Senator Jesse James (R- Altoona) announced the signing into law of three bipartisan bills to aid first responders, with several police officers from different parts of the state in attendance for the signings.
“When you experience a traumatic critical incident as a first responder, you carry that heaviness with you home to your family and beyond. We have many unseen mental health struggles among our correctional and police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers.”
-Senator James
The bills include measures to establish best practices and training for first responder peer support programs, funding a telehealth crisis call pilot program to assist mental health calls, and legislation to certify and support the establishment of more crisis urgent care and observation facilities.
Sen. James’ peer support bill (now 2023 WI Act 220) requires the Department of Justice to establish guidelines and training for peer support and critical incident stress management teams. An active police officer himself, James commented, saying, “When you experience a traumatic critical incident as a first responder, you carry that heaviness with you home to your family and beyond. We have many unseen mental health struggles among our correctional and police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers. We need to be able to talk to others who understand what we have been through. Peer support programs are highly effective, and we are grateful to open up these opportunities.”
Also signed was a bill to establish a pilot program to aid behavioral health crisis calls (now 2023 WI Act 219). “This bill will help us expand the ways we as officers are responding during a mental health call by video-calling in a trained professional to help deescalate the situation,” said Sen. James. “Not only will this help those in distress by decreasing their anxiety about being detained, but will help reduce the amount of resources we are spending on mental health calls in our police departments,” said James, noting that some mental health calls he answers can take up to 8 hours.
“Lastly,” said James, “SB462, now WI Act 249, will allow us to open new crisis urgent care facilities in the next few years. We have a serious lack of access to these centers in Wisconsin, placing a strain on our patients, families, and first responders, as transporting individuals in crisis to Winnebago takes several hours. We are grateful to establish clear rules for licensure and a grant program so that people will be able to stay closer to home. This is a huge step forward in mental health services for our state,” concluded Sen. James.
