Mental-health grants for emergency communications centers

Summary#

H.R. 2937, the PROTECT 911 Act, would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publish mental-health best practices and educational resources for public safety telecommunicators. It would also amend the Public Health Service Act to require grants for behavioral-health and wellness programs at emergency communications centers. Its stated goal is to improve the detection, prevention and treatment of mental-health issues among public safety telecommunicators.

  • The Secretary must develop and publicly share evidence-based practices for identifying, preventing and treating posttraumatic stress disorder and co-occurring disorders in telecommunicators, and reassess and update them as the Secretary determines necessary.
  • The Secretary must also develop and publish resources to educate mental-health professionals about emergency-center culture, job stressors, challenges faced by retired telecommunicators, and evidence-based therapies.
  • In developing those materials, the Secretary must consult public-health experts; mental-health experts with experience studying suicide, PTSD and other job-stress-related illnesses; clinicians experienced in diagnosis and treatment; and relevant national nonprofit associations of telecommunicators.
  • The Secretary must award grants to state, local and regional emergency communications centers and other eligible entities to establish or improve behavioral-health and wellness programs. Other eligible entities are nonprofits with expertise and experience in telecommunicator health and wellness.
  • Grant recipients must use the money for evidence-based programs, peer-support programs, materials or instructors for training, and information or materials needed to carry out a program.

What it means for you#

  • Public safety telecommunicators: The bill would support programs aimed at your work-related mental health, including peer support. It does not create a personal right to treatment or require every center to offer a program.
  • Emergency communications centers and eligible nonprofits: If awarded a grant, you would have to use it for the listed program purposes. The bill does not set out an application or selection process.
  • Mental-health professionals: HHS must make educational resources available for use in training about telecommunicators’ work and mental-health needs. The bill does not require professionals to use those resources.
  • Taxpayers: The bill would assign HHS work and require grants, but the supplied text does not state how much funding would be provided.
  • The bill is referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and is not law. Its passage and start date are uncertain.

Money#

No publicly available information on the bill’s cost or grant funding amount is included in the supplied material.

  • The bill requires HHS to award grants, but gives no grant amounts, total funding, or source of funds.
  • HHS would also have to develop, publish, and update resources and best practices; no staffing or administrative cost is given.

What is unclear#

  • How grant applications would be made, how recipients would be chosen, and how grant amounts would be set.
  • Whether funds would be available and when grants and HHS resources would begin.
  • What counts as “evidence-based” for grant-funded programs and training.
  • How the grants would interact with existing programs. The current text of the Public Health Service Act was not supplied, so existing duties or grant programs could not be checked against this bill.
  • How grant programs would be monitored, and whether recipients would have to report results.

Case for#

  • The bill appears intended to address mental-health risks tied to telecommunicators’ work by providing centers with program funding and mental-health professionals with relevant educational resources.
  • A possible argument for the approach is that it combines practical support, including peer-support programs, with guidance on evidence-based care.
  • Required consultation with researchers, clinicians and relevant nonprofit associations could help HHS draw on different kinds of expertise when developing the materials.

Case against#

  • The bill requires grants but does not specify funding, grant limits, selection rules or a start date. That leaves the scale and timing of the program uncertain.
  • It does not require every emergency communications center to establish a program, so access to support could depend on whether a center or eligible nonprofit receives a grant.
  • The bill does not set out reporting or oversight requirements for grant recipients, or explain how HHS would assess whether funded programs are effective.