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Committee advances bill extending Good Samaritan protections to mental-health interventions
Summary
House Bill 491 passed the committee 12–2. Sponsor Rep. Marco Erickson said the measure encourages bystander and volunteer intervention in psychological emergencies and aligns with suicide-prevention training and the 988 lifeline.
The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee voted 12–2 to send House Bill 491 to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation. Representative Marco Erickson said the bill expands Good Samaritan protections to people who intervene in an acute mental-health or suicidal crisis and aims to remove legal barriers that might deter life‑saving intervention.
"We want you intervening, we want you to be able to speak really clearly to this case and to the suicide and be okay with asking those questions," Erickson said as he described training such as QPR and ASIST that volunteers and community members can receive.
Supporters included people with mental‑health prevention experience. Stuart Wilder, president of the Idaho Suicide Prevention Coalition, told the committee the change modernizes Good Samaritan law to include mental-health emergencies and called for a due-pass recommendation. Daniel Murphy, who testified earlier on other bills, said his training through ASIST equipped him to help callers thinking about suicide.
Committee members asked about legal exposure, qualifications for rendering aid, and school-based counseling. Erickson said the bill does not replace existing mandatory reporting or school procedures, and that the intent is to reduce fear of civil liability for good‑faith interventions and to encourage use of the 988 lifeline.
The measure passed on a roll-call vote, 12 in favor and 2 opposed, and now proceeds to the full House.
