By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Charleston County Deputy Sheriff Michael S. Ackerman wants to make sure that his fellow first responders are able to access good mental health counseling and treatment if they need it. Currently, many don’t get what they need.
On Sept. 8, 2014, Ackerman was shot in the leg in a West Ashley incident in which a fellow officer was shot to death by a suspect, who Ackerman then shot and killed. It changed Ackerman’s life. Since then, he’s battled post-traumatic stress disorder. He received mental health treatment, but mainly because he was physically wounded in the incident.
These days, Ackerman is worried about first responders — as many as 20 percent, he estimates — who may need mental health counseling because of untreated PTSD. A solution, he says, is to expand the workers’ compensation system to allow first responders to get mental health treatment for PTSD, not just treatments for physical injuries.
State Sen. Paul Thurmond, R-Charleston, filed a bill last year to provide a limited exclusion to workers’ comp law to allow first responders to get the PTSD treatment they might need.
“This type of injury should be covered under workers’ comp law,” he said, adding that coverage isn’t available now for first responders because of a clause that says the system covers such treatment only when trauma is received in “extraordinary and unusual” circumstances. For a law enforcement officer, the work environment assumes extraordinary and unusual circumstances for which officers are trained. Compare that, Thurmond suggests, to a bank teller who might get PTSD after witnessing a shooting in a bank robbery. That scenario would be covered because the teller’s job doesn’t include the “extraordinary and unusual” circumstance of a workplace shooting, he said.
“That’s how ridiculous it is,” Thurmond said Thursday.
Opponents cite cost, fraud, precedent
He said he originally expected his bill wouldn’t face big problems because it was narrowly focused. But critics have complained it might open an unfunded mandate for local governments, might create opportunities for fraud and could serve as a mechanism for broad changes to workers’ comp law.
State Sen. Greg Gregory, R-Lancaster, opposes the bill because he believes the state’s current health plan covers mental health treatments. But Ackerman and others have said co-pays and deductibles are often too expensive because of the amount first responders are paid in salary.
“The common perception is as a law enforcement officer, I should just be able to ‘shake it off’ or ‘suck it up and deal with it,” Ackerman told a civic group in Charleston this week. “The problem with that line of thinking is it forgets that I am more than the badge I wear.
“You see, before I put on my uniform, I am a son and I am a father to a beautiful 7-year-old daughter. I am a human being the same as all of you. As a human being, I have emotions, feelings and fears just like all of you. Just because I wear a uniform does not mean I give that up.”
Gregory said he supports more mental health treatment for first responders, but just doesn’t want to open up the state’s workers’ comp system for claims.
Compromise ahead?
A compromise, he said, might come in a special proviso inserted Thursday by a subcommittee in the Senate budget bill that would add $1 million to State Law Enforcement Division’s Law Enforcement Assistance Program to help officers and firefighters across the state with PTSD issues.
“Everybody knows there’s a need for more counseling,” Gregory said. “And this program, I think, is proving very effective.”
With the state Senate still facing debate and approval of the state’s $7.5 billion budget, the clock may be running out this year on Thurmond’s bill. If it does come up, Gregory said he would oppose it, but not filibuster it.
Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!