The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Proposal would add suicide hotlines to college IDS

BY HANNAH METZGER hannah.metzger@coloradopolitics.com

In Colorado, suicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults. Lawmakers want to help address this with one small change.

If passed, House Bill 1007 would require higher education institutions to print the numbers of suicide hotlines on the back of their student identification cards. Bill sponsor Rep. Judy Amabile, D-boulder, said she hopes this will increase access to essential services and reduce the stigma of using them.

“It normalizes the idea that some people might need to use that number. It helps reduce the stigma of feeling depressed or suicidal,” Amabile said, adding that her son has greatly benefited from calling crisis hotlines in the last year after previously attempting suicide twice. “It’s really been a lifesaver for him.”

In 2021, 10% of Colorado’s suicide deaths were among college-aged adults, age 19 to 24, according to the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado. That’s nearly twice the

suicide rate of youth aged 10 to 18. Advocates say the transition period of early adulthood can take a toll on a person’s mental health, with the stress of increased financial and social responsibility adding to the loss of lifelong support systems.

Nationally, in the 2020-21 school year, over 60% of college students met the criteria of at least one mental health condition and around 25% of the age group said they had seriously considered suicide.

“In my district, we are having way too many young people deciding to end their lives,” said Rep. Marc Catlin, R-montrose, who also sponsored the bill. “This is an easy attempt to reach out to people to say, ‘It’s OK. If you need help, we want to help.’”

“If we save one, it’s worth it,” he added.

Taleen Sample, a 19-yearold college freshman, said she’s been receiving phone calls from her friends before, during and after suicide attempts since she was 14.

“I cannot begin to recall all of the times that I’ve pleaded with a friend to lower a gun from his head or take a few steps back from the ledge of a roof,” Sample said while testifying in support of the bill. “I will never know what to say to people who trust me with their lives. … Young people do not know how to convince our friends that things will get better.”

Sample, while a member Colorado’s Youth Advisory Council, helped pass a similar bill last year, which required suicide hotlines to be added to high school student IDS.

This new bill would expand the requirement to colleges, printing the phone and text numbers of statewide and national mental health crisis and suicide hotlines on the back of student IDS beginning in August.

Higher education institutions would also be required to distribute this information to students who received their IDS before the change took effect.

The House Education Committee unanimously approved HB 1007 Wednesday, sending it to the full House for consideration.

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2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281651079255133

The Gazette, Colorado Springs