WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

Judd’s mother, country star Naomi Judd, died nearly two years ago. Blacc’s frequent collaborator, Tim Bergling, died in 2018.

Both were on hand as Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, helped unveil the Democratic administration’s blueprint for reducing suicides in the United States. Some 132 people a day kill themselves, he said.

“We’re here today because we know that we can and will change this,” Emhoff said. “Suicide is preventable.”

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AP AUDIO: Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc help the White House unveil its national suicide prevention strategy.

AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc visiting the White House as part of a suicide prevention campaign.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

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Judd’s mother had lived most of her 76 years with an untreated sickness and, on the day she died, “the disease of mental illness was lying to her,” Ashley Judd said during a discussion moderated by Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy with Blacc and Shelby Rowe, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center.

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