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Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the bipartisan 9-8-8 Connect Act. This legislation would boost our continued efforts to improve access to and improve followup services through the 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
The 9-8-8 Connect Act establishes a new grant program for eligible crisis centers to provide followup services to individuals receiving suicide prevention and crisis intervention services, including check-in calls, outreach to ensure engagement in services and support, collaboration with family and caregivers, and referral navigation. It also requires carriers to allow calls and texts to 9-8-8 even if the plan is inactive or the carrier is experiencing service interruptions or failures, just as they currently do for 9-1-1 calls. Furthermore, it requires multiline systems like hotel and office phones to support the direct dialing of 9-8-8 rather than requiring a caller to dial 9 or another number before dialing 9-8-8.
Significant progress has been made in increasing access to quality mental health care in America. The 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has been critical for supporting Americans in crisis; however, there is currently a lack of capacity to provide followup services for those in crisis.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration emphasizes the role of connections to care following a crisis episode in supporting individuals who are experiencing mental health, substance use, or suicidal crisis towards recovery.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that 80 percent of surveyed crisis line callers said that followup services helped save their lives. A frequent critique of 9-8-8 is that, while a single contact may resolve a crisis situation for many individuals, a lack of followup support doesn't provide callers with the necessary mental health resources they may need longterm.
As awareness of 9-8-8 increases, it is critical to ensure that the line can quickly connect callers to a range of mental health services and a full continuum of care, including mobile crisis response teams.
I would like to thank Senator Tillis for introducing this important legislation with me, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the bipartisan 9-8-8 Connect Act as soon as possible.
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