Dallas officials will consider creating a new policy that would allow city firefighters and paramedics who experience a traumatic event while on duty to take paid time off for mental health reasons.
Council members plan to discuss the possibility of a new mental health leave policy during a Feb. 14 public safety committee meeting. The proposal came from Mayor Eric Johnson, citing city rules that cover up to five days of paid mental health leave only for police officers.
A new state law went into effect in September requiring law enforcement agencies to create mental health leave policies for officers impacted by an on-duty traumatic incident.
“We must treat the mental health of our first responders as a top priority,” Johnson wrote in a memo Monday to council member Adam McGough, who chairs the public safety committee. “While this proposal and its impacts should be thoroughly vetted by the public safety committee, I believe it is important to begin this discussion as soon as possible.”
The City Council approved the mental health leave rule for police officers in October. The need for the leave has to be verified by a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist.
Firefighters and paramedics often experience many of the same traumatic events as police officers and burdens of the job can bleed into their personal lives, said Dallas Fire Fighters Association President Jim McDade. He said Dallas’ fire department has had at least five members die by suicide in the last five years.
“I think it’s something that gets overlooked and we need to address it and start taking our mental health more seriously,” McDade said.
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