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2020 SESSION

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SB 561 Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder, law-enforcement officers and firefighters.

Introduced by: Jill Holtzman Vogel | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS ENACTED WITH GOVERNOR'S RECOMMENDATION: (all summaries)

Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder; law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Provides that post-traumatic stress disorder incurred by a law-enforcement officer or firefighter is compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if a mental health professional examines a law-enforcement officer or firefighter and diagnoses the individual as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the individual's undergoing a qualifying event, defined as an incident or exposure occurring in the line of duty on or after July 1, 2020, (i) resulting in serious bodily injury or death to any person or persons; (ii) involving a minor who has been injured, killed, abused, or exploited; (iii) involving an immediate threat to life of the claimant or another individual; (iv) involving mass casualties; or (v) responding to crime scenes for investigation. Other conditions for compensability include (a) if the post-traumatic stress disorder resulted from the law-enforcement officer or firefighter acting in the line of duty and, in the case of a firefighter, such firefighter complied with certain federal Occupational Safety and Health Act standards; (b) if the law-enforcement officer's or firefighter's undergoing of a qualifying event was a substantial factor in causing his post-traumatic stress disorder; (c) if such qualifying event, and not another event or source of stress, was the primary cause of the post-traumatic stress disorder; and (d) if the post-traumatic stress disorder did not result from any disciplinary action, work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, promotion, termination, retirement, or similar action of the officer or firefighter. The measure also establishes requirements for resilience and self-care technique training. The bill incorporates SB 741 and SB 924.


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