The Senate and Assembly today passed legislation unanimously to provide enhanced mental health coverage in workers compensation for law enforcement officers and other pubic safety professionals.
Assembly Bill 5792 (Freiman)/Senate Bill 4590 (Lagana) provides for up to 12 hours of paid confidential counseling under workers compensation for a first responder who experiences a critical incident in the course of their duties. The officer would not be required to use their own sick leave or vacation time to seek counseling under the bill. The legislation also changes the law to allow an officer to select their own therapist. This is a critical change to the law to ensure an officer can select a therapist with whom they have a level of trust and not one thrust upon them by workers comp.
In addition, the legislation provides for confidentiality in communication between a law enforcement officer and a member of the PBA peer counseling team or an “RPO” who is trained by a culturally competent mental health professional. This will ensure that the members of the PBA Peer Counseling team can privately work with our members who need mental health assistance without fear of interference by their employer.
This bill was a major priority for the State PBA in order to address the continued epidemic of officer suicide in New Jersey. The State PBA is grateful to our prime bill sponsors Assemblyman Freiman, Assemblywoman Drulis, Assemblyman Hutchison, Senator Lagana, Senate President Scutari and all of the co-sponsors. We appreciate that Speaker Coughlin and Senate President Scutari fast tracked the bill before the Legislative summer recess.
The bill is now on the Governor’s desk for his consideration. We are already working with the Governor’s staff to discuss a bill signing.