Bill Text: NY S05500 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Establishes the adolescent suicide prevention advisory council.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-11-29 - APPROVAL MEMO.27 [S05500 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S05500-Amended.html
Bill Title: Establishes the adolescent suicide prevention advisory council.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-11-29 - APPROVAL MEMO.27 [S05500 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S05500-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5500--A 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE April 3, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sen. ALCANTARA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Develop- mental Disabilities -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to establishing the latina adolescent suicide prevention advisory council The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds that 2 suicide has become the second leading cause of death for latina adoles- 3 cents. Latina teens also attempt suicide at a higher rate than any 4 other youth group. 5 A pervasive sadness and sense of hopelessness underlines their high 6 rates of suicides and suicide attempts. Most of these young women are 7 immigrants or U.S. born children of immigrants living in communities 8 that lack the supporting mechanisms to integrate new Americans and their 9 families into the complexities of our society. 10 New York State needs to do more to address this crisis as its suicide 11 prevention funding is dismally insufficient to combat suicide across all 12 sectors of our society. Addressing the latina adolescent suicide crisis 13 will involve the allocation of proper state resources and the delivery 14 of suicide prevention services by clinicians who are both culturally and 15 linguistically competent in the delivery of health care services. 16 Females attempt suicide three times more often than males. As with 17 suicide deaths, rates of attempted suicide vary considerably among demo- 18 graphic groups. While males are four times more likely than females to 19 die by suicide, females attempt suicide three times as often as males. 20 An estimated 25.6 percent of latina teens in New York State seriously 21 consider suicide, up from 17 percent in 2011. In New York City, Latina 22 teens attempt suicide at more than twice the rate of white youths (13.3 23 percent versus 5.9 percent). EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10846-03-7S. 5500--A 2 1 According to a 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, 32.6 2 percent of Latino teens experienced feelings of depression for two or 3 more weeks, 14.3 percent made a plan of how they would attempt suicide 4 within the last 12 months and 10.2 percent attempted suicide one or more 5 times within the past 12 months. 6 According to researchers, lack of access to culturally and linguis- 7 tically appropriate health care services is a large contributing factor 8 to latina teen suicides and impedes proper treatment. 9 Therefore it is necessary that this legislative body establishes the 10 latina adolescent suicide prevention advisory council. 11 § 2. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 41.56 12 to read as follows: 13 § 41.56 Latina adolescent suicide prevention advisory council. 14 (a) There shall be established within the office of mental health, a 15 council on latina adolescent suicide prevention to consist of seventeen 16 members: eight members shall be appointed by the governor with consulta- 17 tion by the office of mental health; three members shall be appointed by 18 the speaker of the assembly; one member shall be appointed by the minor- 19 ity leader of the assembly; two members shall be appointed by the tempo- 20 rary president of the senate; two members shall be appointed by the 21 independent democratic conference leader of the senate; and one member 22 shall be appointed by the minority leader of the senate. 23 (b) Duties of the council shall include, but not be limited to: 24 (1) Facilitating the coordination of services and resources among 25 agencies involved in the delivery of services for suicide prevention for 26 latina adolescents; 27 (2) Monitoring the implementation of action plans developed by mental 28 health agencies via their five year action plans and yearly funding 29 priorities to ensure that latina adolescents at risk of suicide are 30 being adequately incorporated and served; and 31 (3) Determine services, resources and policies that may further 32 address the needs of latina adolescents at risk of suicide and provide 33 them as per the required annual reports to the legislature and the 34 governor. 35 (c) The council shall prepare and submit an annual report, the first 36 of which shall be submitted no later than October first, two thousand 37 eighteen, to the governor and the legislature that recommends policies, 38 legislation, and funding needed to implement the action plans developed 39 in response to the need to address latina adolescent suicide prevention 40 into the state's health care delivery system. 41 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 42 have become a law.
