FRBH National Standard for Responder Behavioral Health

Purpose & Authority

The American Board of First Responder Behavioral Healthcare (FRBH) establishes and maintains the FRBH National Standard for Responder Behavioral Health, which defines the minimum national, system-level requirements for how public safety organizations design, govern, and sustain behavioral health systems to protect responders from cumulative occupational trauma.

Under this standard, responder behavioral health protection is treated as organizational safety infrastructure, not an individual responsibility, discretionary benefit, or clinical entitlement.

FRBH National Standard (Public Edition)

The public edition of the FRBH National Standard outlines nationally consistent system expectations, including principles of automatic activation and graduated system response.

→ Download the FRBH National Standard (PDF)

Who This Standard Applies To

This standard applies to all public safety organizations, including:

  • Local, regional, state, federal, and tribal agencies

  • Career, volunteer, hybrid, and private-sector responder organizations

The system—not the individual—carries this responsibility.

Compliance is evaluated based on system protections, not agency size, call volume, or jurisdictional scope.

Foundational Principle

Under this standard, responder behavioral health protection must be:

  • Automatic

  • Embedded

  • Protected

  • Sustained

No responder should be required to recognize distress, self-identify need, or request assistance following qualifying occupational trauma exposure.

Behavioral health protection is fulfilled through organizational governance, automatic activation mechanisms, confidentiality safeguards, continuity of support, and system accountability.

Scope & Limitations (Licensing Clarification)

This standard governs organizational system design and duty-to-protect requirements only.

FRBH does not regulate, license, certify, or control:

  • Individual clinical licensure or scope of practice

  • Clinical diagnosis, treatment decisions, or standards of care

  • Collective bargaining agreements or labor relations

  • Employment contracts or personnel actions

  • Operational command authority

FRBH is not a licensing body, not a clinical authority, and not a regulator.

Verification of alignment with this standard occurs solely through independent accreditation review conducted by FRBH.

FRBH provides no clinical, operational, consulting, employment, or implementation services.

Applicability Across Responder Roles

The FRBH National Standard applies across all responder disciplines, including both field-based and non-field-based roles such as communications and dispatch.

While occupational trauma exposures differ by role, the standard is exposure-based rather than job-title-based.

Organizations define qualifying exposures appropriate to each function while maintaining equivalent system-level protections and duty-to-protect obligations.

The standard does not require identical triggers across roles—it requires equivalent protection.

The Nine National System Requirements

Every FRBH-aligned responder behavioral health system must include:

1. Automatic Post-Exposure Activation

2. Embedded Psychological First Aid (PFA)

3. Protected Confidential Access

4. Proactive Cumulative Exposure Tracking

5. Longitudinal Career-Span Support

6. Organizational Duty-to-Protect

7. Mandatory Supervisor Activation & Accountability

8. Family System Inclusion

9. Budgetary & Structural Protection

Together, these requirements define the minimum national baseline for responder behavioral health system protection.

No single element alone satisfies the organizational duty to protect.

Minimum National Baseline

This standard establishes the minimum national baseline for responder behavioral health systems.

Organizations may exceed these requirements but may not fall below them and remain aligned with the FRBH National Standard.

Authority Statement

FRBH is the national authority responsible for establishing, interpreting, and verifying organizational alignment with the FRBH National Standard for accreditation purposes.

FRBH does not assert authority over:

  • Clinical licensure

  • Professional practice

  • Regulatory enforcement

Standards Alignment & Accreditation

The FRBH National Standard establishes nationally consistent expectations for how responder behavioral health systems are designed, governed, and sustained.

Organizations that demonstrate full alignment with this standard through independent review may be recognized through FRBH accreditation, a voluntary, non-governmental designation reflecting system-level accountability and readiness.

Accreditation:

  • Verifies organizational system alignment

  • Does not certify individuals

  • Does not approve or regulate clinical practices

  • Does not guarantee outcomes

→ Learn About FRBH Accreditation

This standard affirms that protecting responder behavioral health is a system responsibility—planned, governed, and sustained at the organizational level.