N.H. Rev. Stat. § 153-A:17-a — NH Code / Title XII / Chapter 153-A / Section 17-a
153-A:17-a Critical Incident Intervention and Management.
Status: in_force

I. In this section: (a) "Critical incident" means an event or events that result in acute or cumulative psychological stress or trauma to an emergency response/public safety worker because of their exposure to the event or events. (b) "Critical incident stress" means a strong emotional, behavioral, cognitive, or physical reaction that has the potential to interfere with an emergency response/public safety worker's ability to function and that results from the response to a critical incident or long-term occupational exposure to a series of critical incident responses over a period of time that are believed to be causing debilitating stress that is affecting an emergency response/public safety worker and their work performance or personal experiences. This may include, but is not limited to, physical and emotional illness, failure of usual coping mechanisms, loss of interest in the job, personality changes, or loss of ability to function. (c) "Critical incident stress management" means a process of crisis intervention designed to assist emergency response/public safety workers in coping with the psychological trauma resulting from response to a critical incident or personal experiences. (d) "Critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services" means consultation, peer support, debriefing, defusing, intervention services, management, prevention, and referral provided by a critical incident stress management team member and/or management team. (e) "Critical incident stress management team" or "team" means the group of one or more trained volunteers, including members of peer support groups organized by a unit of state, local, or county government, or members of a union of emergency response/public safety workers, as defined in subparagraph (g), who offer critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services following a critical incident or long term or continued, debilitating stress being experienced by emergency response/public safety workers, including retired emergency response/public safety workers, and affecting them or their families. A team may or may not be affiliated with a municipality. (f) "Critical incident stress management team member" means an emergency response/public safety worker, including any retired emergency response/public safety workers, specially trained to provide critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services as a member of an organized and registered team. (g) "Emergency response/public safety worker" means any law enforcement officer certified under RSA 106-L, certified county corrections officer, sheriff or deputy sheriff, state police officer, civilian law enforcement employee, civilian county corrections employee, any call, volunteer, or regular firefighter, civilian fire department employee, rescue or ambulance worker, including ambulance service, emergency medical personnel, first responder service, and volunteer personnel, hospital emergency department personnel, telecommunicators, and local dispatchers. (h) "Hospital emergency department personnel" means staff rendering care, rescue, support, and lifesaving services while working for and/or in the hospital emergency department. (i) "Local dispatcher" means a person who determines the location, status, and assistance required by callers and walk-in customers for public safety services and dispatches the appropriate police, fire, ambulance, or other units to provide needed emergency services at the state, city, town, or private emergency services level. (j) "Telecommunicator" means an employee of the department of safety, division of emergency services and communications who is responsible for receiving at the public safety answering point telephone calls made to E911 and transferring or relaying such calls to public or private safety agencies. II. (a) Team members shall undergo initial training set forth in guidelines established by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) approved by the commissioner of the department of safety, or a similar organization for which the commissioner shall not unreasonably withhold approval. The team shall be registered with the commissioner of safety and maintain training standards to date as required. (b) All critical incident stress management team members, sworn, civilian, or retired, shall be designated by the team leader, police chief, sheriff, director of the division of state police, fire chief, commissioner of the department of corrections, superintendent of county corrections, chief of emergency medical services, director of the division of emergency services and communications, or head of a union of emergency response/public safety workers as defined by RSA 281-A:2, V-c. (c) The team leader shall be a person with strong communication, problem-solving, and delegation skills, who is formally trained in individual and group critical incident stress management processes. The team leader shall be responsible for training team members, setting acceptable strategies, and monitoring team progress. III. (a) Any information divulged to the team or a team member during the provision of critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed to a third party or in a criminal, civil, or administrative proceeding. Records kept by critical incident stress management team members are not subject to subpoena, discovery, or introduction into evidence in a criminal, civil, or administrative action. Except as provided in subparagraph (c), no person, whether critical incident stress management team member or team leader providing critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services, nor any person receiving any critical incident stress management and crisis intervention services, shall be required to testify or divulge any information disclosed or obtained solely through such crisis intervention. (b) The purpose of this section is to provide a consistent framework for the operation of critical incident stress management teams and their members. In any civil action against any individual, agency, or government entity, including the state of New Hampshire, arising out of the conduct of a member of such team, this section is not intended and shall not be admissible to establish negligence in any instance where requirements herein are higher than the standard of care that would otherwise have been applicable in such action under state law. (c) A communication shall not be deemed confidential pursuant to this section if: (1)(A) The communication is an explicit threat of suicide by an individual in which the individual shares: (i) An intent to die by suicide; and (ii) A plan for a suicide attempt or the means by which the individual plans to carry out a suicide attempt. (B) A communication that contains the disclosure of suicidal thoughts, but not the information described in both subparagraphs (A)(i) and (ii) shall be deemed confidential. (2) The communication is an explicit threat of imminent serious physical bodily harm or death to another individual or individuals. (3) The communication indicates the abuse or neglect of: (A) A child; or (B) An elderly or vulnerable adult as defined in RSA 161-F:43. (4) The communication contains information otherwise required by law to be disclosed. (5) The communication indicates the existence of past or present acts constituting an intentional commission of a crime, provided the applicable statute of limitation has not expired on the act indicated.