The director of the Center for Suicide Awareness in Wisconsin is expressing concern that politics is jeopardizing a program designed to help prevent suicides in Wisconsin. Barb Bigalki says the Speaker’s Task Force on Suicide Prevention wants to recommend a bill for a statewide suicide prevention text service, even though the governor included funding for the Hopeline in the state budget. Bigalki says her concern is that introducing a new bill puts the entire program in jeopardy. “This isn’t a political race, this is human race,” Bigalki told WFDL news. “This isn’t about who gets credit and who gets final say. This was an approved issue, because we know it’s important. Anyone who wants to look at the statistics…Wisconsin’s suicide rate is higher than the national average.” Bigalki says she doesn’t care who gets credit, she just wants to see the Hopeline up and running. The task force held a series of public hearings across the state and is scheduled to release a set of policy recommendations this Wednesday.
