Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 16 - PRACTICE, PROCEDURE, AND COURTS (§§ 16-1-101 — 16-131-206) › Subtitle 4 - EVIDENCE AND WITNESSES (§§ 16-40-101 — 16-47-218) › Chapter 40 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 16-40-101 — 16-40-107) › Section 16-40-106 - Privileged communications made to a certified peer support member by an emergency responder - Definitions

(a)
As used in this section:
(1)
"Approved training" means training including, at a minimum, the following subjects:
(A)
The core elements of critical incident stress management, including how to help a person understand the need for further assistance;
(B)
Psychological crisis and psychological crisis intervention;
(C)
The individual aspects of a peer support event and how to work with the aspects of a peer support event through resistance, resiliency, and recovery;
(D)
Situational crisis intervention with individual persons and groups;
(E)
Practical communication skills and techniques to assist a person in a crisis situation;
(F)
How a person reacts in a crisis and how to understand and work with the person in an intervention mode;
(G)
Mechanisms to assist in dealing with a person in a crisis situation;
(H)
Practical tools to use to work with individual persons and groups in a crisis situation; and
(I)
Recognizing issues that may lead a person to have suicidal thoughts;
(2)
"Certified peer support member" means an individual who has received approved training certified by the Arkansas Crisis Response Team, the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training, or the Arkansas Fire Protection Services Board in critical incident stress management and who is qualified to provide emotional or moral support to an emergency responder who needs emotional or moral support as a result of job-related stress or of an incident in which the emergency responder was involved while acting in his or her official capacity; and
(3)
"Peer support event" means any debriefing, defusing, or counseling session conducted by a certified peer support member that involves the emotional or moral support of an emergency responder who needs emotional or moral support as a result of job-related stress or an incident in which the emergency responder was involved while acting in his or her official capacity.
(b)
(1)
A certified peer support member shall not be compelled, without the consent of the emergency responder making the communication, to testify or in any way disclose the contents of any communication made to the certified peer support member by the emergency responder while engaged in a peer support event.
(2)
The privilege under subdivision (b)(1) of this section only applies when the communication was made to the certified peer support member during the course of an actual peer support event.
(c)
The privilege under subdivision (b)(1) of this section does not apply if:
(1)
The certified peer support member was an initial emergency service responder, a witness, or a party to the incident that prompted the providing of the peer support event to the emergency responder;
(2)
A communication reveals the intended commission of a crime or harmful act and the disclosure is determined to be necessary by the certified peer support member to protect any person from a clear, imminent risk of serious mental or physical harm or injury or to forestall a serious threat to the public safety; or
(3)
A crime has been committed and the crime is divulged to the certified peer support member.
(d)
A certified peer support member who knowingly reveals the contents of a communication privileged under this section or any person who knowingly threatens, intimidates, or forcibly compels, or attempts to threaten, intimidate, or forcibly compel a certified peer support member to disclose the contents of a privileged communication upon conviction is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.
Amended by Act 2021, No. 428,§ 1, eff. 7/28/2021.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 555,§ 1, eff. 7/24/2019.
Added by Act 2013, No. 1353,§ 1, eff. 8/16/2013.