From Inquest:
Since the 2020 protests against police in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the city of Minneapolis has paid out over $22 million dollars in PTSD-related settlement claims to police officers. These officers have been diagnosed by mental health professionals, filed workers’ compensation claims, and offered benefits to support their psychological treatment and lost wages. The exodus of police from the city workforce was cited in contract negotiations this year, and the Minneapolis police union negotiated $7,000 retention bonuses for cops staying on the city police force. As a part of that contract, the police now have mandatory mental health screenings following “critical incidents” like shootings.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis public school teachers were also negotiating their contract. They went on strike this March demanding increased mental health supports for students. Education workers argue that the school children of Minneapolis are struggling with mental health challenges exacerbated by the overlapping traumas of the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty, racism, and police violence, and the schools need support to meet this crisis. Even though the strike made some gains in mental health staffing, school counselor-to-student ratios in the city remain far below the rate recommended by the American School Counseling Association. As teachers struggle to support student mental health, the government works to bring even more treatment to police officers. A progressive state legislator from Minneapolis teamed up with a Republican state senator to propose a bill mandating up to 32 weeks of state-funded PTSD treatment for officers. While this is an attempt, in part, to keep officers from leaving the police force and filing worker’s compensation claims, the differential access to mental health counseling is striking.
Police seem to have much more access to mental health treatment than young people living in communities traumatized by police violence. This differential access to and different uses of mental health treatment pose a set of broader questions to professionals in the field. What are appropriate roles for counselors in relation to police violence? How can seemingly neutral practices like providing individual diagnosis and treatment end up contributing to the state-sanctioned devaluation of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian lives? How do we shift the social and economic structures that create differential access to healing in the aftermath of trauma? How do we acknowledge and confront our clients’ harm towards others, especially if they see themselves as the victims? These are issues that demand careful consideration. Continue reading >>>:
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