House Bill 1559 signed into law by PA Governor Tom Corbett

This week Governor Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1559 into law on Wednesday mandating effective immediately that all Pennsylvania schools adopt an age-appropriate youth suicide awareness and prevention policy for grades six through 12.

• Each School shall adopt a policy that will include Suicide Prevention-protocols for early intervention and referrals for students at risk for suicide.

• School Entities shall require each school teaching, administrative, counseling, and/or nursing staff member to complete at least two hours of instruction in suicide awareness and prevention every two years. All new employees would need to complete training within one year of hire. The Department will maintain a list of approved courses, instructors and websites. Each school entity is encouraged to provide appropriate training to all non-teaching staff (custodians, secretaries, bus drivers, etc.) at least once every two years.

Minding Your Mind’s “Just Talk About It” teacher, staff and administrative training which was developed by Contact and facilitated by Minding Your Mind, is an approved course as it is listed in SPRC Best Practice Registry. MYM can also facilitate the More Than Sad curriculum from AFSP and QPR–Question Persuade Refer Suicide Intervention training.

Please contact Trish Larsen at trish@mindingyourmind.org to discuss the programs and how to schedule presentations for the upcoming 2014 / 2015 school year.

Thank you for your continued support of Minding Your Mind.