Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is often talked about when it comes to members of the armed forces, but it also affects others -- like first responders.

Senator Jacky Rosen introduced a bill to extend assistance to first responders ahead of touring a firehouse today and speaking with local officials. First responders usually see people on their most traumatic days, and often carry that memory with them. Officials told us there is not a way to track PTSD and suicide rates, and that services for these first responders are scarce.

"We have had more suicides in the fire service than line of duty deaths," said Derek Reid, Fire Captain with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District.

That isn’t even taking into account the full scale of PTSD and suicide rates for firefighters. 100 percent of deaths in the line of duty are recorded, but suicide numbers are not always put on the record.

“We are receiving about 30 to 40 percent of confirmed cases of suicide within the fire service, so we are not even capturing all the data to get the true number of what the suicide rate is within the firefighter community," said Reid.

"We have wildfires here, families that lost everything, you respond to a car crash or pedestrian accident -- it takes a toll on you as a human being," said Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen.

It's something that Senator Rosen hopes to gather more information on, to be able to allocate resources to combat that suicide rate.

"Firefighters and EMT's across this nation will benefit from this, doing the same support we are giving to law enforcement. It's a good bill, I'm really proud of it," said Rosen.

Rosen also thinks it has a good chance of passing, as it has over 70 bipartisan co-sponsors in the senate. The bill also establishes a grant program for peer-to-peer counseling programs to address mental health challenges for first responders.

"We don't want to secondarily traumatize our spouses or our children with the stories of the things that we see, which makes hard to offload," said Reid. "If we can get some help from the senators office, that would be a great assistance to us not watching our brothers and sisters take their own lives."

For a link to the Northern Nevada Peer Support Network, whose mission is to “provide quality mental health resources and support to our first responders and hospital health care professionals,” you can click here.

For more information on Senator Rosen’s HERO Act, you can click here.