Mental health treatment offered as part of changes to duty disability benefits, but some think it's not enough
MINNEAPOLIS -- This month, changes go into effect impacting first responders who leave the profession using something called duty disability. That can range from a physical injury to PTSD.
A historic number of officers have left their jobs for mental health reasons in the last few years, sparking debate and prompting new legislation at the Minnesota Capitol. The impact is on those who protect and serve -- first responders communities rely on and the cities who employ them.
"We want Minnesotans that keep us safe to be kept healthy," the bill's author Minnesota Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-Mankato, said. "The first difference is that we're providing 24 weeks of treatment for the men and women who keep us safe. That means cutting-edge treatment for PTSD to try to help them recover."
Frentz says first responders would stay on the payroll during that time. And only after the treatment are they able to apply for duty disability, with the hope some will stay on the job after getting help. It also helps cities cover the cost of health insurance if someone goes out on duty disability.
"The provisions in the bill that reimburse cities and counties for the healthcare costs is a crucial plus, especially for mid-size and smaller communities where even one or two claims of 30 years of healthcare expenses can be substantial," Frentz said.
A retired Minneapolis Police Department sergeant opposes what was passed.
"It's gonna hurt a lot more first responders than it's gonna help," Chris Steward said.
Steward went out on duty disability for PTSD. He says the mental health provisions don't go far enough or have enough safeguards.
"If they wanted to make this effective and efficient and helpful, they would have offered this mandatory treatment parameters as optional, as giving the first responders an opportunity to participate in this treatment, because a lot of them would," Steward said.
Instead, Steward feels what was passed will only worsen the problem.
"It's gonna force people back into the closet. It's gonna force people to kind of suck it up and not deal with the mental health issues we've been trying so hard to raise awareness for," Steward said.
He calls PTSD a lifetime injury.
"These are lifetime injuries, these are lifetime disabilities, and you will never be able to go back to the position that you left," Steward said.
The League of Minnesota Cities, who lobbied on behalf of 855 communities, says the new law will help them.
"There is significant funding in the bill, much of which will come back to employers, but that will save taxpayer dollars at the local level when these incidents occur," Anne Finn said.
Finn says a lot of effort went into the bill, with the goal of preventing mental injuries and then caring for those who do suffer from them.
"We know that not every person who is injured will come back to work or can, but we think that too many have left without getting the help they need to be able to even evaluate whether they want to continue in their profession," Finn said.
While she realizes not everyone is happy with the bill, she does hope people don't rush to judgment.
"I hope they'll be open-minded to giving the legislation a chance. A lot of effort went into trying to get it right," Finn said.
There have been a lot of questions about the reapplication process. PERA, which manages the fund, says some clarifications were made, but there's no change. We have information PERA sent to members on that, along with new offsets if a person is re-employed, at the links below:
- Reapplication process
- Understanding offset #1
- Understanding offset #2
- Member and fund impact
- Impact on current duty disability recipients
- Duty disability applications (2019-2022)
WCCO also received the following statement from PERA:
HF1234 impacts Police & Fire Plan members in four ways. First, the Bill improves access to mental health care, which stakeholder groups agree may help reduce the future number of disability benefit recipients. Second, the Bill changes the vesting for Police & Fire members to a graded 10 years vesting schedule. Thirdly, the Bill more closely aligns a disability recipient's income (benefit plus reemployment earnings) with an active member's income (salary net of contribution requirements) and eliminates the current workers' compensation offset. Lastly, the Bill increases the disability benefit amount for members receiving a duty total and permanent benefit.