The National Standard for Responder Behavioral Health Protection
The American Board of First Responder Behavioral Healthcare (FRBH) is a national nonprofit standards-setting and accreditation body that accredits public safety agencies based on whether they have organizational protections in place that automatically activate appropriate behavioral health support when needed, rather than relying on individual self-disclosure.
FRBH’s standards focus on how public safety organizations are structured, governed, and operated to protect their workforce from foreseeable line-of-duty trauma exposure, treating behavioral health as an organizational safety responsibility rather than an individual burden.
-
Exposure to trauma is a predictable and unavoidable part of public safety work. Personnel routinely encounter crisis, danger, and human suffering as part of doing the job.
Historically, behavioral health protections have relied on individuals recognizing distress and asking for help. In practice, this has produced uneven safeguards shaped by local practices and available resources rather than the realities of trauma-exposed work.
A national standard establishes a consistent baseline for organizational responsibility, ensuring protective systems are built into routine operations and governance rather than dependent on individual disclosure or discretionary adoption.
-
FRBH defines organizational responsibility for behavioral health protection in trauma-exposed public safety work.
The National Standard places system design, activation, and oversight at the organizational level, requiring safeguards embedded into governance and routine operations rather than triggered by crisis recognition or individual help-seeking.
Grounded in occupational safety and risk-management principles, the standard treats trauma exposure as an inherent job hazard requiring durable, organization-level protection.
This is not a program.
It is a national framework for governing and sustaining behavioral health protection as a safety function.
-
FRBH serves organizations and stakeholders responsible for establishing, overseeing, and advancing system-based behavioral health protection, including:
Public safety agencies seeking nationally recognized accreditation
Government and policy leaders responsible for workforce protection and oversight
Funders and strategic partners supporting adoption and independent verification of national standards
FRBH does not serve individual responders and does not provide clinical care, training, implementation, or consulting services.
-
Accreditation provides independent verification that organizational systems align with the National Standard for behavioral health protection.
Evaluation focuses on governance, policy, and operational systems and is conducted through processes separate from standards development, consistent with recognized accreditation models.
Accreditation does not evaluate individuals, clinical care, treatment outcomes, or employment matters.
-
Sustained Functional Resilience™ (SFR) is a system-activated framework for organizational behavioral health protection in trauma-exposed occupations.
SFR emphasizes automatic activation, governance, and sustained accountability aligned with operational realities.
FRBH accreditation is framework-neutral. No framework—including SFR—is required, endorsed, or confers accreditation advantage.
-
FRBH translates established research, occupational safety principles, and public-safety practice into nationally consistent organizational standards.
Standards and accreditation criteria align with recognized evidence and governance norms while remaining adaptable to varied agency structures and missions.
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 practice.
-
As part of its charitable mission, FRBH acknowledges that occupational trauma exists across public safety and prioritizes accreditation access for agencies with comparatively higher levels of routine occupational trauma exposure.
The FRBH Access Fund expands access to national accreditation standards by reducing financial barriers for eligible public safety agencies, including rural, volunteer, and resource-constrained organizations.
Access Fund support preserves the independence and rigor of accreditation and does not involve clinical services or influence accreditation outcomes.
National Standards and Accreditation
Scope Notice: FRBH sets national standards for how organizations are structured to protect responder behavioral health. FRBH does not evaluate clinical care, provide treatment guidance, or accredit mental health programs or providers. FRBH is non-clinical and focuses exclusively on organizational safety systems—not healthcare services.