If you are wondering why more police officers in Minneapolis are sporting moustaches this month, some shifts on the Minneapolis Police Department are raising money for Soldier’s 6. Soldier’s 6 is a Minnesota non-profit organization that provides Veterans and police officers who suffer from service-related Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with service dogs. For people suffering from PTSD, service dogs give them more than comfort, they may save their lives. Soldier’s 6 chose its name because the service dog is the Veteran or officer’s battle buddy who has their “6” or back. PTSD service dogs may be trained to wake a veteran or police officer from a nightmare, remind them to take medication, physically interrupt a panic attack, and relieve stress and anxiety that escalate PTSD symptoms. Check out www.soldiers6.com to make donations and support this important organization.

Earlier this year, the Minnesota Legislature took a huge step, and passed legislation creating a workers’ compensation statutory presumption of PTSD for our state’s first responders. In other words, for certain workers in the state of Minnesota, including police officers, firefighters, corrections officers, and others defined as “first responders,” a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is to be presumed to be work-related. The goal of this bill, authorized by Representative Nick Zerwas (R), and which had almost unanimous support in the legislature, was to eliminate barriers to quick, effective medical care for our State’s first responders suffering from PTSD.

For over a decade, the attorneys at Meuser Law Office, P.A., have been fighting to help our state’s first responders get access to help for work-related mental health conditions – most prominently post-traumatic stress disorder.

We have helped hundreds of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and corrections officers obtain workers’ compensation benefits, including medical expense, wage loss, and rehabilitation benefits, as well as PERA Duty Disability pension benefits.

Over the last ten years we have slowly, but surely, seen a change in police departments regarding post-traumatic stress disorder. There’s a long way to go, but attitudes towards mental health in police departments seems to be changing. From an anecdotal perspective, there seems to be better support in departments for officers struggling with mental health issues, as well as a push for better early intervention services for officers who have experienced trauma. We are also noticing better awareness of the symptoms and causes of PTSD. Officers are looking out for each other and there is less reluctance and stigma for officers seeking help sooner. That is good news for Minnesota’s police officers.

When the Minnesota legislature opened the 2017 session, a crucial bill that directly affects Minnesota’s first responders who suffer from PTSD was re-introduced. This bill was originally presented in April of 2016, and did not pass at that time although information has been communicated and much awareness has been raised about this important topic.

Meuser Law Office, P.A. understands the importance of legislature such as this and created a petition in April 2016 to help spread the word and gather support for this bill. We encourage all current and former law enforcement officers, firefighters, State Troopers, first responders, and family and friends of Minnesota’s first responders to sign and share this petition and/or contact their legislators to urge them to support this important bill.