(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The U-S surgeon general says the yearlong 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, with the repeated indignities of traffic stops or police
questioning putting African-Americans perpetually on their guard. He says he’s had store security
guards treat him with suspicion, even since he became surgeon general.
Speaking by videoconference, Adams told an Indianapolis 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. And Adams says the tension is a subset of a
larger problem: he says the U.S. needs to eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health care, and
treat it as the equivalent of physical care, not a sign of weakness.
Adams says the coronavirus pandemic has aggravated mental health issues. He says it’s one more
reason to follow COVID’s three W’s: wear your mask, wash your hands, and watch your social
distancing.
