Veteran volunteer emergency medical technician Gardiner Cass of Cornish said he was in a mental health crisis after his best friend and colleague committed suicide, but he learned that services weren’t available to first responders from small towns.

“He was four miles down the road from where I live. We lived on the same road, and I was one of the first ones on the scene. It was rough dealing with that,” Cass recalled in an interview Wednesday.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte changed all that when she signed legislation (HB 1705) to make New Hampshire the first state in the country to extend its own Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to the 7,000 volunteer first responders.

“Being a first responder means you are with people when they have their worst moments,” Ayotte said. “They have to face what they have seen, which can cause a lot of trauma.”

Full-time first responder departments in cities and large towns usually have their own EAP programs.

Starting on July 1, 2027, this would let any volunteer department access the EAP that’s available to all state employees, subject to funding in the next state budget.

State Rep. Loren Selig, D- Durham, has spent nearly three years championing the issue and said the cost would be roughly $115,000 a year.

“We heard from first responders about the impacts of that ongoing trauma and how hard it is to keep showing up. It became clear we needed to take action to do something especially the most rural areas of the state that have so little support available to them,” Selig said.

“It may not be enough care, but it is something.”

Selig said she learned about the gap in services while working with the New Hampshire Theater Project that has a program called “The Elephant in the Room,” geared to help those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including first responders.

“The first responders got involved with this program, it helps them to kind of play about the issues. Usually, we have a good understanding of some of the people seeking help and know what they have been through,” said Genevieve Aichele, project director of community engagement.

Small town first responders more often know personally who they are treating

Rep. Margaret Drye, R- Plainfield, co-wrote the bill, having served as an EMT for 46 years. Cass reached out to her after his own struggles.

“Remember that first responders see more trauma in a year than most people see in their lifetimes and we take care of our own,” Drye said.

“We keep track of each other when there is a set of bad calls but sometimes that’s not enough. That’s where the Employee Assistance Program can make all the difference”

State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey has been volunteering with the Weare Fire Department for the past 16 years; Toomey was that local department’s chief fire officer before becoming deputy fire marshal in 2018.

“Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve been to two medical calls that resulted in cardiac arrest, CPR for us to do and these were people that were younger than me,” Toomey said.

“And we knew the people and the thing with larger departments was often the responders didn’t know those people as well as we did in a small town like this one.”

Ayotte praised the bipartisan coalition that Selig and Drye built for the bill. On two occasions last spring, they overcome opposition from two, House GOP-led committees that wanted to ship this off to study.

In February, 34 House Republicans joined with all Democrats to endorse the bill 194-154.

The Senate passed it on a voice vote.

In October 2024, Cass became a full-time firefighter for the Windsor (Vermont) Fire Department, but he still volunteers for the Cornish department.

“I’m doing good. I’m still in counseling and I want to advise anyone that is in the fire service that is having a problem to not be ashamed or feel ashamed to go and ask for help,” Cass said.

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