obligated or expended for any of the following:
            (1) To supplant current suicide prevention campaigns.
            (2) To supplant pro bono public service time donated by 
        national and local broadcasting networks for other public 
        service campaigns.
            (3) For partisan political purposes, or to express advocacy 
        in support of or to defeat any clearly identified candidate, 
        clearly identified ballot initiative, or clearly identified 
        legislative or regulatory proposal.
            (4) To fund advertising that features any elected 
        officials, persons seeking elected office, cabinet-level 
        officials, or other Federal officials employed pursuant to 
        section 213.3301 or 213.3302 of title 5, Code of Federal 
        Regulations (or any successor regulations).
            (5) To fund advertising that does not contain a message 
        intended to prevent suicide or increase awareness of suicide 
        prevention resources.
    (e) Report to Congress.--The Director, in coordination with the 
Assistant Secretary, shall, with respect to the first year of the 
national media campaign, submit to Congress a report that describes--
            (1) the strategy of the national media campaign and whether 
        specific objectives of such campaign were accomplished, 
        including whether such campaign impacted the number of calls 
        made to lifeline crisis centers and the capacity of such 
        centers to manage such calls;
            (2) steps taken to ensure that the national media campaign 
        operates in an effective and efficient manner consistent with 
        the overall strategy and focus of the national media campaign;
            (3) plans to purchase advertising time and space;
            (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure that 
        Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase advertising time 
        and space and eliminate the potential for waste, fraud, and 
        abuse; and
            (5) all contracts entered into with a corporation, a 
        partnership, or an individual working on behalf of the national 
        media campaign.
    (f) Authorization of Appropriations.--For purposes of carrying out 
this section, there is authorized to be appropriated $10,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024.
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