PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s Republican senator has joined a push to help families of public safety officers who have suffered mental health challenges or died by suicide.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is part of a bipartisan group of senators working to help those families receive public safety officers’ benefits.
Currently, those benefits are limited to physical injuries. Collins said the program could be changed to provide financial support to families of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and others who die in the line of duty or are disabled.
Collins said it also would allow families of officers who die by trauma-linked suicide to apply for benefits.