As a public servant for the past 15 years, I have come to realize how essential our roles are for our communities. During the pandemic, Frontline workers stepped up and stepped in. This has placed a huge mental toll on the population of public servant workers. The pandemic also brought forth the growing awareness of how important it is to take care of our own mental health, as well as checking in with others. Without the proper support and time, frontline workers are experiencing burnout at a higher rate, being pushed to resign, and changing professions to accommodate more time with their family’s. It’s time for the government, whether statewide or country wide, to start paying frontline workers a minimum of 14 mental health days. We see that congress and other governing entities take recesses or have black out days. Why can’t the people who are servicing the community have paid recesses or blackout days? Why are our families lost in the shuffle of public service. Not once has any government given credit for the other frontline workers, such as Social Workers, Eligibility Workers, and other workers who have committed their lives to helping some of our most fragile and underserved populations. It’s time, and the time is NOW. Any person who has face to face contact with another person to conduct and service them for their employer should be allotted 14 paid mental health days. This does not take the place of sick and vacation time. This includes Teachers, Police/Fire, Social Service Workers, In Home Supportive Care Workers, Mental Health Workers, Family Service Providers and any other role that assists those in need. It is sad that this country has yet to recognize, nor consider the impact of the secondary trauma that public servants have and the long term mental health issues that accompany it. For that I would like to frontline this petition, as I have suffered from these failures; prior to, during and after the pandemic. Not only have I suffered, but my family has suffered as well. Let’s make this change and start recognizing the importance of mental health by providing frontline workers the time to have their own personal mental health days without sacrificing their sick and/or their vacation time. 

#MentalHealthMatters #secondarytrauma