Biden wants to fix racial inequality. Mental health access is an ...

To that end, he signed executive orders on racial equity on his first days in office and on Wednesday night at a town hall on CNN recommitted his administration to this goal, particularly the need to change the relationship between communities of color and the police.This Black History Month, we call upon the Biden administration to prioritize the mental health of Black and brown communities by addressing their lack of access to such care.But to fully address the impacts of racial inequity in our society — to meet the promise of these executive orders and to truly contend with the structural racism that he noted imbues the criminal justice and other systems — access to culturally competent mental health and addiction treatment is needed. We must also create a trauma-informed health workforce to address the short- and long-term health and mental health impacts of trauma from violence — especially police violence and over-surveillance— that is endemic in low-income communities of color, and is often combined with chronic social and economic stressors like unaffordable housing, underresourced school systems and lack of access to capital and economic opportunity.Federal support should help health, social and public service employees — anyone who interacts directly with community members — receive specific training on what trauma-informed interactions, de-escalation and safety techniques and empathic communication look like.