HELENA — Two bills aiming to lower Montana’s extremely high suicide rate advanced in the Legislature Friday.

A bill requiring suicide prevention training for health care providers narrowly passed a House committee, while a measure requiring similar training for school employees was endorsed by the full House.

Rep. Ed Lieser, D-Whitefish, presented House Bill 568 before the House Business and Labor Committee and members voted 10-9 to pass the bill immediately afterward. 

Under the measure, certain licensed health care professionals would be required to take courses related to suicide prevention. Doctors, nurses, chiropractors, social workers, therapists and others would need to complete at least six hours of training on suicide assessment, treatment and management once every five years.

“Montana has the highest suicide rate in the nation,” Lieser said, referring to a 2013 National Vital Statistics report. “This bill is an attempt to address an extremely serious problem that could literally save lives.” 

He said he brought the bill because of another statistic saying 45 percent of individuals who die by suicide visit their primary care provider within a month of their death.

Montana has been ranked in the top five for suicide rates in the nation for the past 40 years and has been at or near the top nationally since agencies began compiling the statistics nearly 100 years ago, according to Karl Rosston, suicide prevention coordinator for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.  

Social isolation, substance abuse, access to lethal means, weather and even altitude are all factors in Montana’s suicide rates, Rosston said. He added recent research has found a link between altitude and suicide with the main theory being the metabolic stress caused by long-term oxygen deprivation affects serotonin levels in the brain.

The biggest issue, however, is the stigma associated with mental illness and asking for help. When people see their doctors or other care givers, they often only present physical symptoms and training health care professionals to look beyond those symptoms could help, he said.

Physician and Montana Medical Association President Michael Brown was the lone voice of opposition to the bill, saying a mandatory requirement for doctors would really do very little to bring rates down.

“We need a little bit more comprehensive solution to this,” he said, adding the association supports studying the issue and assisting with solutions.

Before the committee vote, Rep. Christopher Pope of Bozeman called the levels of suicide in Montana staggering and said he’d vote for “something that moves the ball forward.”

Other lawmakers questioned the need for mandating the training and said the state could continue providing those resources.

The measure was modeled on one passed in Washington state in recent years. It will go next to the full House for consideration.

House Bill 374 would require suicide prevention and awareness training for school district employees. Introduced by Rep. Edie McClafferty of Butte and co-sponsored by 38 lawmakers, it was endorsed 76-24 by the House Friday. 

The bill would require at least two hours of training every five years and is based on a law that has been adopted in over a dozen states. 

McClafferty said the proposal would give educators and anybody in school districts the tools they need to prevent kids from hurting themselves.

If it passes third reading in the House, the measure will move to the Senate for consideration.