Bill to curb rural suicides heads to president for signing

A bill that aims to curb rising suicide rates in rural areas is headed to President Donald Trump for signing.

The Seeding Rural Resilience Act is part of the National Defense Authorization Act that’s before the president. President Trump is reportedly planning to veto the bill, but it passed in Congress with wide enough margins that lawmakers could override the veto. It’s still uncertain they’d do that.

Suicide rates across the country are rising, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but they’ve increased at a faster pace in rural areas since 2007.

Americans in rural communities face isolation, distance from basic health care services, lack of broadband access, stigmas against receiving counseling and financial burdens due to stagnant crop prices. These factors cause higher rates of stress for American farmers and ranchers, according to the announcement from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who co-sponsored the bill with Democratic Senator Jon Tester.

The bill creates three initiatives:

• A program requiring USDA to provide voluntary stress management training to Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and National Resources Conservation Service employees.
• A partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and USDA to create a $3 million public service announcement campaign to increase awareness of farm and ranch stress and destigmatize mental health care in rural communities.
• A requirement for the Secretary of Agriculture to work with state, local and nongovernmental stakeholders to collaborate and determine best practices for responding to farm and ranch mental stress.

“This is a commonsense bill that continues important efforts to raise awareness about mental health and will provide additional resources for farmers and their families facing difficult situations,” Grassley said.

“This bill isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s a critical step towards breaking down the stigmas surrounding mental health care and providing rural communities with the resources they need to thrive so they can keep doing what they do best—feeding the world,” Tester said.