Lawmakers advance bills on PTSD, cumulative trauma
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Lawmakers in Virginia on Monday advanced two workers compensation bills that aim to provide benefits and mental health services to first responders who witness tragedies and authorize a study on repetitive-stress trauma among workers to determine possible changes to existing law.
S.B. 561, which passed the state Senate 36 to 2, would provide comp benefits to first responders who witness a “qualifying event,” including death, mass casualty events and anything “involving an immediate threat to the life of the claimant or another individual.” The bill also calls for employers of law enforcement officers or firefighters to adopt policies for peer support and mental health care and for training facilities to provide “resilience and self-care” training techniques. Most of the provisions would go into effect in January 2021, with the training elements going into effect later that year.
H.B. 617, which passed the House 55 to 44, would call on the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission to hire an “independent and reputable national research organization with expertise in workers' compensation policy” to conduct an analysis of cumulative trauma claims among workers.
The research would provide insight into “necessary changes to Virginia's statutory provisions” on such repetitive-stress injuries, according to the bill, which calls for the commission to propose options to the chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations by Nov. 30, 2020.
