The prior post discussed comments about “excited delirium” by Dr. Paul Nystrom, who also is a moonlighting MPD police officer, that were skeptical about AMA and other criticism over the concept of “excited delirium.”[1] Those comments have triggered vigorous dissent. [2]
On February 14, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he was “irate” when he learned of these comments by Dr. Nystrom. According to the Mayor, “The direction we gave was very clear. We wanted this to be a substantive — not a cosmetic — change. I directed very clearly to move away from excited delirium as both a term and a concept. … The video you’re referencing was not in line.”
In addition, the Mayor directed “the department to immediately terminate their contract with Dr. Nystrom.”
Similar criticism was voiced by Hennepin Healthcare CEO Jennifer DeCubellis, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Hoody and Chief Health Equity Officer Dr. Nneka Sederstrom. They said their organization had “failed to follow through on our promise to no longer teach excited delirium and to be intentional in addressing systemic racism. Systemic racism is deeply imbedded in law enforcement and health care systems, including ours. We failed to address it here when we had the opportunity and, in doing so, have caused further pain and mistrust. We are extremely sorry for the further harm this has caused to our community.”
Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman had additional comments. She said when Nystrom gave an outline of the revised training in person to [MPD] command staff he did not include “this digression into really his thoughts about the controversy” that were included in the final training video and that “did not meet what we asked for . . . and wasn’t appropriate.”
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[1] New Evidence of “Excited Delirium” Training by MPD, dwkcommentaries.com (Feb. 13, 2022).
[2] Mannix, Mayor Frey: Hennepin Healthcare doctor failed to follow directive on ‘excited delirium’ training, StarTribune (Feb. 14, 2022).
