Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Suicide merits greater attention

Every 28 seconds, someone in the United States makes a suicide attempt. Suicide is the eighth-leading cause of death in Nevada.

After losing my good friend Eric to suicide in 2007, I started having honest conversations about mental health. My mother shared that she has struggled with suicidal thoughts and depression her whole life. We had never talked about it; I couldn’t believe I hadn’t known. I thought about what could’ve happened to her if we had never had that conversation, and I knew I had to do more.

That is why, on June 9, I will travel with colleagues to Washington, D.C., to meet with my members of Congress and demand they make suicide prevention a top legislative priority. We will discuss with our legislators how they can help us create a culture that’s smart about mental health.

We will ask them to support:

1. Increased funding for suicide prevention research within the National Institute of Mental Health to a level commensurate with the suicide crisis in our country

2. Strengthened reporting requirements for mental health parity

3. Full funding of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

4. Service member and veteran suicide prevention as a national priority.

You can join us by calling your member of Congress and asking that suicide prevention be the priority it deserves to be.