Predictable occupational psychological hazards require predictable organizational protection.
Public safety organizations manage foreseeable physical hazards systematically. The hazard is defined, the response is specified, accountability is assigned, and performance is reviewed. The FRBH National Standard applies those same occupational safety principles to the psychological hazards inherent in public safety work.
The Standard is published without charge. Conformity is determined by the adopting organization and depends on no fee, no purchase, and no third party.
READ THE NATIONAL STANDARD →
The Organizational Gap
Most public safety organizations maintain substantial workforce protection capability — employee assistance programs, peer support teams, chaplaincy, occupational health. These are genuine resources.
In prevailing practice, however, those resources are made available and personnel are informed that they exist. No organizational action follows until the exposed individual recognizes the exposure, decides to act on it, and discloses. Responsibility for recognition and for initiating a response rests with the person carrying the exposure.
This is not how any other foreseeable occupational hazard is managed. The gap is not a shortage of resources; it is the absence of a documented organizational process connecting a known exposure to a defined response.
In prevailing practice, however, those resources are made available and personnel are informed that they exist. No organizational action follows until the exposed individual recognizes the exposure, decides to act on it, and discloses. Responsibility for recognition and for initiating a response rests with the person carrying the exposure.
This is not how any other foreseeable occupational hazard is managed. The gap is not a shortage of resources; it is the absence of a documented organizational process connecting a known exposure to a defined response.
What the National Standard Establishes
Under the Standard, a qualifying exposure occurs, the organization recognizes it against criteria documented in advance, and the organization acts according to procedures documented in advance. Personnel are not required to disclose anything to receive the organization's response, and are protected from adverse action for having been exposed or for participating.
The Standard requires that an organization:
• Document which exposures trigger an organizational response, including four categories it may not narrow — any line-of-duty death, any mass casualty incident, any pediatric fatality, and any incident causing serious injury or death to organizational personnel
• Develop and review those criteria with the personnel they cover and, where personnel are represented, with their designated representatives
• Document what occurs following recognition, who is notified, and within what timeframe
• Coordinate existing workforce protection capabilities rather than establishing new ones
• Preserve the individual's choice whether to participate, and protect personnel from reprisal either way
• Review the operation of the system at fixed intervals under leadership oversight
EXPLORE THE STANDARD →
The Standard requires that an organization:
• Document which exposures trigger an organizational response, including four categories it may not narrow — any line-of-duty death, any mass casualty incident, any pediatric fatality, and any incident causing serious injury or death to organizational personnel
• Develop and review those criteria with the personnel they cover and, where personnel are represented, with their designated representatives
• Document what occurs following recognition, who is notified, and within what timeframe
• Coordinate existing workforce protection capabilities rather than establishing new ones
• Preserve the individual's choice whether to participate, and protect personnel from reprisal either way
• Review the operation of the system at fixed intervals under leadership oversight
EXPLORE THE STANDARD →
Basis in Occupational Safety Practice
Occupational safety practice holds that organizations bear responsibility for protecting workers from foreseeable occupational hazards, discharged through governance, hazard recognition, protective measures, evaluation, and continual improvement rather than through response after injury occurs.
These principles have been extended to psychosocial hazards generally through instruments including ISO 45003 and CSA Z1003, and are reflected in occupational health frameworks such as NIOSH Total Worker Health. What has not been codified is their operational application to the predictable psychological hazards specific to public safety work — a standard against which a public safety organization can establish and demonstrate conformity.
The FRBH National Standard addresses that application. It is a public-safety-specific complement to those broader instruments, not a replacement for them, and conformity with it does not require conformity with any of them.
These principles have been extended to psychosocial hazards generally through instruments including ISO 45003 and CSA Z1003, and are reflected in occupational health frameworks such as NIOSH Total Worker Health. What has not been codified is their operational application to the predictable psychological hazards specific to public safety work — a standard against which a public safety organization can establish and demonstrate conformity.
The FRBH National Standard addresses that application. It is a public-safety-specific complement to those broader instruments, not a replacement for them, and conformity with it does not require conformity with any of them.
Scope and Limits
The National Standard establishes no clinical standard. It requires no specific program, vendor, technology, or intervention, makes no fitness-for-duty determination, and measures no individual's psychological condition. It does not replace employee assistance programs, peer support, chaplaincy, occupational health, or any existing workforce protection capability.
It establishes whether the organization maintains a process, and whether that process operates.
