samsa works toward creating a nation of communities free of substance abuse and mental illness. suicide prevention is a priority for us and mental health problems and substance abuse issues are leading risk factors of suicide attempts and completions. the suicide rate of persons with major depression is eight times that of the general population. over 1/3 of individuals who died by suicide of a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. samsa has a lead role to find solutions for these health issues but across our initiatives and through our collaborative efforts and among our partnerships, many have been key players but three step want to call out -- richard mckeaon, marybeth and jim galloway help to develop the report you here today. kathleen sibelius and our surgeon general have been instrumental in this. they are tremendous partners in the urgent task of preventing suicide. the centers for medicare and medicaid services have stepped up to provide screenings and quality measures, in ovation awards, training, and soon to be informational material to help people with behavioral

we might either use samsa dollars or other federal -- federal dollars or state and local dollars. and then with hud, the housing, etc.. the three agencies are working together to think about how we can put together vouchers, medicaid funding, and non- medicaid funding to support a person in recovery in getting and maintaining housing. >> other media inquiries? the far back. >> from clinical psychiatry news. i had a question about synthetic drugs. definitely a concern in the last two or three years. where do they stand as far as concerns go? >> joe, do you want to comment on synthetic drugs? >> we do not have the data of the synthetic drugs. but what we are doing is monitoring through state authorities the presence of the synthetic drugs. mr. kolokowski has been active in working with the legal authorities on synthetic drugs. >> most recently in the minds during the future survey, it actually got the researchers who have done this for quite a long time by surprise. the increase of synthetic drug experimentation by young people was very concerned. although, more course as the survey

one of the thing that we at samsa are trying to do, whether it is suicide or any other issue is recognize there is prejudice and misunderstanding and lack of information associated with mental health and substance abuse conditions. we are trying to make it clear that these are public health issues. we are doing that through our communication efforts, through efforts like this, to have so many people stand up and say, this is a public health issue. it is a health issue. it is an act of courage to ask for help. and to help your college roommate, your friend or neighbor, your parents or sons to get help. so we're trying very hard in numbers of ways to ad depress that issue. thank you for raising it. >> that is one of the major themes of the nat3 >> that is one of the major themes of the national suicide prevention strategy. it is just that. take away that stigma. to make it ok to talk about it. in the past, we didn't talk about it. we didn't ask people, are you thinking about killing yourself. we are afraid it may give them an idea. right now we want you to change the idea we think about sui