By McKenzie Gooding • August 21, 2024
As an organization created by and for Caribbean youth, the team at Let’s Unpack It is all too familiar with the reality of living in a region constantly at the mercy of nature. Hurricanes, in particular, are part and parcel of life in the Caribbean, powerful, unforgiving natural disasters which devastate communities and even entire countries. For anyone paying attention, the name Beryl - in all its destructive glory - probably rings a bell. That’s because it’s the name of the first major hurricane for the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane season, and the earliest Category 5 (yes, FIVE) storm on record. Hurricane Beryl tore its way through most of the Caribbean, costing lives and millions of dollars in property damage across the Grenadian islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, as well as Union Island, Mayreau, and Canouan in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica and Barbados. Less than a week later, news of another tropical wave broke, leaving no room for people to catch their breath, let alone start the arduous process of rebuilding.
Hurricane Beryl’s unprecedented, extremely destructive nature, coupled with the harrowing stories which followed its passing, once again brings into focus the grave reality of natural disasters’ impact on our mental health, not just as individuals, but as Caribbean people. Words like “resilience” and phrases like “we will build back better” coexist with sentiments of decades-old trauma from hurricanes long gone and deepening anxiety surrounding the storms which are yet to come. This gravely understated relationship between climate change and mental health was the subject of the first episode of LUI’s new series More to de Matter, titled “Beryl, Climate & You”, streamed live on Instagram on July 25th, 2024. LUI founder David Johnson sat down with VP Chelsea Jordan and LUI/UNICEF Youth Mental Health Focal Point Jaime Young for a robust discussion on Hurricane Beryl’s impact on their mental health, the mental toll of climate change in the Caribbean, and what needs to be done at all levels of society to ensure the mental well-being and resilience of the region’s people before, during and after a natural disaster.
Beryl in Focus
The discussion began with a few moments of silence acknowledging the lives lost to Hurricane Beryl across the region before David shared a few testimonies from the wider LUI community directly affected by the storm. Some of these are highlighted below.
Shanaia, Grenada: “Hurricane Beryl's passage negatively affected my emotional state. Even though this was my third hurricane experience, this was the first in which I was old enough to understand how dangerous they could be. I vividly remember how scared I was, wondering if our house would be able to weather the hurricane. This was a result of seeing how the severe winds entirely destroyed one side of my church's roof. I cried out to my mother in a fit of hysteria, pleading with God to calm the winds. Yes, I had anticipated experiencing high gusts, but this was not what I had imagined.”
Natalia, Jamaica: "Hurricane Beryl has passed, but the aftermath has remained with Jamaicans to this day. Lives were lost, crops were destroyed, and property damaged. The financial and mental toll this is taking on our citizens, especially the underprivileged, is unexplainable."
Rianka, St. Vincent and The Grenadines: “Hurricane Beryl was a harrowing experience for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The journey to recovery seems interminable, overshadowed by the daunting climate crisis and the growing fear of even more devastating storms ahead.”
On social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), young people were openly vocal throughout Beryl’s destructive journey across the Caribbean, expressing sentiments of fear, anxiety and worry, as well as anger and grief. Many shared how older family members, faced with a potential repeat of then unprecedented, extremely devastating storms like Hurricanes Ivan and Gilbert, were essentially reliving decades-old horrors in real-time. For many with family in places like Carriacou and Petite Martinique, the fear and anxiety which preceded Beryl’s arrival was quickly followed by desperate searches for missing family members and palpable grief over the loss of childhood homes and the memories made therein. Viral videos of persons placing themselves in serious danger, in order to protect their homes, highlighted the desperation which so often accompanies our individual responses to natural disasters. Those of us in the Caribbean diaspora watched helplessly as nature mercilessly battered the places we call home.
In the weeks since Beryl’s passing, much of the focus has been on coordinating regional relief efforts and getting the hardest-hit places back on their feet. The process of rebuilding, however, has been coloured by lingering feelings of helplessness and resignation tied to the fact that these storms will keep coming and that they will be stronger and more destructive each time. Reconciling this reality with the need to pick up the pieces and start over was a major theme throughout the night’s discussion.
Climate Anxiety and Natural Disaster-Related Trauma: “Am I Next?”
