Psychosocial support is an important need during recovery from Hurricane Maria

Joseph O. Prewitt Diaz, PhD

Center for Psychosocial Solutions

Alexandria, VA 22310

Hurricane Maria has been a very stressful event.  That stress will linger on for a long time after the vegetation has grown, the mud washed away from the roads, the water in the creeks, the rivers has receded, and the government services are back on line.  As the time goes by improving or is improving very little of the recovery, will exacerbate, people’s psychosocial needs.

Rationale for a long-term psychosocial support

Everyone is likely to require continuing psychosocial support. Often, people’s experiences, which reflect the personal and social meanings of the event for them, and the understandings and meanings they derive from it, have more influence on the psychosocial impact of the event than the event itself. Recovery from distress after disasters, including Hurricane Maria, is characterized by adaptation to circumstances that have changed and by rebuilding communities.

Hurricane Maria has impacted the psychosocial well being of children, young people and older people may be more vulnerable than are adults of working age because they are dependent on adults’ responses to the floods that affect families. Parents’ wellbeing, for example, affects the quality of their parenting; people’s direct experiences and those that affect their caretakers may, separately and in interaction, either protect them or intensify the negative effects on children, older people and those with functional needs.

The extended timeframe of the impacts of Hurricane Maria on people, their homes, neighborhood and their communities are such that the effects of secondary stressors are highly important because they prolong the welfare, physical and psychosocial impacts. Recognition of the longer timeframe in which, psychosocial and mental healthcare responses are required is an important lesson that has been learned from major disasters in the past.

Action steps for the recovery

The response to Hurricane Maria in the recovery phase will require the following action steps:

·      Adoption of a community led multi-sector approach to promoting psychosocial wellbeing and recovery.   Family and community assets are vitally important to maintain and promote personal and collective psychosocial resilience.

·      Reliance on social cohesion community activities must be considered. These activities  have a significant effect on psychosocial expressions of distress and encourage  recovery

·      Introduce psychological first aid as a first order intervention.

·      Place based psychosocial support activities should be initiated immediately, and planned well into recovery.

Establish alliances with government and non-government, faith based, and community organizations, to support their psychosocial resilience and emotional wellbeing of the survivors.

Summary

The action steps proposed herein, support the a psychosocial support approach that comprises both universal and targeted plans and interventions, which are well with adequate, timely access for people in need.

Understanding Hurricane Maria in these terms should give direction to the response from service providers as well as from the affected communities. This applies to initial emergency responses, as well as recovery and reconstruction.