A New York congressman has introduced bipartisan legislation to help curb the nation’s rising suicide rate.
Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, whose district includes part of lower Westchester County, says that in New York suicide rates have climbed by nearly 30 percent since 2000. He and Florida Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis, both members of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, introduced on Monday the Effective Suicide Screening and Assessment in the Emergency Department Act. The bill would allocate $100 million over a five-year period to support emergency department programs, including training, to prevent suicide. Bilirakis says some of the communities in his district have the highest rates of suicide per capita in the nation.
