{"id":28462,"date":"2020-08-11T19:10:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T01:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=28462"},"modified":"2020-08-11T19:10:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T01:10:59","slug":"resilience-training-ptsd-injury-claims-approved-for-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=28462","title":{"rendered":"Resilience training; PTSD injury claims approved for first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators passed a bill Aug. 11 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, provides first responders with opportunities to receive resilience training to help prevent or mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

The bill allows 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 attesting 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 will reimburse first responders for resilience training if their employers do not.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, only state-licensed, independent practicing physicians, psychologists and mental health practitioners are qualified to render an official PTSD diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The opportunities provided by LB963 will end on Jan. 1, 2028.<\/p>\n

Provisions of LB448, originally introduced by Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell, increase burial benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses to $11,000. Beginning in 2023, the cap will be adjusted by a maximum of 2.75 percent per year.<\/p>\n

The bill passed on a 45-0 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators passed a bill Aug. 11 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-28462","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\/28462","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=28462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28463,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28462\/revisions\/28463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}