Sen. Hwang Applauds Passage of Workers Compensation for Post Traumatic Stress Brain Injury for First Responders

From left to right: Rep. J.P. Sredzinski, Sen. Tony Hwang, Rep. Joe Poletta, Rick Hart director of legislative affairs for the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters, and Sen. George Logan. Government and Public Safety officials gathered Wednesday July 10th in Waterbury to celebrate the signing of legislation which expands workers’ compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress injury for first responders in fire and police.

Waterbury — State Senator Tony Hwang (R-28th District) today took part in the bill signing ceremony for Public Act 19-17, which expands workers compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress injury for first responders in fire and police.  The act, passed in the near unanimous bipartisan vote during the 2019 session, allows firefighters and police officers  to collect workers compensation if they have been emotionally traumatized by an experience in the line of duty.

“This important bill sets an important precedent that a traumatic mental injury is as equally damaging as a physical one. And supportive recovery support is essential to full recovery and back to functioning work service.  The mind is an integral and functional part of the human body.  Earlier this week I took part in the signing ceremony for the Mental Health Parity Act. This is another vital bill which says Connecticut is taking mental health seriously,” said Sen. Hwang. “Firefighters, police officers, and medical technicians face situations that members of the general public cannot even comprehend. Many of them carry emotional scars and post traumatic injuries for years because of the service they performed protecting the public.  It is time to protect the men and women who protect us!”

One critical void of the passed bill is the omission of coverage for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel.  During the Senate floor debate on the bill, Sen. Hwang co-introduced with all Republican senators an amendment to extend this workers compensation coverage to EMS personnel as well. Although that provision is not in this new law an alternative amendment was adopted to evaluated and possible supplemental legislation in the 2020 legislative session, Sen. Hwang as senate ranking leader in the Public Safety & Security Committee expressed hope and affirmed his renewed commitment that inclusion of EMT’s will be addressed.