After losing her husband to suicide two years ago, Jennifer Antonik learned that there were very little resources available to her and her children. According to Antonik, she found that Delaware was the only state without an Office of Suicide Prevention.
“If you do a Google search, you will find Delaware Suicide Prevention Coalition, you will find DSCYF for kids, but when you talk to them, you find they don’t do suicide prevention,” Antonik said. “The state does have an arm of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health (SAMSAH) that deals with mental health, but it is mostly focused on substance abuse. There are not intervention options.”
This led Antonik to discuss the issue with legislators and the creation of HB54, which she calls DJs Bill, sponsored by Representatives Eric Morrison and Senator Spiros Mantzavinos which would create the first ever Office of Suicide Prevention in the state.
“It is named after my kids, not their father, because we shouldn’t glorify the person who died by suicide, we should maintain those happy memories, but we don’t glorify what they did,” Antonik said. “The state has intervention strategies, but we are still missing that prevention piece. We as survivors have become advocates for this because we have already been hurt by it and we don’t want anyone else to live through this.”
Antonik explained that this law will simply establish the office, moving a vacant position that already exists from another state department. The office would act as a coordinator between the many agencies that currently offer suicide prevention services. According to Antonik, there were 23 deaths by suicide in 2023 and in 2024, there were 145. In addition, when she learned that she and her children now had a three times higher risk of suicide than the average person to commit suicide, she knew she needed to take action.
“There is nothing at the state level if you know someone is heading down that path,” Antonik said. “There’s no one to go to for help. This office would actually provide a place for people to go before it gets to the boiling point.”
According to the language in the bill, HB54 would serve in coordination with the Department of Services for Children Youth and their Families to reach suicide prevention resources in the state. It would also assist the suicide coalition with its mission and provide prevention, intervention, and postvention vision and guidance to stakeholders. The office would also work with community level prevention organizations to promote best practices for prevention and intervention while also oversee funding to reduce suicides in the state.
The bill was reported out of committee March 19 and assigned to the Appropriations. Committee in the House on March 20.
