Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4–Committee on
Human Resources and Facilities

 

FILE NUMBER..........

 

SENATE Concurrent RESOLUTION—Urging the Clark County Health District to plan and coordinate a public information campaign relating to suicide prevention and expand injury prevention efforts in Clark County.

 

    Whereas, As a result of the National Suicide Prevention

 Conference convened in Reno, Nevada, in October 1998, the

 Surgeon General of the United States issued The Surgeon General’s

 Call To Action To Prevent Suicide in July 1999, emphasizing

 suicide as a serious public health problem; and

    Whereas, Continuing attention to issues relating to suicide

 prevention and the significant role of services relating to mental

 health and substance abuse in suicide prevention are reflected in

 Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General and in the nation’s

 public health agenda, Healthy People 2010; and

    Whereas, In 2001, the Surgeon General released his National

 Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action,

 which establishes a framework for action and guides the

 development of an array of services and programs aimed at

 reducing the nation’s rate of suicide and suicidal behavior; and

    Whereas, The National Strategy approaches suicide as a public

 health problem, an approach that has helped the nation effectively

 address problems as diverse as tuberculosis, heart disease and

 unintentional injury; and

    Whereas, Nevada has consistently ranked at the top of the

 listing of states with the highest suicide rates, and consistently

 averaged twice the national suicide rate; and

    Whereas, Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death in Nevada,

 exceeded only by heart disease, cancer, pulmonary disease and

 stroke, and Nevada is the only state in which suicides outnumber

 deaths related to motor vehicles; and

    Whereas, Clark County contains nearly 70 percent of the

 population of Nevada, a majority of the completed suicides occur

 there and the number of deaths by suicide in Clark County each

 year has increased from 223 in 1991 to 292 in 2001; and

    Whereas, The Clark County Health District is the local public

 health agency serving residents and visitors in Clark County and

 has included suicide prevention, under the category of reducing

 injuries, in its top six priority areas in the project known as

 “Healthy Clark County 2010,” which implements the national

 public health agenda; and

    Whereas, Public health and mental health providers recognize

 that Clark County lacks a comprehensive suicide prevention

program, and because suicide prevention has been identified as a

critical public health problem and the Clark County Health District

 is the lead public health agency in the County; now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Senate of the State of Nevada, the

 Assembly Concurring, That the Clark County Health District is

 hereby urged to:

    1.  Plan and coordinate a public information campaign on

 suicide prevention; and

    2.  Expand injury prevention efforts relating to suicide

 prevention in Clark County and increase the Health District’s

 financial commitment to support such efforts; and be it further

    Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate prepare and

 transmit a copy of this resolution to the Chief Health Officer for the

 Clark County Health District and each member of the District

 Board of Health of Clark County.

 

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