'I Feel So Overwhelmed': COVID-19 And Police Violence Takes A Toll On Black Health Care Workers

Speaker 1: 00:00 Well, the COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful for healthcare workers across the board. It's been especially hard on black doctors. They're working long hours away from their families while trying to process the disturbing images of police brutality in the news right now, KQBD Michelle Wiley has that story. Dr. Tiffany Chiama on a Berry. Can't remember where she was when she heard about George Floyd's killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. She might've been in her Bay area home or in the car somewhere between Stockton and Modesto. She works at two hospitals as an emergency medicine physician. But what she does remember is that she waited as long as she could before watching the video. Speaker 2: 00:41 I used to like, I cannot see anything right now. And I'm normally the person that's like, girl, did you see this video? You know, and I remember watching it and just being like, okay, well I am now debilitatingly depressed cause I was already teetering on the edge. And, um, that just was, it was over after that Speaker 1: 01:01 For months, frontline healthcare workers across the world have been experiencing increased mental health issues as a result of the pandemic in China, where cases of the coronavirus were first reported. A study of healthcare workers found that a large number of them had symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression, that research inspired Alameda County to create a crisis line for healthcare workers from all backgrounds, including those who don't work directly in medicine like janitorial and maintenance staff been out who heads up the crisis line says many of the people who call in are feeling compassion, fatigue, and burnout. Speaker 3: 01:37 When you're in the helping profession, one way of self care is to have a distance between yourself and the person you're helping Speaker 1: 01:45 Distance from a global pandemic is hard. And so is getting distance from the reports and videos of police brutality. Speaker 3: 01:54 Every day, they're holding trauma and they're holding these experiences and grief and COVID-19 has exacerbated that trauma has exacerbated that grief Speaker 1: 02:03 After watching the video of Floyd, dr. Choma on a Berry says she laid in bed in the dark for days. Speaker 2: 02:10 Nice deal. So overwhelmed and almost as if I can't pay attention. And I don't want to, you know, put patients at risk cause I literally cannot Oak it. Uh, but then having to like, okay, I need to block this out. Speaker 1: 02:25 But the video sat in the back of her mind and she decided she needed to speak out. So she wrote an article about incorporating healthcare practices into policing, which was recently published in scientific American. She's also been initiating conversations in our workplace about racism and police violence, but between a pandemic that disproportionately impacts black, Latino and indigenous people and ongoing police violence and death, it's a lot of weight to carry. Speaker 2: 02:54 We're not getting any reprieve. We're not getting any sort of respite from the pandemic. And, and you're putting this on our communities as well. Like have some empathy, have some mercy Speaker 1: 03:07 And while protesting and a pandemic may be dangerous. Dr. Choma on a Berry says that for many, this issue is more important than their own personal health. That was KQBD reporter Michelle Wiley. Speaker 4: 03:23 [inaudible].