“Moments of Calmness.” In Puerto Rico, Building the Emotional Skills to Cope with Disaster
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By Ana Umpierre
April 15, 2021 5:10 am
Even before Hurricanes Irma and María slammed into Puerto Rico, mental health was a widespread issue on the island.
“You don’t need a natural disaster to feel stressed,” said Nancy Ruiz, one of the facilitators of Puerto Rico’s Center for Mind-Body Medicine. “Everyday problems accumulate as we carry on, and our bodies, like a glass full of water, continue to tolerate it until one day it overflows.”
Those existing concerns, combined with two destructive hurricanes, put a significant strain on Puerto Ricans’ mental health.
anywhere. take a listen. translator: my responsibility is to continue working and provide you with these results. one will always face different challenges. this is a big challenge, but at the same time, we must fulfill our objective. reporter: now, there s been reaction from puerto ricans all over the country and of course on the island, even presidential candidate elizabeth warren took to twitter this morning in support of the protesters that have been taking the streets on the island, in miami, in orlando, asking for the governor to step down. but of course, he s being defiant. he s not doing that. and the situation in puerto rico seems so unstable that even royal caribbean canceled the stop on the island, saying in essence that they don t feel it s safe for tourists to stop on the island. all this after about 900 pages of messages were published by the puerto rico center for investigative journalism. these messages were exchanges