SB3385 Summary

• Amends the Public Employee Disability Act, Line of Duty Compensation Act, and Public Safety Employee Benefits Act to include full-time mental health professionals employed and dispatched by local government units to respond to crisis calls on public emergency service lines.

• Defines "mental health professional" as any person employed and dispatched by a unit of local government to respond to crisis calls instead of or in conjunction with law enforcement.

• Extends disability benefits to mental health professionals for injuries sustained in the line of duty, providing continued compensation on the same basis as before injury for up to one year.

• Provides mental health professionals with line of duty death benefits, including compensation to designated beneficiaries and burial benefits up to $20,000.

• Applies the same protections and benefits previously available only to law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other public safety employees to qualified mental health professionals responding to emergency calls.