South Dakota lawmakers to study first responders' MH

Abstract

South Dakota lawmakers will study mental health issues experienced by first responders after they defeated a bill earlier this year to include post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in workers' compensation for first responders, the Argus Leader reported. The Legislature's executive board decided on June 8 to create an interim committee on first responders' mental health. It also chose legislators to serve on a separate interim committee that will continue the Legislature's work on reforming state laws regulating mental health services in the state. After Yankton Democrat Rep. Ryan Cwach's bill to allow first responders to receive workers' compensation for PTSD was defeated, Hartford Republican Rep. Rhonda Milstead introduced a resolution in March calling for a study on first responders' mental health. That resolution passed unanimously in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House. Milstead, the wife of Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead, asked the executive board to follow through on that resolution on June 8. The interim study will study PTSD in first responders, available resources and how other states have handled the issue. The committee will include legislators, first responders and mental health professionals.