S. 5704: Helping Emergency Responders Overcome Act

This bill would direct federal health agencies to do more to track and address behavioral health problems, including suicide, among public safety officers such as police, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and 911/public safety telecommunicators.

What the bill would do

• Create a national suicide data system within the Public Health Service Act to collect information on suicides among public safety officers and study ways to reduce them.
• Fold that data into an existing federal death-reporting system if the Secretary of Health and Human Services decides it fits the system’s purpose.
• Collect and report detailed data on suicides by age, sex, state, occupation, volunteer/career status where available, and whether the person was active or retired.
• Require privacy protections so the identities of suicide victims and their families are protected and the data cannot be used to deny benefits.
• Require reports to Congress within 2 years after enactment, and then every 2 years after that, with statistics, contributing factors, obstacles in collecting volunteer data, and recommendations for prevention.
• Make the reports public on the CDC website.
• Allow grants for nonprofit groups with expertise in fire and EMS health and safety to create or improve peer-support behavioral health and wellness programs in fire departments and EMS agencies.
• Require training resources for behavioral health professionals so they better understand fire and EMS culture, the stressors these workers face, challenges faced by retired personnel, and evidence-based treatments for related behavioral health issues.
• Direct HHS to develop and update best practices for identifying, preventing, and treating PTSD and other behavioral health issues among public safety officers.
• Share those best practices with federal, state, and local fire, law enforcement, and EMS agencies, and incorporate them into federal training programs.

Other changes

• The bill also includes a technical correction to an older law to clarify a citation to the Public Health Service Act.

Relevant Companies

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