{"id":27834,"date":"2020-03-06T12:34:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T18:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27834"},"modified":"2020-03-06T12:34:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T18:34:40","slug":"resilience-training-ptsd-injury-claims-for-first-responders-amended-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27834","title":{"rendered":"Resilience training; PTSD injury claims for first responders amended, advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators amended and advanced a bill from select file March 6 meant to address the mental health strain experienced by emergency first responders.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Brewer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB963, sponsored by Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer, would provide first responders with opportunities to receive resilience training to help prevent or mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

The bill would allow first responders to establish a presumptive case of PTSD from cumulative injury or stress caused by conditions of employment as a personal injury for workers\u2019 compensation purposes.<\/p>\n

To establish such a case, the first responder must show that he or she: underwent a mental health examination before the onset of the mental injury or illness, obtained testimony from a qualifying mental health professional that he or she suffers from a mental injury or illness and participated in resilience training prior to the onset of the mental injury or illness and annually thereafter.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Health and Human Services would reimburse first responders for resilience training if their employers do not.<\/p>\n

Under the bill as amended on general file, only state-licensed practicing physicians, psychologists and mental health practitioners would be qualified to render an official PTSD diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell offered an amendment on select file, adopted 27-0, that would add a sunset date of Jan. 1, 2027, to the provisions of LB963 and would clarify that the mental health practitioner making a diagnosis must be independent.<\/p>\n

McDonnell offered a second amendment that incorporated provisions of his LB448, which would increase burial benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses to $11,000. Beginning in 2023, the cap would be adjusted by a maximum of 2.75 percent per year.<\/p>\n

Following the 38-0 adoption of the amendment, senators advanced LB963 to final reading by voice vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators amended and advanced a bill from select file March 6 meant to address the mental health strain experienced by emergency first responders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-27834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-and-labor","tag-sen-tom-brewer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27835,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834\/revisions\/27835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}