Committee advances bill to extend confidentiality protections to peer support team members

Senators on the Senate Health & Human Services Committee voted to send House Bill 1087, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation and placed it on the consent calendar after adopting an amendment that clarifies who may be the subject of a reported threat.

The bill would add statutory confidentiality protections for communications made during peer support interactions, extending protections similar to an existing court-related confidentiality statute. Sponsors and witnesses said the change aims to preserve privacy so first responders and other public safety personnel will use peer support services without fear that private remarks will be disclosed.

The bill’s proponent, Jack Tigliani, a psychologist and the primary drafter of the bill, told the committee the draft supplements an existing statute governing confidentiality in the Colorado court system and would create a new provision identified in the draft as 12-31-25. “This confidentiality is so important that our police and fire agencies have tried to fill this gap through policy,” Tigliani said, describing decades of peer-support practice dating back to Fort Collins in 1986.

A co-sponsor said one pending amendment—adopted by the committee as Amendment L006—adds the phrase “and the individual who is subject of the threat” to the exception language that allows disclosure when a recipient makes a qualifying threat. That change was described by the sponsor as correcting language lost when text was moved between statutory articles.

No members of the public other than Tigliani testified. Committee members asked no substantive follow-up questions during the witness phase. After discussion the committee adopted Amendment L006, moved the bill to the Committee of the Whole as amended and, with no objection, placed House Bill 1087 on the consent calendar.

Background and context: Tigliani said the bill builds on a 2005 law (transcript reference to a court-related confidentiality statute) and aims to standardize statutory confidentiality for peer support interactions performed by a broad set of peer support team members, including teams that serve prosecutors, public defenders, emergency medical services, law enforcement and fire personnel. Witnesses and sponsors framed the change as intended to remove a barrier to accessing mental health and peer support services.

The committee did not take final action on the bill beyond sending it to the Committee of the Whole; placement on the consent calendar signals the committee’s intention for expedited floor consideration if the bill remains on consent.