An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Critical Incident Stress Management Teams
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1092
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: BELLOWS, CYRWAY, DESCHAMBAULT, MOORE, McCREIGHT, WARREN
Amends: 25 MRSA §4201, 25 MRSA §4202

Legislative Document
No. 1092
S.P. 324
In Senate, March 5, 2019
An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Critical Incident Stress 
Management Teams
Reference to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety suggested and ordered 
printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator BELLOWS of Kennebec.
Cosponsored by Senators: CYRWAY of Kennebec, DESCHAMBAULT of York, MOORE of 
Washington, Representatives: McCREIGHT of Harpswell, WARREN of Hallowell.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  25 MRSA §4201, sub-§1, as amended by PL 2015, c. 112, §1, is further 
amended to read:
1.  Critical incident.  "Critical incident" means a work-related incident that causes or 
has the potential to cause an employee of or emergency dispatcher for a criminal justice 
public safety agency to experience emotional or physical stress.  "Critical incident" 
includes, but is not limited to, use-of-force encounters that may result in the death of or 
serious injury to another person or an officer, fatal motor vehicle accidents, child abuse 
investigations and death investigations.
Sec. 2.  25 MRSA §4201, sub-§§1-A and 1-B are enacted to read:
1-A.  Critical incident stress management peer support.  "Critical incident stress 
management peer support" means services provided to an employee of or emergency 
dispatcher for a public safety agency or to an employee's or dispatcher's family member 
when that employee or dispatcher has been involved in a critical incident that can 
reasonably have a devastating, long-lasting effect on a person or the employee or 
dispatcher has had cumulative exposure to excessive stress and traumatic incidents and 
the employee's or dispatcher's work performance or general well-being has been affected.  
"Critical incident stress management peer support" includes assisting the employee or 
dispatcher to appropriately process the trauma and stress and connecting the employee or 
dispatcher to appropriate resources.
1-B.  Critical incident stress management peer support person.  "Critical incident 
stress management peer support person" means a person who is trained in accordance 
with evidence-based standards and certified in crisis intervention training and mental 
health first aid who provides one-on-one critical incident stress management peer support.
Sec. 3.  25 MRSA §4201, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2015, c. 112, §1, is further 
amended to read:
2.  Critical incident stress management team.  "Critical incident stress 
management team" means a team composed of members of critical incident stress 
management peer support persons and a licensed mental health clinician designated by 
the chief law enforcement officer or director of a law enforcement public safety agency, 
or the chief law enforcement officer's chief's or director's designee, or a volunteer team 
coordinated by a nonprofit entity that is trained, in accordance with national best practices 
and standards established by rule by the Commissioner of Public Safety, to assist and 
provide critical incident stress management peer support to any person employed by the 
team's own agency or another criminal justice agency who has been involved in a critical 
incident that may affect, or has affected, the person's work performance or general well-
being.  Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in 
Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 4.  25 MRSA §4201, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 2015, c. 112, §2, is repealed.
Sec. 5.  25 MRSA §4201, sub-§4 is enacted to read:
4.  Public safety agency.  "Public safety agency" has the same meaning as in section 
2921, subsection 6-B.
Sec. 6.  25 MRSA §4202, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 2009, c. 289, §1, is amended 
to read:
1.  Information confidential.  Except as provided in subsection 2, all proceedings, 
communications and records, including, but not limited to, information concerning the 
identity of a person seeking or being furnished assistance, connected in any way with the 
work of a critical incident stress management team, including critical incident stress 
management peer support persons, are confidential and are not subject to compulsory 
legal process or otherwise discoverable or admissible in evidence in any civil action 
unless the confidentiality is waived by the affected person.  Statistical data not identifying 
a person seeking the assistance of a critical incident stress management team must be 
made available for statistical evaluation and may not be made available for any other 
purpose.
SUMMARY
This bill clarifies the qualifications and duties of members of critical incident stress 
management teams and provides that the services of critical incident stress management 
teams are provided to employees of state, county or municipal government entities that 
provide or have the authority to provide fire, emergency medical or police services.