If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing â988,â or the Crisis Text Line by texting âHOMEâ to 741741.
A paramedic for about 30 years, Susan Farren knew all was not well with first responders: Eight of her colleagues had died by suicide. Others had grappled with substance abuse or gone through painful divorces.
So, in 2018, Farren founded a nonprofit in Santa Rosa to train and support emergency personnel struggling with trauma and stress. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and other first responders have since availed themselves of the organizationâs timely help.
âNobody prepares you to walk into a house where four people have been murdered,â said Farren, executive director of
Firefighters, paramedics, and police often respond to the worst days of peopleâs lives â accidents, deaths, fires, and other distressing events. After the deadly mass shootings earlier this year in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, and countless others across the country, has grown.
But there is no national consensus on when and which emergency personnel should be provided workersâ compensation benefits.
âWe wouldnât think twice about taking care of a first responder who broke their leg, and we shouldnât think twice about taking care of their mental health needs,â Karen Larsen, CEO of the Steinberg Institute, a nonprofit public policy institute, said in an email.
This year, there has been a push in California by first responders for laws that expand access to workersâ compensation for post-traumatic stress injuries among their ranks. But some business groups and local governments want to pump the breaks, citing worries about potential fraud or abuse of the workersâ compensation system.
The allegation that some people could take advantage of a more open workersâ compensation system should not deter California from providing immediate access to mental health treatment to those who need it, said Farren, who noted that many of the first responders she works with are denied workersâ compensation coverage or have to go through many steps to get it approved.
âThat shouldnât keep us from getting help to those who really need it. That help should be available often, and affordably, and it should be available immediately,â Farren said.
Perceptions about employersâ responsibility for alleviating work-related mental stress have changed over time, and thatâs showing up in workersâ compensation. Each state has its own workersâ compensation laws, which provide benefits like disability pay and medical care to workers injured or sickened on the job.
More than half have enacted PTSD policies or policy changes since 2018, according to a by Optum, a company that creates workersâ compensation programs. Coverage varies widely for post-traumatic stress injuries, which can be triggered by a single traumatic event or continued exposure to high stress and traumatic events.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation into law to give California firefighters and police officers a stronger chance at earning workersâ compensation. The bill, , authored by state Sen. Henry Stern (D-Calabasas) changed state law so that post-traumatic stress âinjury,â such as PTSD, is legally presumed to be work-related for those first responders.
It was a small step by lawmakers in a state where recognition of work-related injuries for workersâ compensation has typically been limited to physical illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Previously, psychiatric conditions were handled differently, with employers and insurance companies long contending that psychological injuries can have many sources and might be too easy to blame on work.
Researchers at the Rand Corp. suggested in a that further study is needed to evaluate the financial toll the 2019 law has had on employers â particularly counties and other municipalities that pay for police, firefighters, and other publicly employed first responders. Rand researchers estimated the added costs for local governments and the state to cover post-traumatic stress injuries could rise from $20 million to $116 million annually.
Firefighters and police in most cases now no longer have to prove that work was mostly responsible for their PTSD. But the law sunsets in 2025 and excludes many other first responders, including dispatchers, paramedics, and first responders at state hospitals.
This year, legislation by state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), , co-sponsored by an advocacy group representing firefighters in the state â California Professional Firefighters â would extend PTSD workersâ compensation coverage until 2032 and open it up to state firefighters, additional law enforcement officers, public safety dispatchers, and other emergency response communication employees who work for public agencies. The Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee unanimously approved the bill in April, and it is awaiting a vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Business groups and local governments â many of which opposed the 2019 law â are lobbying against more expansion. In letters to lawmakers, groups including the California Chamber of Commerce, California Coalition on Workersâ Compensation, California Hospital Association, and California State Association of Counties warned that pending legislation could âopen the door to abuse and fraud.â
âThere is no evidence that workers are being inappropriately denied the care or benefits that they need,â Virginia Drake, a spokesperson for the California Coalition on Workersâ Compensation, told Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health News. The group represents employers, cities and counties, insurance brokers, and government agencies on issues of workersâ compensation.
Legislation that would extend benefits to more first responders would âput taxpayer funds at risk by tying the hands of public employers and forcing them to pay even the most questionable claims,â she added in a statement.
In addition, there does not seem to be consensus on which emergency personnel should get covered.
A measure by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez, a Democrat from Chino who worked as an emergency medical technician for three decades, has stalled. would expand workersâ compensation coverage to paramedics and emergency medical technicians, but it didnât get a hearing in the Assembly. Unions representing paramedics and EMTs in California did not return messages seeking comment.
âItâs a very stressful job,â said Rodriguez, who told Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health News that two of his paramedic friends had died by suicide. âIt affects people differently.â
Clearing a path to speedy mental health recovery, particularly after traumatic incidents, âshould be automatic,â he added.
Itâs unclear if Newsom will back Lairdâs bill extending coverage for groups of emergency responders, amid a . A spokesperson for his office, Omar Rodriguez, said the governor typically does not comment on pending legislation and âwill evaluate the bills on their own merits if they reach his desk.â
Last year, the Democratic governor , saying in a statement that it would be premature to shift coverage of PTSD before any studies had been conducted on how the current law has worked for those who are covered.
Broadening coverage, Newsom wrote, âcould set a dangerous precedent that has the potential to destabilize the workersâ compensation system going forward.â
This article was produced by Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health News, which publishes , an editorially independent service of the .Ěý