71-7107.

Department of Health and Human Services; lead agency; duties.

(1) The Department of Health and Human Services shall be the lead agency for the program.

(2) The department shall:

(a) Coordinate program activities and emergency response;

(b) Provide necessary equipment for the program and participants;

(c) Recruit hospital personnel and emergency medical workers to be trained as critical incident stress management peers;

(d) Participate in the training and continuing education of such peers and mental health professionals;

(e) Appoint a director for the program who shall be an employee of the department;

(f) Specify the organizational and operational goals for the program and provide overall policy direction for the program;

(g) Manage planning and budget development for the program;

(h) Manage program development and evaluation;

(i) Provide a mechanism for quality assurance that may include certification of critical incident stress management team members;

(j) Identify critical incident stress management regions; and

(k) Provide backup to regional critical incident stress management teams.

(3) The department may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations to implement the program.