Dr. Cayetano: Disaster prep must account for mental health
Before a disaster strike, residents are always encouraged to prepare. That preparation usually entails storing food and water for the aftermath, but according to the Pan American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, that is only one aspect. That is why the Mental Health Programme in the Ministry of Health organized a three-day conference to strengthen the Ministry’s Mental Health response in emergency settings. So how do you take care of your mental health before and after a disaster? That is what News Five asked the regional advisors.
Claudina Cayetano, Psychiatrist, M.O.H.
“We tend to prepare physically, we tend to prepare our hurricane shelters, we tend to think of that. And even when the people do assessment they look at the physical damages and over the years we’re been realizing that there is a lot of psychological and mental reaction, emotional reactions to disasters. So it’s very important to learn what are these emotional responses and how do we prepare so that we respond better during a disaster.”
Dr. Devora Kestel, Sub-Regional Advisor, C.P.C.
“What we do is we try to provide support to the countries in the region in the mental health area. And mental health means everything that is related with mental health, including mental health in a disaster, in an emergency context.”
Jose Sanchez
“What is your contribution to what’s been happening?”
Dr. Devora Kestel
“Based on the experience we have from other countries and from the region, what we try to do is support the organisation of this workshop by providing technical expertise, by introducing some concepts that may be newly developed, collected from worldwide experience. Unfortunately, over the last years many big, huge disasters happen in different parts of the world so we have the responsibility to be aware of what is going on in terms of development and easier ways of understanding the problem and then bring it to the country according to the country’s needs, supporting the country, in this case Belize, in preparing a plan that will help the country to deal better with an emergency from the mental health perspective.”
Jose Sanchez
“What’s the best way to prepare mentally?”
Claudina Cayetano
“Awareness, awareness. This is what we are doing; education, educating people so that you can educate your family, we educate the community in terms of what can happen during a disaster, what are the emotional things and responses that we can experience when we have disasters. If we don’t do that, again when it comes we’re gonna be totally shocked and unaware of what’s happening to us and that stops you from functioning and taking care of yourself. Once you know that these are normal responses, you have to continue with your life and how you understand your own stress level. So those are very important. For us it’s not only—it’s the Ministry of Health organising it—but we have other players who also go into the disaster like Red Cross, UNICEF, Human Development. So we bring all these players together to be able to develop a plan. This plan is, as I said, from a mental health perspective.”
According to Dr. Cayetano, Belize is the first country in the Caribbean to have developed a mental health plan to deal with disasters and emergencies. The workshop was funded by PAHO.
