The U-S surgeon general says the debate over racism and police violence displays two sides of a mental-health coin. Former Indiana health commissioner Jerome Adams notes the American Medical Association recently described racism as a form of trauma,
Speaking by video conference, Adams told a forum on mental health and policing that he and other African-Americans watched the video of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police with the feeling that they could just as easily have been the ones on the pavement.
But Adams says police experience a similar persistent chipping away at their mental well-being through the nature of their job, confronting trauma or danger every day. He says the repeated stress can lead both police and citizens to act inappropriately.
