NH Senate to Act on Bill to Include Prevention Phone # on School IDs
The NH Senate is expected to vote this month on SB 234, a bill requiring student identification cards in the state to include the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or the institution’s own mental health support contacts. Backers say the bill would efficiently make important prevention resources available to young people in mental crisis.
Suicide among school-age children is an area of growing concern in New Hampshire as well as nationally.
Although the rate of suicide death among preteens and younger teens in the United States is lower than that of older adolescents and adults, it has increased over time. Suicide now ranks as the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 14. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 9% of high school students reported attempting suicide in 2018-2019.
On Thursday, Feb. 3, the NH Senate is expected to vote on SB 234, a bill requiring student identification cards in the state to include the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or the institution’s own mental health support contacts. In January, the bill received unanimous support from the Senate Education Committee, which sent the bill for a floor vote. Supporters say the bill is an efficient way to make important prevention resources immediately available to young people in mental crisis.
Senator Ruth Ward (R-Stoddard), who chairs the Education Committee and was the bill’s prime sponsor, said she introduced the legislation at the suggestion of Governor Chris Sununu.
In a statement to the committee during its hearing on the bill, Sununu said: “this bill helps ensure another easily accessible place for New Hampshire's youth to find information to access critical help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides suicide prevention support as well as help for those in emotional distress.”
Currently, the Lifeline number is 800-273-8255.
Sununu and Senator Ward had also worked together on another bill to advance suicide prevention through schools. SB282, which was signed into law in 2019, required all schools, public and private, to develop policies on suicide prevention, risk assessment, and response to suicide incidents, as well as to offer training to all staff.
SB234 does not require schools to issue identification cards to students; it applies only to schools and higher education institutions, public or private, that already issue IDs.
Under the legislation, the phone number for the suicide prevention lifeline or any local substitution, will be labeled the “Mental Health Support Line.”
The national lifeline, which is staffed 24-hours/day, 365-days a year, connects callers to a network of over 180 local- and state-funded crisis centers located across the United States. According to the Lifeline website, “Counselors at these local crisis centers answer calls and [online] chats from people in distress that the Lifeline receives every day. The Lifeline’s crisis centers provide the specialized care of a local community with the support of a national network.”
Next year, this mental health crisis resource will gain a higher profile when 988, a new three-digit dialing code, rolls out nationally on July 16, 2022. Read more about that rollout here. Dialing 988 will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Existing telephone numbers will continue to operate, according to a statement by the Federal Communications Commission, which is overseeing the national rollout.
The 988 rollout will require callers in many states, including New Hampshire, to dial the area code for in-state calls. But that minor inconvenience could save lives, supporters believe.