States across the country are starting to recognize that it’s not uncommon for first responders to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions due to the traumatic and disturbing things they see and experience with regularity in their work. They are slowly but surely changing workers’ compensation regulations to make it less of a struggle for police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and others to get workers’ comp for these conditions.
Now Kentucky state lawmakers are considering legislation that would amend the current requirement that for first responders to get workers’ comp benefits for psychological injuries, they must show that it’s related to a physical work-related injury. It would apply to the first responders noted above as well as members of the Kentucky National Guard and other “front-line” state workers.
Understanding “rebuttable presumption”
The legislation would add a “rebuttable presumption” that someone’s PTSD “is an injury covered by this chapter, and the employer with whom the employee was last injuriously exposed to the harmful stress shall be exclusively liable for benefits.”
A “rebuttable presumption” means that the employer and their insurer would have the burden of proving that a person’s PTSD was not work-related, rather than a first responder having to prove that it’s caused by their work.
This doesn’t mean that it may not be a challenge to get these benefits, as first responders in other states with similar laws have found. Someone seeking workers’ comp for PTSD still has to prove that either a “work-related event or cumulative work-related stress” was “extraordinary and unusual” enough to cause the PTSD. This event or stress must be something they experienced while doing their job – not a disciplinary action “taken in good faith by the employer.”
The legislation still has a number of steps to go through before becoming law (if it does). In the meantime, it’s important for first responders and others to know how to go about seeking workers’ comp for PTSD and other work-related psychological harm. Having experienced legal guidance can make all the difference.