Contextualizing the COVID-19 Era in Puerto Rico: Compounding Disasters and Parallel Pandemics

García, Cézar; Rivera, Fernando I.; García, Marc A.; Burgos, Giovani; Aranda, María P.

doi:10.1093/geronb/gbaa186

Cited by 36 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…PROMESA, codified in law by President Barack Obama, undervalued and undercut health care system and infrastructure maintenance plans and disaster preparedness capacity in Puerto Rico and thereby clipped broader recovery efforts in the territory in Hurricane Irma and Maria’s wake (de Onís, 2018). Hence, policies like PROMESA that destabilize the democratic process, recalling the historical trauma of political exclusion which racial/ethnic minorities in the United States have experienced, have the dual effect of weakening community capacity to proactively deal with public health disasters—similar to COVID-19, which has ravaged Puerto Rico’s population health and its already-fledging economy (García et al, 2020)—while also instilling feelings of insecurity, anger, and despair in the populace (Garriga-López, 2020; Moulton & Machado, 2019).…”

Section: Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Mariamentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersectional trauma: COVID-19, the psychosocial contract, and America’s racialized public health lineage.

Ezell

Salari

2021

Traumatology

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This comparative review explores how, during COVID-19 and recent American public health disasters, including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Maria, early failures in public health communications, porous epidemiologic oversight, and lax crisis management created significant gaps in outreach and treatment for historically disenfranchised racial/ethnic minorities. In consideration of each event’s broader specter in terms of population health inequities, a highly salient but underresearched dynamic emerges: the development of heightened psychological sequelae including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress, factors linked to civic and health care system disengagement and poorer overall health. This excess mental illness morbidity can be said to fall under the umbrella of intersectional trauma, or psychological harm and psychosocial vulnerability produced through the accumulation of cultural, political, economic, and ecologic stressors tied to salient identity markers such as race or ethnicity. During COVID-19, reports have presaged race- and class-specific disparities in infections and mortality, with evidence highlighting adverse effects on the “psychosocial contract,” public trust and faith in government and health care systems which is borne from relational experiences tied to one’s identity markers. We discuss how COVID-19’s kinetic and fluid political dynamics may add to the burden of mental illness and trauma in racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States and further entrench said disparities, closing with potential strategies for mitigation.

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Section: Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Mariamentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersectional trauma: COVID-19, the psychosocial contract, and America’s racialized public health lineage.

Ezell

Salari

2021

Traumatology

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“…Notably, data collection began prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and is ongoing. The present study used data from tests administered between June 25, 2019, and August 31, 2021, with 131 protocols being administered prior to March 10, 2020, and 235 administered after May 5, 2020; no data were collected between March 10 and May 5, 2020, due to restrictions in response to COVID-19, which has substantially impacted Puerto Rico (García et al, 2021). We compared mean MMPI-3 substantive scale T scores for data collected before and after the start of COVID-19 and all differences were less than 2.5 T scores points with those administered the MMPI-3 after the start of the pandemic scoring a median .43 T higher on the substantive scales.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometric properties of Spanish-language MMPI-3 scores in a Puerto Rican parental fitness evaluation setting.

Whitman¹,

Hansen²,

Medina³

et al. 2022

Psychological Assessment

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The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) family of instruments have long been used in child custody and parental fitness evaluation (PFE) contexts, spanning from the original MMPI to the recently released MMPI-3. In addition to updating the English-language normative sample and expanding content coverage, the MMPI-3 was released with a U.S. Spanish-language normative sample. The present study sought to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish-language MMPI-3, specifically in a PFE context. The sample consisted of individuals who were evaluated for parental fitness at a multisite private practice in Puerto Rico. A combined gender comparison group sample with equal number of men and women (n = 238) produced mean T scores that were within half a standard deviation of the Spanishlanguage normative sample on all scales. Scores on the Symptom Validity Scale were meaningfully higher among women (n = 247) relative to the normative sample, and the mean juvenile conduct problems score among men (n = 119) was meaningfully higher than that of the normative sample. Reliability estimates were generally adequate, with some reflecting low internal consistency; however, low standard errors of measurement indicated that low alpha estimates were a function of range restriction rather than measurement imprecision. Limitations, including the need for the accumulation of validity evidence, are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study provides support for the psychometric properties of the U.S. Spanish-language MMPI-3 in a parental fitness evaluation context. The results can be used by practitioners to guide interpretation of test scores in these contexts.

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“…Empathy also guided our response to unexpected situations and compounding disasters that arose in the course of our work together, including the 2020 Puerto Rico M6.4 earthquake and associated seismic sequence, chronic flooding across Puerto Rico, and the global COVID-19 pandemic that affected us all. 56 Empathy took the form of checking in with team members and collaborators on a personal level and creating space for those concerns to take precedence over our work together or any competing deadlines. More generally, empathy provided a strong motivation to participate in collaborative risk communication and established a foundation to navigate complex circumstances while cocreating with diverse teams and networks.…”

Section: Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles for collaborative risk communication: Reducing landslide losses in Puerto Rico

West¹,

Davis²,

Bendezú³

et al. 2021

JEM

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Landslides are frequent and damaging natural hazards that threaten the people and the natural and built environments of Puerto Rico. In 2017, more than 70,000 landslides were triggered across the island by heavy rainfall from Hurricane María, prompting requests by local professionals for landslide education and outreach materials. This article describes a novel collaborative risk communication framework that was developed to meet those requests and shaped the creation of a Spanish- and English-language Landslide Guide for Residents of Puerto Rico. Collaborative risk communication is defined here as an iterative process guided by a set of principles for the interdisciplinary coproduction of hazards information and communication products by local and external stakeholders. The process that supports this form of risk communication involves mapping out the risk communication stakeholders in the at-risk or disaster-affected location—in this case Puerto Rico—and collaborating over time to address a shared challenge, such as landslide hazards. The approach described in this article involved the formation of a core team of government and university partners that expanded in membership to conduct collaborative work with an informal network of hazards professionals from diverse sectors in Puerto Rico. The following principles guided this process: cultural competence, ethical engagement, listening, inclusive decision making, empathy, convergence research, nested mentoring, adaptability, and reciprocity. This article contributes to the field of risk communication and emergency management by detailing these principles and the associated process in order to motivate collaborative risk communication efforts in different geographic and cultural contexts. While the work described here focuses on addressing landslides, the principles and process are transferable to other natural, technological, and willful human-caused hazards. They may also serve as a roadmap for future partnerships among government agencies and university researchers to inform the cocreation of science education and outreach tools.

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Contextualizing the COVID-19 Era in Puerto Rico: Compounding Disasters and Parallel Pandemics

Cited by 36 publications

References 14 publications

Intersectional trauma: COVID-19, the psychosocial contract, and America’s racialized public health lineage.

Intersectional trauma: COVID-19, the psychosocial contract, and America’s racialized public health lineage.

Psychometric properties of Spanish-language MMPI-3 scores in a Puerto Rican parental fitness evaluation setting.

Principles for collaborative risk communication: Reducing landslide losses in Puerto Rico

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