HERO Act

This bill aims to strengthen mental health support for first responders and health care workers. It creates a national system to track suicides among public safety officers, including 911 telecommunicators, to spot trends and study what helps reduce risk. The system must protect privacy and data security, and it cannot be used to deny life insurance or other benefits to families. The government must publish findings within two years of the law taking effect and then every two years after, and make the reports public online .

The bill also funds peer-support and wellness programs. Fire and EMS departments can work with qualified nonprofits to train their own members as peer counselors. Health care facilities (like hospitals and community health centers) can set up confidential support for staff, including counseling, wellness seminars, and peer-counselor training. It directs the development of free resources to help mental health professionals understand fire/EMS culture, common stressors (including for retirees), and effective therapies. Finally, the health department will create and update best practices to prevent and treat PTSD in public safety officers, share them widely, and include them in federal training programs .

Key points

• Who is affected: firefighters, EMS personnel, public safety telecommunicators (911), other public safety officers, health care providers, and the mental health professionals who serve them .
• What changes: a national suicide reporting system with strict privacy protections; public reports every two years; grants for peer-support and wellness programs in fire/EMS and health care settings; new training resources and PTSD best practices shared across agencies .
• When: first public report due within two years of enactment, then every two years after.