Responder trauma is chronic, cumulative, and inherent to public safety work.

Many behavioral health systems used in public safety were adapted from general-population models that rely on individual self-disclosure, crisis recognition, and personal initiative—resulting in inconsistent access and uneven protection.

Without a national standard, responder behavioral health systems vary widely—leaving protection dependent on geography, leadership priorities, and local resources.

FRBH addresses this gap by establishing system-based national standards grounded in occupational safety and risk-management principles that define organizational responsibility before crisis, without reliance on self-identification.

Accreditation independently verifies these protections are in place and sustained.

→ View FRBH National Standard

FRBH establishes the national standard for responder behavioral health systems—defining how public safety organizations are expected to protect the psychological health of trauma-exposed occupations.

The FRBH National Standard places primary responsibility for system design and activation at the organizational level, requiring system-activated safeguards that do not rely on crisis recognition, self-disclosure, or individual help-seeking.

Grounded in occupational safety and risk-management principles, the standard treats trauma exposure as an inherent job hazard requiring durable, system-level protection.

This is not a program.
It is a national framework for governing and sustaining responder behavioral health systems.

FRBH accredits organizational systems and governance—not clinicians, treatment decisions, or service delivery.

→ About FRBH

FRBH serves organizations and stakeholders responsible for establishing, overseeing, and advancing system-based behavioral health protection for trauma-exposed occupations, including:

• Public safety agencies seeking nationally recognized accreditation for responder behavioral health systems

• Government and policy leaders responsible for workforce protection standards, governance, and oversight

• Funders and strategic partners supporting the adoption, sustainability, and independent verification of national standards for responder behavioral health systems

FRBH does not provide services to individual responders, deliver clinical care, or offer training, implementation, or consulting programs.

FRBH accredits public safety agencies that demonstrate conformance with nationally defined, system-level requirements for responder behavioral health.

Accreditation provides independent verification that organizational behavioral health systems are designed, governed, and sustained in alignment with nationally defined safety and accountability standards.

FRBH accreditation verifies that organizational systems are:

• Governed and accountable at the organizational level

• Integrated into public safety operations

• Designed to function proactively and consistently over time

FRBH accreditation is voluntary, independent, and non-governmental, and serves as the national benchmark for behavioral health system integrity in public safety.

Accreditation does not evaluate individual clinicians, clinical outcomes, or specific treatment modalities.

→ Become Accredited

Sustained Functional Resilience™ (SFR) is a system-activated behavioral health protection framework for high-risk, trauma-exposed occupations.

SFR frames behavioral health as organizational safety infrastructure, emphasizing automatic activation, governance, and sustained accountability aligned with operational realities.

Elements of SFR informed early system-level thinking alongside other evidence-aligned occupational prevention models.

FRBH accreditation is framework-neutral. No framework—including SFR—is required, endorsed, or confers any accreditation advantage.

FRBH advances nationally consistent, evidence-aligned system design for responder behavioral health by:

• Translating existing research and established practice into operationally applicable national standards

• Aligning accreditation criteria with recognized behavioral health evidence, occupational safety research, and public safety doctrine

• Informing state and federal public safety policy discussions through technical standards interpretation and system-design perspective

• Integrating operational leadership experience, behavioral health expertise, and organizational governance principles

FRBH does not conduct original clinical, academic, or scientific research. Its role is to define, maintain, and accredit organizational standards grounded in existing evidence and public safety practice.

This approach supports nationwide consistency and adoption of responder-specific behavioral health system benchmarks without duplicating the research functions of academic, governmental, or scientific institutions.

The FRBH Access Fund supports broader adoption of national accreditation standards by reducing financial barriers for eligible public safety agencies.

The Fund is designed to facilitate participation by rural, volunteer, and resource-constrained organizations, ensuring that access to nationally recognized, system-level behavioral health benchmarks is not limited by organizational size, geography, or funding capacity.

Through the Access Fund, FRBH advances equitable access to accreditation while preserving the independence, rigor, and integrity of national standards.

→ Access Fund Inquiries