STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator DECLAN J. O'SCANLON, JR.
District 13 (Monmouth)
Senator TROY SINGLETON
District 7 (Burlington)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Pou, Ruiz and Greenstein
SYNOPSIS
Establishes New Jersey Statewide Suicide Prevention Coordination and Oversight Council in DHS.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act establishing the New Jersey Statewide Suicide Prevention Coordination and Oversight Council and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. There is established in the Department of Human Services the New Jersey Statewide Suicide Prevention Coordination and Oversight Council.
a. The purpose of the council shall be to:
(1) periodically survey and evaluate existing activities, programs, initiatives, and services related to suicide prevention efforts throughout the State;
(2) develop standards and guidelines for suicide prevention entities currently operating in the State to report data related to attempted and completed suicides pursuant to paragraph (5) of this subsection, as well as information related to suicide prevention and intervention programs, activities, and initiatives and other information for which reporting is required under paragraph (6) of this subsection;
(3) assist suicide prevention entities by providing standardized guidance, based on prevailing best practices, concerning the content of informational materials made available to persons who report an attempted or completed suicide;
(4) provide guidance and assistance to suicide prevention entities concerning compliance with any regulations adopted by the Commissioner of Human Services to implement the provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill);
(5) serve as a centralized hub for reporting, analyzing, and retaining non-identifying and de-identified data collected from suicide prevention entities operating within the State, including any suicide prevention entities constituted within or operating under a department, agency, office, or other governmental entity represented on the councils membership, which collected data shall include the following information concerning individuals who have attempted or completed suicide:
(a) age;
(b) gender;
(c) race;
(d) ethnicity;
(e) whether the suicide was completed;
(f) the method of attempted or completed suicide;
(g) the persons status as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, undesignated/nonbinary, questioning, queer, or intersex;
(h) the persons status as a current or former law enforcement officer;
(i) the persons status as active or retired military;
(j) the municipality in which the attempted or completed suicide occurred;
(k) whether the person had previous involvement with a mental health professional or a professional specializing in the treatment of substance use disorders; and
(l) any other metric the council requires to be reported, provided that the Commissioner of Health, the Commissioner of Human Services, the Commissioner of Children and Families, and the Attorney General have each approved collection of the additional metric by the council;
(6) collect information from suicide prevention entities operating within the State concerning the entitys programs, activities, and initiatives related to suicide prevention and intervention, including any requests for proposals issued by the entity, any grants for which the entity applies and whether those grants involve State, federal, or private monies, and any other sources of State, federal, or private funding sought out by the entity; and
(7) compile and make available to appropriate entities, including the Department of Health and other State and federal authorities authorized to acquire such data and related information, the aggregate or individual data collected by the council pursuant to paragraph (5) of this subsection, as well as the councils findings and recommendations related to completed suicides and suicide attempts, provided that any data or other information furnished by the council to another entity under this paragraph does not contain any private or personal identifying information, and the data and other information is furnished in a manner that is not violative of federal privacy laws under the "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996," Pub.L.104-191, any regulations promulgated thereunder by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any other applicable State or federal law concerning the privacy of health records or personal or identifying information.
b. The council shall consist of 25 members as follows:
(1) the Commissioners of Health, Human Services, Children and Families, Corrections, and Education, the Secretary of Higher Education, the executive director of the Juvenile Justice Commission, the Adjutant General of the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs, the Executive Director of the Board of Directors of NJ Transit, the Chief State Medical Examiner, the assistant commissioner of the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services in the Department of Human Services, the chair of the Governors Council on Mental Health Stigma, and the Chief Technology Officer of the Office of Information Technology, or their designees, who shall serve ex officio; provided that if a department, division, office, agency, council, or other entity named as an ex officio member under this paragraph has a suitable suicide prevention or mental health entity operating under that members direct or indirect control, the ex officio member shall select a representative of that suicide prevention or mental health entity to serve as the members designee on the council;
(2) four public members appointed by the Governor, three of whom shall be faculty members at institutions of higher education who have expertise in the area of mental health, and one of whom shall be either a law enforcement officer in the Office of the Attorney General with expertise related to suicide or a mental health professional;
(3) four public members appointed by the President of the Senate, one of whom shall have experience as a mental health professional in the private sector with experience in youth suicide prevention and counseling, one of whom shall have experience as a psychiatrist in the private sector in the provision of services to elderly persons, one of whom shall identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, undesignated/nonbinary, questioning, queer, or intersex, and one of whom shall be a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor who is also a licensed clinical social worker with experience working with individuals in crisis; and
(4) four public members appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, two of whom shall be current