While Donald Trump and the Republicans spend this week fighting with Democrats over the DACA program and curbing migration from “shithole” countries, one particularly marginalized group of Americans remains in crisis yet completely ignored. Puerto Ricans continue to suffer life-threatening conditions due to the impact of Hurricane Maria—although you wouldn’t know it since we haven’t heard anything about it recently.
Tuesday marks 118 days since the hurricane. Nearly half of the main island of Puerto Rico remains without power. Many of the residents of the islands of Vieques and Culebra (both parts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) not only lack power but also reliable ferry service—which is the main source of food, supplies and transportation on and off those islands and San Juan. At present, there is no answer as to when power will return or when tourism (the main source of income for both) may resume. Last week, Puerto Rico’s police chief resigned because almost 3,000 officers a day have called in sick in protest of not receiving overtime pay while the murder rate on the island has increased. It’s about as desperate a situation that one can imagine.
Yet, Donald Trump hasn’t tweeted about Puerto Rico or mentioned it since October. That’s right. In the midst of this worsening tragedy, Trump hasn’t talked about the dangerous conditions facing over 3 million Americans in almost three months. When he did, he was full of self-congratulatory praise for the “great” job he’s doing.
Meanwhile, a new mental health crisis has occurred on the island. Suicides in Puerto Rico are up by 16 percent and some health specialists are making the link to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
The rate of suicide increased to nearly a suicide a day in Puerto Rico in November, according to a recent report released by The Commission for the Prevention of Suicide. At least 227 people committed suicide on the island last year, a 16 percent increase compared to 2016, according to the report released Tuesday from the commission, which is part of the Department of Health of Puerto Rico.
After Hurricane Maria, 26 people took their own lives in November, or nearly one person a day. The suicide report also found that 85 percent of suicides are committed by men, and 14 percent are committed by women.
This is tragic, but not totally unimaginable, given the circumstances. People have lost everything, their government has abandoned them and there are no answers as to when things, if ever, will go back to normal. This is certainly not to say that all hurricane victims become suicidal. But mental health issues (such as trauma, stress, PTSD, depression and other issues) can develop or become extreme in the midst of this kind of crisis.
“If someone is in a position where they do not have any electricity, water or a roof over their head, you’re going to either break and sometimes break to the point of committing suicide,” said Alicia Schwartz, a home care nurse from New York City, who volunteered in Puerto Rico through the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union after Maria hit the island.“You can only live so much without the simple necessities of having a roof over your head.”
Sadly, mental health practitioners in Puerto Rico have a huge challenge in front of them. Reaching people in rural areas (which have been the most affected by the hurricane) who have emotional and mental health issues is still difficult. And stigma about mental health treatment remains an issue. Moreover, there is a sense of hopelessness and abandonment growing among residents based on the pitiful response from the federal government.
“A lot of people are still living with tarps over their roofs. We normally have thousands of patients but have seen an increase in patients coming into the facility in rural areas post-Maria. Power is restored in most urban areas, but for rural areas, it's as if the storm hit last week,” said [Dr. Kenira Thompson, who works with mental health services at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico.] [...]
"Puerto Ricans have always felt that as a people when they are in a crisis, the American government will be there to help us. That has not happened. The response has been slow and terrible, and since [Hurricane Maria], we have felt alone and abandoned," said [Alfredo Carrasquillo, a consultant at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan.]
This administration’s response to this disaster has been an absolute failure in every way. And it continues. Hurricane relief funds remain tied up in partisan bickering. Donald Trump is too busy trying to build his wall and convince the American people that he’s a stable genius (he’s not) and that he’s not a racist (he is). And Puerto Ricans are dying by the day—some of them by their own hand because they are so desperate that they can’t see any way out of this nightmare. And it will only get worse as time goes on. In just a few months, hurricane season begins again. Dr. Thompson reminds us of this inevitable fact. “Mental health issues will not stop, if you think about the next hurricane season will start again in six months. We will have chaos when the first storm is announced on the news. Hopefully, it's not another storm like Maria.”