Schumer: Suicide help is on the way

A bipartisan bill to hike funds for suicide prevention and mental health research is a step closer to President Trump’s desk, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Friday.

“These new funds will help life-savers at suicide-prevention hotlines answer the call, and it will fund research and prevention programs, too,” Schumer said in a statement.

The push comes months after the highprofile deaths of fashion icon Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who killed themselves just weeks apart in June.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., with nearly 45,000 Americans taking their own lives each year, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

A Centers for Disease Control report revealed the rate of suicides in the U.S. soared 30 % between 1999 and 2016.

Every 13 minutes a person commits suicide in the U.S., exceeding the death rate of homicide and AIDS combined, the CDC report said.

The report said New York saw a 30% rise, and that a New Yorker ends his or her life every five hours.

Despite the increase, federal funding for suicide prevention had flatlined over the last five years, Schumer said.

Spending on a suicide hotline is held tight at $7 million per year, and money for programs that study and strategize anti-suicide policy is kept to $5.9 million per year.

But the Schumerbacked bill includes a Senate appropriation for $10 million in fiscal year 2019 — a 39 % increase.