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Amends subsection (a) of 42 U.S.C. 5183 by inserting additional language (the amendment text and insertion point are not provided in this section).
Adds a new provision (designated 399V–8) to Part P of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280g et seq.) establishing a national first responders mental health hotline with operational requirements, consultation and coordination duties, training development, reporting requirements, definitions, and an authorization of appropriations.
Creates a federally run national mental-health hotline dedicated to first responders and their families, to be established and operated by HHS (through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use) within two years. It sets staffing, service, training, coordination, reporting, and funding requirements, and requires HHS to deliver a separate report on creating mobile crisis-care sites for emergency responders after major disasters. Also amends the Stafford Act to add crisis counseling assistance and training language (the specific inserted text was not included in the provided file). The law requires annual reporting to Congress and authorizes funding through 2025–2031 for the hotline implementation and operations described in the bill.
Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, shall maintain (directly or by contract or grant) a national first responders emergency hotline to provide peer and emotional support, information, brief intervention, and mental and behavioral health and substance use disorder resources and referrals to first responders and to their families or household members.
Hotline must operate as a separate, widely recognizable phone number and have bidirectional transfer options with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Provide toll-free, real-time, live assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Provide both voice and text support.
Be sufficiently staffed, at minimum, by culturally competent first responder peer specialists or first responder mental health services providers who have knowledge of and are trained on: (A) essential functions of first responders and public safety organizations; (B) working conditions unique to first responders; (C) common and novel stressors in public safety and emergency response; (D) normal and abnormal adaptation to occupational stress and trauma; and (E) unique aspects of confidentiality and testimonial privilege.
Primary beneficiaries are first responders (firefighters, law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and other emergency response providers) and their families, who would gain a dedicated crisis line and access to guidance tailored to responder-specific stress, trauma, and mental-health concerns. Mental-health service providers and crisis-line operators will need to coordinate with the new hotline and may receive training or guidance on responder-focused interventions; some providers could be engaged to staff or support hotline functions. HHS will have new operational responsibilities, including standing up the hotline within two years, developing staffing and training standards, coordinating with existing crisis systems, and preparing annual reports — this will require administrative resources. Local and state emergency management agencies and health departments may interact with the hotline and with recommended mobile crisis-care deployments after disasters; recommended mobile sites could improve short-term integrated care access for responders at disaster sites but may require local operational coordination. Because the Stafford Act amendment text was not provided, potential changes to federal disaster counseling funding streams or eligibility are unknown; if the amendment expands federal crisis-counseling authorities, it could affect how states request or deploy federal assistance following disasters. Overall community effects include improved access to targeted mental-health support for a workforce at elevated risk of trauma-related conditions, potential reductions in untreated mental-health issues among responders, and greater federal coordination of responder-focused crisis resources.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced February 20, 2025 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress February 20, 2025
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate