Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - January 17, 2007)

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By Mr. DORGAN (for himself, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. CONRAD, Mr. BINGAMAN, Mr. BAUCUS, Mr. SMITH, and Mr. INOUYE):

S. 322. A bill to establish an Indian youth telemental health demonstration project; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I rise today to re-introduce legislation which would provide a first important step in dealing with the crisis of youth suicide in Indian Country.

The legislation I am introducing today is almost identical to legislation that the Senate passed in May, 2006, to establish an Indian youth telemental health demonstration project. The Indian Youth Telemental Health Demonstration Project Act of 2007 would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out a 4-year demonstration project under which five tribes and tribal organizations with telehealth capabilities could use telemental health services in youth suicide prevention, intervention, and treatment. Demonstration project grantees would provide services through telemental health for such purposes as counseling of Indian youth; providing medical advice and other assistance to frontline tribal health providers; training for community members, tribal elected officials, tribal educators, and health workers and others who work with Indian youth; developing culturally sensitive materials on suicide prevention and intervention; and collecting and reporting of data.

The Committee on Indian Affairs held three hearings during the 109th Congress on the issue of Indian youth suicide, including one hearing that I convened in Bismarck, ND. Although on the Indian reservations of the northern Great Plains, the rate of Indian youth suicide is 10 times higher than it is anywhere else in the country, this tragic issue is not limited to these locations. The committee has heard testimony from people from tribal communities in Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, New Mexico, and Wyoming, as well.

According to 2004 statistics from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, suicide is the second leading cause of death, behind unintentional injury, for American Indian and Alaska Native young adults 15 to 24 years old, of both sexes--a statistic that has sadly been true for the past 20 years. For North Dakota Indian girls 15 to 24 years old in 2004, suicide was the number one leading cause of death.

I am grateful for the efforts of the Indian Health Service and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in particular, both of which have, in a host of ways, sought to address the reservation youth suicide crisis. SAMHSA is providing a 4-year grant to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota--a tribe that had 12 Indian youth die by suicide over a 6-month period--to provide mental health outreach workers. In addition, across the country, tribal leaders, tribal health professionals, and service providers and family members are working together to implement early intervention plans, improve access to prevention programs, promote community training and awareness, and reinstate traditional tribal practices and culture-based interventions to address Native youth suicides.

Many Indian reservations and Native villages in Alaska are remote and isolated, and everyone who lives in those communities experiences much more limited access to mental health services than in our Nation's metropolitan areas. The testimony received by the Indian Affairs Committee indicates that it is particularly in these remote Native communities that there is a crisis among the youth. I believe that the use of telemedicine--or, for purposes of this legislation, telemental health--will prove a useful resource for the several tribes or tribal organizations that will participate in this demonstration project in assisting their youth.

In addition to introducing this legislation, I will include authorization of this Indian Youth Telemental Health Demonstration Project in legislation to reauthorize and amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which I intend to introduce soon.

I thank my colleagues who have joined me in sponsoring this legislation and in being willing to talk and think hard about an issue that many believe should be kept hidden. We must find ways to prevent the needless loss of young Native American boys and girls whose whole lives lie ahead of them, and from whom their tribal communities and all of this country stand to benefit as these youth blossom in to their potential as adults. I look forward to continuing our efforts to address this sensitive and very important issue. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

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