NATIONAL INTEREST

Law 27.130

National Suicide Prevention Act. Sanctioned: March 11, 2015 Enacted in Fact: April 6, 2015

The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, meeting in Congress, etc., are sanctioned by law:

NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION ACT

Chapter I

Preliminary provisions

Article 1-Declaring of national interest throughout the territory of the Argentine Republic, biopsychosocial attention, scientific and epidemiological research, professional training in the detection and care of people at risk of suicide and assistance to families of suicide victims.

ARTICLE 2 °-The effects of this law are understood as: a) Intent of suicide: to any self-inflicted action in order to generate potentially lethal damage; b) Posvention: to actions and interventions after a self-destructive event intended to work with the people, family or institutions linked to the person who took his own life.

ARTICLE 3-This law aims to reduce the incidence and prevalence of suicide, through prevention, assistance and after-treatment.

Article 4 °-These are objectives of this law: a) The coordinated, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional approach to the problem of suicide; b) The development of actions and strategies to raise awareness of the population; c) Development The promotion of the creation of networks of support of civil society for the purposes of prevention, the detection of people at risk, the treatment and the training.

Chapter II

Implementing authority

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Article 5-The enforcement authority of this law is the Ministry of Health, which must coordinate its actions with the areas and bodies responsible for the matter and with the provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.

ARTICLE 6-The functions of the implementing authority are as follows: a) The training of human resources in health and education for the detection of persons at risk through systematic and permanent training; b) The elaboration of an intervention protocol for the services of the first the level of health care and the level of hospital emergency, and a coordination protocol between health services, the emergency telephone line and other relevant Community areas; (c) Taking a register of the institutions; associations, non-governmental organisations and public and private sector professionals, which comply with the standards established by the implementing authority; (d) Celebrate agreements with public and private institutions and non-governmental organisations that must be in line with the strategic plans established by the authority (e) Create a registration system containing statistical information of suicide attempts, suicides committed, cause of death, age, sex, monthly evolution, modality used and all other data of interest for the purposes of the improvement of the statistical information, which will be provided by the sectors (f) The cases of suicide and the causes of death must be notified to the nearest health authority; g) to regularly practice the evaluation and monitoring of the cases of suicide, activities linked to the objectives of this law.

Chapter III

Prevention

ARTICLE 7 °-The implementing authority in coordination with the respective areas shall: a) Develop training programmes for those responsible in the fields of education, work, recreation and in the context of the lockdown, promoting skills development in the institutional teams; b) Developing campaigns awareness of risk factors and the generation of protective factors through the mass media and other alternatives; c) Develop recommendations to the media on the responsible approach to the news linked to available suicides and aid channels, in line with the recommendations of the the World Health Organization; (d) Enable a free telephone line to listen to critical situations, whose operators will be properly trained in crisis care and suicidal risk and equipped with the necessary information a bypass and containment network.

Chapter IV

Assistance

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ARTICLE 8 °-Every person who made an attempt at suicide has the right to be cared for in the framework of health policies and legislation in force. The health team should prioritize the assistance of children and adolescents without any impairment or discrimination.

Article 9 °-Health effectors must provide for the care of the patient with attempted suicide an interdisciplinary team formed in the terms of the Law 26,657 of Mental Health, assuring the patient's accompaniment during all the stages of the process of treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration and promoting the integration of assistance teams with family members and the community of belonging, for the period that the specialized care team advises.

ARTICLE 10. -The implementing authority, in coordination with the different jurisdictions, should develop and maintain an updated protocol for the care of the patient with suicidal risk or suicide attempt, containing the identification of factors predisposing, socio-demographic and environmental psycho-physical, in order to define the intervention strategies.

ARTICLE 11. -The enforcement authority, in coordination with the jurisdictions, must ensure the necessary resources to carry out epidemiological surveillance in the community, through the conformation and maintenance of services for this purpose at the level of primary health care.

ARTICLE 12. -In the case of the attempted suicide of a child, child or adolescent, the communication, not denunciation, is mandatory for the National Secretariat of Children, Adolescents and Family or the administrative authority of protection of the child's rights. (a) in the case of a local authority, for the purposes of applying for comprehensive protection measures of rights which are deemed appropriate.

ARTICLE 13. -All persons who, within the framework of the care and treatment of a patient who has attempted suicide, have taken contact or knowledge of it, will be obliged to the confidentiality of the information.

Chapter V

Training

ARTICLE 14. -The training actions to be developed by the implementing authority, in coordination with the jurisdictions, must include the characteristics of the socio-cultural context and will be a systematic and permanent process.

ARTICLE 15. -The training will include a training program for health workers, education, security, justice, and the context of the lockdown in the different areas of prevention and assistance designing a continuous training space.

Chapter VI

Coverage

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ARTICLE 16. -The social works framed in laws 23,660 and 23,661, the social work of the Judicial Branch of the Nation, the Directorate of Social Aid for the National Congress Staff, the pre-paid medical entities and the entities that provide care the staff of the universities, as well as all those agents who provide medical services, care, to their members regardless of the legal status they possess, must provide care coverage to the people who have been victims of attempted suicide and their families, as well as the families of suicide victims, which comprises the detection, monitoring and processing in accordance with the requirements of the implementing authority.

ARTICLE 17. -The national state through the COFESA must promote agreements with the jurisdictions to ensure the development of joint actions aimed at implementing the principles set out in this law that will include technical, economic cooperation and financial of the Nation for its implementation.

Chapter VII

Final provisions

ARTICLE 18. -The expenses that the compliance of this law requires shall be met with the items that are assigned annually to that effect in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health.

ARTICLE 19. -Invite the provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires to adhere to this law.

ARTICLE 20. -The Executive Branch must regulate this law within the ninety (90) days of its enactment.

ARTICLE 21. -Contact the national executive branch.

GIVEN IN THE SESSION HALL OF THE ARGENTINE CONGRESS, IN BUENOS AIRES, AT THE ELEVEN DAYS OF MARCH OF THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN.

-REGISTERED UNDER NO. 27.130-

BELOVED BOUDOU. -JULIAN A. DOMINGUEZ. -Juan H. Estrada. -Lucas Chedrese.

Date of publication: 08/04/2015

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