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.