“In Hawaii, West Maui officially reopened to tourists this month, more than two months after wildfires
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the island. Still, the trauma for the people of Lahaina
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, they’re haunted by the images and sounds from the deadly fires, and
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professionals there say it's creating a mental health
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. Dr Jennifer Hartstein, a family and clinical psychologist joins us now for more on this. Good to have you with us. So, I mean, living through a
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like the Maui wildfires can be very
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, and we are just seeing so many natural disasters plague so many communities in recent years. Tell us about the effect a natural disaster like this can have on your mental health and what symptoms
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might be experiencing?
-It's a really important thing to think about. What some
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has found is that in areas three years after there’s a natural disaster, there is an
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in mental health issues of up to 23%. So, we know that there is a direct
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between mental health problems that arise out of these things. Most of it is a traumatic reaction. Despair,
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, worry, hypervigilance. There’s survivor’s guilt for some people who may have lost family members, lost
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, lost their homes. So, all of that contributes to depression, anxiety, feelings of
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, all of those things.
-So, let's talk about suicide because that is a major
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. A twelve-year study found suicide rates in US counties that experienced a natural disaster increased 23% in the three years after, compared with the three years
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. And according to the CDC, suicide rates have increased among Native Hawaiians and Pacific
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by nearly 16% from 2021 to 2022, so before the fires. Do we know why this is and what can be done to try and help with suicide prevention?
-I think, you know, with natural disasters there is so much
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that we are so busy working on getting our basic needs met initially that it may take time for all the
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and the loss and the overwhelm to really hit us. So that's one of the reasons that I would, you know, hypothesize that timeframe three years after the disaster happens. It's
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why mental health in Hawaiians has increased in that time prior to the fire, but Hawaii has changed a lot. Tourism has taken over, jobs have been
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to find, so some of that could increase there too. And what Hawaiians do, that’s really beautiful, is they believe in
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and they lean into that as a way to get some support that they might need.
-So, one Native Hawaiian
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told NBC that many Hawaiians are not inclined to seek counseling because they can’t find a therapist who comes from the same culture or at least
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their community's history. We’re a little tight on time here, but what is some of the
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that can be done to try and close this gap?
-So, I think that is a hard thing and so it’s learning the community, really that’s an important thing. And the other thing that’s really important is for people to look at what they can do. Use their community,
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on one another, go back to things that bring joy to them, and as they
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that, their mental health really will improve.
-Alright, Dr Jennifer Hartstein, thank you so much for joining us on this topic, we appreciate it. And if you or anyone you know is struggling, you can call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.”