Brothers & Sisters,

This last week, President Gillotte joined the California Professional Firefighters legislative team in Sacramento to give important testimony to the Senate and Assembly Select Committee on Mental Health, Addiction, and California’s Mental Health Crisis, helping guide the Legislature and Governor’s focus and budget allocations for the next legislative session.  This is important not only to bring our experience from the street to the halls of Sacramento for the crisis plaguing the public we serve but also to keep the focus on the support we need for our members about mental health.
 
Testimony was given on the California Fire Service Behavioral Health Task Force, a committee President Gillotte Co-Chairs with Kristine Thompson, Newport Beach Fire EMS Div Chief RN and Cal Chiefs appointee to the committee.  The Legislature learned of our committee’s work on behalf of CPF, Cal Chiefs, Cal OES, and CAL JAC to address behavioral health issues in the fire service.  The task force's work is to break the stigma and bring FFs, Lifeguards, EMTs, PMs, Dispatchers, and all fire service workers out of the shadows to establish PEER support teams with culturally competent clinicians. This work was laid out for the Senators and Assemblymembers to learn and understand our path to help our members and their families attain better mental health on and off duty.  
 
We spoke of our critical moment when suicide and suicidal ideation overtook our profession as the highest cause of death for two years running, and the alarm that sounded moving us to address behavioral health with the same vigor, if not more than physical injuries and health.  We also covered the legislation the committee crafted through CPF to give us presumption, funding, and confidentiality for our PEER support teams.  We discussed common language and training so PEERS in the north can be on the same page as those in the south and across the Country for shared resources.  Examples of IAFF / IAFC deployments nationally were highlighted with work for the first responders and the communities affected by such tragedies.  
 
SB 542 by Senator Stern in 2019 established a landmark workers’ compensation presumption for post-traumatic stress injuries, and SB 623 by Senator Laird in 2023 extended the sunset of that presumption to ensure that firefighters would continue to access care when needed.  Unfortunately, that legislation was not able to extend coverage to public safety dispatchers, who are an essential piece of the response model and who are exposed to much of the same trauma as firefighters daily, but we are working hard to continue research and pursue this much-needed policy. We highlighted the need to move our public safety dispatchers into the law, and the next legislative session will have our efforts moving forward to do just that.  
 
The discussion and question and answer period was rich along with experts from Street Medicine and Training Specialists for Psychologists and Psychiatrists, Clinical Care Specialists and the Fire Service relating experience to help prioritize where the limited funds might best be applied.  We spoke of the use of Telemedicine and Alternative Transport Destinations along with Street Medicine to deliver the proper care to mentally ill patients who do not need to be transported to the emergency room, but rather to sobering centers or behavioral health centers for care.  The legal hurdles to changing the norm have been constant and challenging. Still, we have made much progress with our pilot programs to redefine behavioral health medicine in delivering care to our communities and in coordination with homeless measures and housing measures, as we have seen in LA County and now at the state with Prop1, which has conservatorship embedded in the law, we will continue to secure the resources for our members and help guide the path for treating our patients in the field.  We’ll keep you up to date as the legislature starts down the path of allocating budget monies for this important issue.
 

Local 1014 continues aggressively moving forward on the signature gathering for our ballot initiative to secure more funding for our Department, including staffing, infrastructure, apparatus, and equipment. We are currently gathering signatures in locations throughout the district.  

REMINDER: If you get questions while in the field working or calls at the station, you can confirm there is a citizen's initiative for additional funding for the LA County Fire District. You can also direct them to the website above or any Local 1014 Executive Board member. 

If someone approached you in the station asking for firefighters to gather signatures or sign petitions, do not accept. Get their name and ask them to leave the station. 

We have a lot of work to do to secure those votes, but together, we can win for the future of our Department and our families. Thank you all in advance for your consideration of our collective efforts.