Improving Mental Health Access for Students Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth and for young adults aged 10 to 34. It is also the second leading cause of death among college students. Thirty-nine percent, in fact, of college students experience a significant mental health issue, and 50 percent of mental health issues begin by age 14. Seventy-five percent of them begin by age 24.

Senators Cornyn, Jones, Warren, Gillibrand, Rosen, and I have introduced the Improving Mental Health Access for Students Act. There is companion legislation in the House that is also bipartisan that has 51 cosponsors.

Our legislation is pretty simple. It would require colleges that participate in Federal student aid programs to share contact information for suicide prevention resources with their students, and this is how it works:

If a university distributes student ID cards--most do; not all of them do but most do--then the universities would be directed to include the phone numbers for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, for the Crisis Text Line, and for a campus mental health center or program on the student ID card. If a university doesn't have a student ID card, they don't have to publish a student ID card just for that purpose. They can put the information on their websites.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is well known. It is a national network of over, I think, 180 local crisis centers. Those centers provide confidential emotional support to anybody in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress. They offer 24/7 services, and those services are free.

I would also point out that our legislation is also supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Association of School Psychologists, and 14 other mental health-related organizations.

Our legislation, finally, would not take effect until 1 year. So I don't want anyone to think that we are requiring our colleges to go out and immediately publish new student IDs. As they publish new student IDs when the current year runs out, we are just asking them to include this information on those IDs.

Toward that end, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of our legislation, S. 1782, and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the bill.

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