Bill focuses on mental health awareness, treatment for PTSD in first responders
LINCOLN, Neb. — A bill that would help with mental health issues in firefighters and first responders was in front of the Business and Labor Committee.
If passed, LB693 would provide a wider range of mental health services and training to firefighters and first responders in response to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) they experience every day due to the events they encounter in the line of duty.
"I felt alone with no way out and nowhere to turn. I have since received the diagnosis of PTSD," said an Omaha Firefighter Tyler Fausset.
Five years ago, Tyler Fausset, an Omaha firefighter said he responded to a call that forever changed his life.
"This call was the worst of society where a young mother lost her life. In the time following, I began to see my life around me fall apart," said Fausset.
Like many other first responders and firefighters who have experienced calls like Fausset's, it becomes their everyday life.
A Grand Island firefighter who suffers from PTSD said these calls eventually lead them to feel like they're losing control.
"For many of us, our PTSD wasn't the product of a single call but for most it's that buildup of calls weighing in on the mind that leads to dysfunction. It leads to depression that makes us feel like there is no hope. It leads to hypervigilance where everything you do and everywhere you go, you see danger," said a Grand Island Firefighter Keith Urkoski.
Senator Tom Brewer of District 43 introduced the bill having personally experienced PTSD himself.
The bill aims to change provisions relating to personal injuries of first responders and frontline state employees.
"You can only do this work so much and it not tear away at the fabric of your being. I think that's the best way to describe it. There's a rip and that rip gets a little more and a little more. You can hide it all you want but at some point it's going to tear in two. It's going to cause issues to the point where it's unfixable. It's hard to come back from because you've not had the support when you needed it," said Sen. Tom Brewer.
LB963 would expand the workers' compensation available to benefit those seeking mental health issues related to work as well as provide resiliency training.
"Nobody is forced to do it. It's on a voluntary basis but it will then provide to that particular organization that we are going to try to help here the ability to have that person try to identify it, and the ability if they can't help them to help them find help," said Sen. Brewer.
Those speaking against the bill said they want senators to remove clergy from the list of experts who could diagnose and report cases of PTSD because they believe clergy are not medically qualified enough.
Others suggested the compensation and insurance costs could be too high for less populated areas like towns and villages.
