A bill filed in Kentucky’s legislature hopes to change Kentucky’s current workers’ comp law to expand workers’ comp protections for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder. Currently, first responders only qualify for benefits if they are physically injured on the job and the system does not provide benefits for work-related mental injuries.

BR 140 is sponsored by Representative Joni Jenkins and Representative McKenzie Cantrell. If passed, psychological injuries would be recognized for certain state employees and first responders. Washington and Florida are two states that have similar legislation, limiting PTSD benefits to certain kinds of workers and not the broader working population. The language in Kentucky’s bill identifies police officers, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and other “front-line staff” as those who could qualify for these kinds of benefits.

“We really wanted to do something for [first responders] to let them know we care about them [and] their service to us,” said Representative Cantrell. “We want them to stay in the job and stay mentally healthy, because they see the worst of our society but they’re the best of us. And we want them to stay healthy – mentally, physically – and we want to support them in any way we can.”

Read more here and here