In the spring of 2014, the New Hampshire Suicide Prevention Council conducted a survey asking school districts whether they provided suicide prevention training to faculty and staff.
Some 71 districts responded, and the council found that the vast majority — about 80 percent — had no policy regarding such training, said Ken Norton, executive director of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Health.
However, most of those school districts indicated they’d be interested in developing a policy and offering suicide prevention training in their schools.
Five years later, a Senate bill seeks to require all school districts and charter public schools in the state to develop a policy and provide training to faculty, staff and designated school volunteers on suicide prevention.
The bill, SB 282, passed the state Senate with unanimous support March 14 and moves on to the House where a public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Norton, as well as other mental health advocates, has been pushing for similar legislation over the years. Gov. Chris Sununu added to the momentum around addressing the issue when he highlighted a similar bill in his inaugural address in January.
That bill, known as the Jason Flatt Act, would require “every teacher, supervisor and administrator in the public schools” of the state to undergo at least two hours of training in suicide awareness and prevention each year. Senate Bill 282 extends the training outlined in the Jason Flatt Act to more school employees as well as students.
“We know peers are more apt to tell a peer if they’re thinking about suicide than they would necessarily to tell an adult,” Norton said.. “We’re talking about training them to recognize the importance and bring that information to an adult. Not to assess it or make a determination about how serious it is, but that any indicator should be taken seriously and that information should be brought to an adult.”
The tragedy of losing a student to suicide can shake a school community. Part of the training described in these bills includes how to respond when a student dies by suicide.
SAU 24 Assistant Superintendent Jacqueline Coe was beginning her career in education in the Kearsarge school district in the late 1990s when two students died by suicide.
“We didn’t know how to talk about it,” she said. “The issue is the same today, but districts who have engaged in this conversation are in a much better place now.”
New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of suicide in the country. It is the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 34, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
A story in Thursday’s Monitor reported that Headrest, the only 24-hour crisis hotline in the state, has seen a 50-percent increase in suicide calls over the last eight months.
The bills have garnered bipartisan support in both chambers. During discussion before the vote on March 14, Sen. Tom Sherman, of Rye, said the more people are trained to see the signs of suicide, the more likely it can be prevented.
“This is about all of us … having comprehensive training to recognize the warning signs of depression and suicide,” he said. “(Suicide) is treatable, and the only way to treat it is to prevent it.”
If you or someone you know might be at risk for suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.