By Kara Grant, MedPage Today, April 26, 2021
In the wake of Derek Chauvin's conviction for the murder of George Floyd, clinicians and mental health professionals are calling for the recognition of ethno-racial trauma (ERT) and the implementation of cultural humility into all clinical practices to improve care for Black patients.
ERT has been defined by researchers as "individual and/or collective psychological distress and fear of danger that results from experiencing or witnessing discrimination, threats of harm, violence, and intimidation directed at ethno-racial minority groups." While the term is not listed in the DSM-5, studies have established the mental health repercussions of this type of trauma.
Previous research has shown that police killings and brutality against Black Americans -- and the widespread circulation of these events on social media platforms, a phenomenon some have called "viral black death" -- has had adverse effects on the mental health of Black individuals in the U.S., a group that is already 16% more likely to report mental health issues than the general population. Over the past year, these psychological stressors have been compounded with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities.
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