It establishes whether the organization maintains a process, and whether that process operates.
Cost
The National Standard is published without charge and may be implemented at no cost. Conformity does not depend on any fee or on the purchase of any service, from FRBH or from any other party. This is established within the Standard as a structural commitment.
Development Status
Version 3.0 is designated a Provisional Field-Test Edition. It was approved by the FRBH Board of Directors on July 24, 2026, following review by eight named subject-matter experts of the National Advisory Council. It has not been through a formal public comment period, has not been balloted by a multi-stakeholder body, has not been reviewed by any labor organization, and has not completed independent field validation. Requirements may be revised before the first Consensus Edition.
FRBH publishes this edition in the judgment that public safety personnel are exposed to these hazards continuously, and that withholding a usable organizational framework until every developmental step is complete serves the field less well than releasing an honestly designated provisional edition.
The Standard states the questions it has not resolved and the steps by which FRBH intends to resolve them, including an annual statement of progress published whether or not each commitment has been met.
Comments are accepted at info@frbh.org.
FRBH publishes this edition in the judgment that public safety personnel are exposed to these hazards continuously, and that withholding a usable organizational framework until every developmental step is complete serves the field less well than releasing an honestly designated provisional edition.
The Standard states the questions it has not resolved and the steps by which FRBH intends to resolve them, including an annual statement of progress published whether or not each commitment has been met.
Comments are accepted at info@frbh.org.
Determining Conformity
Organizations determine their own conformity with the National Standard by self-assessment, using the evidence and determination provisions the Standard contains. That determination is sufficient on its own.
FRBH does not perform conformity assessment, certification, or accreditation of any organization, does not operate such a program, and does not intend to establish one. The institution that establishes the requirements does not determine which organizations have met them.
The Standard establishes in advance the conditions governing any future independent assessment, including that no entity connected to a director, officer, chief executive, or founder of FRBH may perform it. No provider has been licensed and no assessment activity has commenced.
LEARN ABOUT CONFORMITY →
FRBH does not perform conformity assessment, certification, or accreditation of any organization, does not operate such a program, and does not intend to establish one. The institution that establishes the requirements does not determine which organizations have met them.
The Standard establishes in advance the conditions governing any future independent assessment, including that no entity connected to a director, officer, chief executive, or founder of FRBH may perform it. No provider has been licensed and no assessment activity has commenced.
LEARN ABOUT CONFORMITY →
Implementation Support
The National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC) answers general questions about the National Standard, at no charge and on the same terms to every organization.
Ask FRBH™ — AI-assisted guidance, on demand
support@frbh.org — questions by email
1 (844) ASK-FRBH — to schedule a call
The NTAC provides general information about the Standard. It does not evaluate any organization's own documents, criteria, or evidence, and does not determine whether an organization conforms.
VISIT NTAC →
Ask FRBH™ — AI-assisted guidance, on demand
support@frbh.org — questions by email
1 (844) ASK-FRBH — to schedule a call
The NTAC provides general information about the Standard. It does not evaluate any organization's own documents, criteria, or evidence, and does not determine whether an organization conforms.
VISIT NTAC →
Applicability
The National Standard establishes profession-neutral organizational expectations across trauma-exposed public safety professions, and applies to all personnel exposed in the course of duty — sworn and non-sworn, full-time and part-time, career and volunteer.
🚒 Fire Service
🚑 Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
🚔 Law Enforcement
📞 Public Safety Communications / Dispatch
🔒 Corrections
🌲 Wildland Fire
🌪️ Emergency Management
🏛️ Federal Public Safety Organizations
VIEW FAQ →
🚒 Fire Service
🚑 Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
🚔 Law Enforcement
📞 Public Safety Communications / Dispatch
🔒 Corrections
🌲 Wildland Fire
🌪️ Emergency Management
🏛️ Federal Public Safety Organizations
VIEW FAQ →
SCOPE NOTICE: The American Board of First Responder Behavioral Healthcare is an independent nonprofit standards-development organization. It establishes and maintains the FRBH National Standard for Occupational Psychological Hazard Protection and supports implementation through the National Technical Assistance Center. FRBH does not perform conformity assessment, certification, or accreditation of any organization and does not operate such a program. FRBH does not provide clinical care, prescribe treatment, regulate behavioral healthcare services, provide organization-specific implementation or readiness consulting, accredit healthcare providers, or evaluate individual workforce mental health conditions.