By Daniel Smith, Le Floridien
According to a mental Health research carried out in 2017 by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, it was recorded that mental illness affects 1 out of 10 people worldwide. This is estimated to be about 792 million people, yet only about 1% of the global workforce is earmarked for the mental healthcare sector. Comparatively, Haiti isn’t left out in feeling the effects that come with neglecting the mental healthcare sector. For over three decades, Haiti has suffered major psychological blows caused by different occurrences ranging from the magnitude earthquake killing about 300,000 Haitians and many more left displaced. Similarly, the case of Hurricane Matthew wiping off coastal infrastructure and trade roads, the lengthy droughts paralyzing local agricultural markets, the deadly cholera outbreak, the constant political unrest, coups, poverty and the most recent one – the COVID-19 pandemic among others really pose a great threat to the mental health of many Haitian.
As of the time of writing, Haiti has recorded 12,885 cases and 251 deaths as a result of the deadly covid -19 virus, and the struggle to meet the people’s basic Healthcare needs still remains questionable. Hospitals are full, with only two testing facilities for COVID-19 cases. This exposes how the cases outstrip their testing-equipment capacity.
The need for strengthened psychological support and mental health services have been prevalent in Haiti even before the pandemic, yet it is often not given any serious attention. According to a survey carried out by Magdalena Cerda, titled Psychopathology in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake: A population-based study of posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression in 2013, it was found that 90.5% of survey respondents had at least one or more close friend or relative who was either killed or injured, while 93% saw dead bodies.
The healthcare workforce in Haiti was underprepared and could not provide enough physical care that the population needs, not to talk of the provision for mental health or psychological services. In fact, many doctors and nurses in Haiti are getting fatigued and are being treated for anxiety and depression. To make things worse is the case of increased domestic violence occasioned by the prolonged lockdown and the heightened fear of contracting COVID-19 virus among the senior citizens all pose serious concern in Haiti.
Laetitia Dégraff, a psychologist at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Haiti while speaking with Radio Television Nationale d’Haiti (TNH) mentioned that successive traumas have almost become normalized. She said: “I’m not sure we totally recover from those traumas. Resilience is a word that is used often to describe Haitians, but I think it is most often because we don’t have the choice to dwell on what happened to us… because we went through so much already.”
In 2011, the Ministry of Health created a mental health unit after the earthquake. However, the unit has received little funding over time and cannot serve Haitians well enough. While speaking with The New Humanitarian, René Domersant who is a coordinator of the mental health lament on the low funding. He stated that “For a country of nearly 11 million, Haiti only has 23 psychiatrists and 124 psychologists.”
Figures from the World Bank shows that an average Haitian makes less than $2.41 per day. Feeding with this amount is already a struggle, which makes it even more difficult for an average Haitian to afford an hour session speaking with a psychologist for $50. With this limited number of mental health practitioners coupled with the low income rate of an average Haitian, seeking mental health care would be a great challenge for many. Besides the cost, there are some kinds of stigmatization surrounding mental health, making some people with mental health issues and COVID-19 symptoms seek the help of voodoo healers rather than health practitioners. They prefer to trust spiritual strength and inner religious belief in overcoming mental health issues. The belief together with the inadequate mental healthcare services in Haiti leaves a large number of the country’s population neglected.
However, since the outbreak of the pandemic, psychologists are beginning to volunteer to offer free services to people seeking mental health care. Eddy Eustache, the director of the mental health program run by the Boston-based NGO, Partners in Health stated “We are also trying to provide depression therapy for the medical staff affected by COVID-19… The work has not stopped.”
Sadly, some weeks after many countries across the Caribbean and Latin America started receiving the COVID-19 vaccines supplied by the World Health Organization-backed alliance, Haitians have not received a single dose of it. There are concerns coming from the government and health authorities in Haiti on the safety of the vaccine supplied by the international community and this has stalled the process of supplying the vaccine. At the moment, the government of Haiti has refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccines (AstraZeneca) for some health-safety concerns. However, whether the government of Haiti will eventually succumb to the use of the vaccine or not is not known yet.
The sad reality is that the coronavirus pandemic still persists. The aftermath of the pandemic and the political cum economic instability in Haiti could degenerate into a traumatic mental health crisis if proper measures aren’t put in place in time. Now more than ever, the country needs to pay close attention to the mental health needs of its people, in order to arrest the situation in Haiti as a whole.
Fortunately, there are nonprofit organizations such as Partners in Health that strive to develop mental health services in Haiti. The organization is based out of Boston and aims to establish long-term relationships with organizations existing in poor and developing countries. By partnering with local governments and organizations in the country, they have established mental healthcare delivery models integrating the cultural beliefs surrounding mental health, and the present social and environmental factors. Setting up mobile health clinics will assist patients in remote areas to have access to mental health services when the need arises.
Hopefully, in the coming years, continued funding and support of programs from the government and organizations will support the improvement of mental health and the general well-being of Haitians. This way, Haiti can overcome the psychological trauma that comes with both past and current crises.
