Federal Agency Cuts Off Funding for Suicide Hotline

What will all those Bush political appointees do this fall ???

Them sinners gots ta be punished be us lettin' em kill emself!

No doubt they will be redirecting the calls to a religious organization where the caller will be solicited for a donation or damnation.

"This war is yummy... Can we have another, please?"

shut off a suicide hotline BEFORE the winter
heating bills start slamming the seniors.

Hey -- WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!

"He who allows oppression, shares the crime." : Erasmus Darwin

Great. People who are suicidal are under extreme stress and on the edge of killing themselves to escape their desperation. They are in an extremely vulnerable situation looking for an alternative to death. They will now hand over their most intimate life secrets and personal history to the government during a time of vulnerability and crisis.

Choicepoint is ready to sort through it, making it available to collection agencies, credit agencies, insurance companies, marketers, and also secret black government agencies looking to screen a new pool of experimental subjects to use for indoctrination, human engineering, and psycho-drug trials.

Conspiracy Theory when this shit keeps coming down, one right after another...We speak our minds and sudden TERROR, a plan that has been discussed between WH and UK for over a week, but action is a must , day after elections. Cheney tells America that since Lamont was voted as Candidate, our country is less safe.?

It is so much bull.

Truth is stranger than any fiction, and damnit this group is reading from Grimms Fairy Tales.

Time is the enemy of truth...JFK Jr.
Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Galatians 4:16

Liberté! La Belle Dame Sans Merci

For Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) to step up and take on the administration. He sponsored, and, to his credit, has been strongly behind, the Garrett Smith Program funding, through which SAMHSA is supposed to fund research and clinical programs to prevent adolescent suicide.
Unfortunately, the Senator's son (after whom the act was named), died by suicide. The bill passed with broad support, and was signed into law in 2004. Of course, Shrub praised it to the high heavens, though it's easier to show support for something when everyone is taking pictures, and not when it really counts.

The replacement line threatens serious breaches of confidentiality. There is ample research in the suicidology literature, suggesting that people who call suicide and other crisis lines often don't do so immediately before an attempt. The Institute of Medicine sponsored a research study that suggests a substantial number of people between the ages of 15-24 present for emergency room and other crisis visits after having called a hotline within the week of their visit. Putting off callers with the fear that their identities will be revealed or information gathered increases the risk that these vulnerable individuals will be at increased, rather than decreased risk of suicide.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for Americans aged 15-24 (after accidents and homicides). The rate of adolescent suicide in the U.S. tripled between 1975 and now.

Looking to impede health-seeking by people at great risk and vulnerability is unconscionable, and legitimate reasons for doing so don't seem to abound in this action.

It's time for Senator Smith to step up against the administration. Surely, he'll have the backing of most, if not all of his Democratic colleagues, and those Republicans with enough integrity to prefer fewer suicides, rather than more brownie points.