Tyler Fausset, an Omaha firefighter, answered a call in 2015 that changed his life forever.
"This call was the worst of society, where a young mother lost her life," he told the Legislature's Business and Labor Committee on Monday.
Following that incident, he said, he began to see his own life fall apart.
"I felt alone, with no way out, and nowhere to turn," Fausset said.
He was subsequently diagnosed with PTSD.
As a member of the Omaha Fire Department, he knows he may be called on to sacrifice his life any moment for the citizens he serves.
"What I didn't expect was that that ultimate sacrifice could come from the powers of my own hands," he said.
The bill (LB963) he testified on allows first responders to take training to help prevent or mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, and provides a way to establish a presumptive case of PTSD from cumulative injury or stress. It includes the professionals that may diagnose PTSD and allows for reimbursement of training by the Critical Incident Stress Management Program and the state Department of Health and Human Services.
People are also reading…
Donald Dodge, a third-generation firefighter in Omaha since 2004, told the committee he thought he was impervious to the traumas firefighters see every day. But in 2008, a routine call for service found him trapped in a small room separated from his crew, kneeling over a victim that had been brutally murdered.
The murderer had blocked the doorway and was repeatedly asking him: "Is she dead? Is. she. dead?"
After it was over, that would run through his mind multiple times a day, and eventually all day, every day, he said. But first responders are conditioned to bury those incidents deep inside and carry on.
As a result, during the next decade his personality changed radically: memory loss, quick temper, aggressive when surprised, not feeling safe in crowded environments, isolation from family and friends, depression. And drinking himself practically to death to avoid recurring nightmares.
He finally reached out for help and found a therapist trained to treat PTSD. If LB963 had been in effect at the time, it would have had a positive impact.
The committee also heard from the widow of firefighter Rich Livengood, who took his own life in 2014 as a result of the cumulative tragedies he witnessed. And Nancy Crist, a captain and public information officer for Lincoln Fire and Rescue who testified on behalf of the local firefighters union, telling the committee that Lincoln firefighters died by suicide in 2014, 2015 and 2017. This bill, she said, would allow training and support for the firefighters on the front line.
"We are not superheroes, rather service-minded people that have made a commitment to take care of our community," Crist said. "We will continue to train on resiliency, suicide and mental well-being. However, this training does not insulate us from the continuous exposure and impact of such calls."
PTSD is often masked by self-medication, and can lead to alcohol and drug abuse, separation, divorce, mental health problems, and in the worst cases suicide.
It is believed resiliency training can diminish the occurrence of or severity of PTSD, giving a person the ability to bounce back from stressful events or cope with them in a healthy manner. The bill encourages, but does not require, a first responder to get such training.
The training addresses nutrition, exercise, sleep, relaxation, perspective, self-defeating thoughts, empathy, social support and other issues. It could consist of eight hours of training the first year and four hours each year after that.
The culture of first responders is one of toughness that often prevents them from seeking help, research shows.
The bill as drafted was opposed by the League of Municipalities. Executive Director Lynn Rex said she would like to see the bill studied more over the interim.
She questioned how to distinguish PTSD that may have come from service in the military for some who then become paid or volunteer firefighters, and whether for those that treatment should happen in a Veterans Administration center.
Committee member Sen. Steve Lathrop asked Rex if she saw that the resilience training would lower costs to the cities and villages, and why the cities aren't responsible for it rather than the Department of Health and Human Services.
Small towns and villages may not be able to afford it, she said. But it isn't just about the cost.
Korby Gilbertson, lobbyist for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, and Nebraskans for Worker Compensation Equity and Fairness, opposed the bill. One concern was establishing clear causes between the mental health injury and the job. It would depart from worker compensation law to allow for a presumption of PTSD with first responders.
According to the bill's fiscal note, HHS estimates about 17,700 first responders would be subject to resilience training reimbursement. The department assumes a range of $442,500 to $1.8 million in each of the next two fiscal years to pay for it.
The Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys also opposed the bill as written. The need is there, Todd Bennett said, but the burden of what is abnormal work conditions still has to be proven, since firefighters deal with these stressors every day.
The resiliency training, he said, should be mandatory and paid for by the industry for which they work.