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Val Demings Proposes Federal Grant Funding For Police Mental Health

Val Demings
WMFE
Val Demings

U.S. Representative Val Demings is proposing a bill that would make grant money available to help police departments treat first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The legislation would make existing grant money available to police departments to do peer-to-peer counseling, to study crisis hotlines and the effectiveness of annual mental health exams. It would also make grants available for mental health professionals to develop training specific for law enforcement.

“It’s a start,” said Jessica Realin, whose husband was diagnosed with PTSD after responding to the Pulse night club shooting. “At least it gets the conversation started. I know it’s not everything, but at least it’s something.”

The bill is sponsored by 10 republicans and democrats in the house and senate.

Copyright 2020 Health News Florida. To see more, visit .

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.
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