LUI conducted a social media poll not long after Hurricane Beryl’s passing, posing the question of what its followers considered the biggest impact of the climate crisis on the mental health of Caribbean children and youth. The majority of respondents identified feelings of anxiety, worry and stress regarding future potential disasters, confirming a concerning trend of what has been termed climate anxiety - defined by scholars as “heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system”. According to research, young people are more likely to experience symptoms of climate anxiety. Host David and panelists Chelsea and Jaime were quick to confirm this, sharing their own experiences:
“It's one thing to know that hurricane season or wet season is coming. It’s another to be in a situation where you’ve lost your house or lost your roof, and you’re trying to pick up the pieces, but then the forecasters say another one is coming next week…that level of anxiety. That level of grief. Not only that, but you are dealing with loss: You’ve lost your house. You’ve lost routine. The country has shut down. There are a lot of things going on and then you have to cope…We’re expected to get up the next morning and clean up the yard, and just move along. But we are not actually dealing with what that means.” - Jaime Y.
“Praying for your own safety as an island in this chain is to know that if a system avoids you, it hits and decimates someone else. That’s just a horrible place to be.” - David J.
“...really and truly, having to pick up yourself and start over, every single year, is a lot! It takes a toll on you! What’s going to happen next? Am I going to be next in a big hit?” - Chelsea J.
To make matters worse, climate-related anxiety and trauma have been found to have intergenerational impacts, “especially where environmental damage involves loss of a way of life or culture”. In the Caribbean, where so much of our culture and heritage is tied to our identity as small islanders, climate change threatens not just infrastructure, but the very essence of who we are. Chelsea urged viewers to “imagine having to uproot your whole life because of a weather system some people can’t even begin to comprehend”, making reference to the hundreds displaced by hurricanes in Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.
Climate Change and Caribbean “Resilience”
If it wasn’t already obvious enough, none of these scenarios bode well for our mental health - no matter how much we seem to neglect that reality. Our featured trio lamented the fact that mental health is seldom considered in disaster risk reduction and management strategies across the region. Where basic needs - food, clothing and shelter - are understandably given the highest level of priority, the task of assessing the mental health impact in the aftermath of a natural disaster is often relegated to the back burner, considered too time-consuming. As Jaime notes, “after a natural disaster, everyone is mobilizing. Government is looking at infrastructure. Health is looking at people who are physically ill or shut-ins who need help. But nobody is asking “are you okay? You just faced a [disaster].” Nobody is asked “Do you need to speak to somebody?”
What this means is that the resilience Caribbean people are so well-known for - that driving force that rallies the region together and keeps us determined to rebuild and “rise again” in the wake of every storm - is often emphasized at the expense of holding space for the very real experiences of anxiety, grief, loss, uncertainty and the potential development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). David calls this long-standing relationship with resilience “very strange”, making the point that “it’s always been ‘how do I get myself out of this situation? How do I crack on?’”, a mindset that focuses on moving forward without granting ourselves the necessary time to heal from what are often deeply traumatic experiences. Chelsea echoes his sentiments, noting that where this perceived strength and resilience has been so normalized and even demanded out of sheer necessity, Caribbean people “may not even recognize that we need the help”. This reality is only further complicated by the disproportionate impact of climate change on the most underprivileged and vulnerable in society. People who have lost their entire livelihoods often have little to no access to adequate mental health and psychosocial support, and in David’s words, have “a heightened risk or propensity to develop some form of mental illness”.
A New “Normal”, but Not Quite
It’s easy for political leaders, government officials and the scientific community to double down on rhetoric that screams “This - that is, the climate crisis and the increasingly destructive consequences it brings - is our new normal”. Scientifically, they’re not wrong. Ocean temperatures continue to rise. Summers are growing hotter, and the hurricane “season” seems to defy its boundaries more and more with each coming year. The word 'unprecedented' has become worryingly familiar, especially in the Caribbean, where stronger and stronger hurricanes are coming earlier and earlier. Each year, we brace ourselves for the daunting, inevitable task of picking up the pieces in the wake of nature’s wrath. And each year, we make the dangerous assumption that our minds have already gotten with the program when it comes to just how traumatizing and devastating climate disasters can be. We subconsciously stack up trauma and anxiety storm after storm with little time to recover fully, and, as Chelsea rightfully pointed out, that is not normal. Responding effectively to mental health crises post-climate disasters first requires acknowledging this fact.
Building True Resilience: An All-of-Society Approach
So, how do we get to a place where access to mental health and psychosocial support is not left out of disaster preparedness and response planning? According to our panelists, it takes a proactive, multi-layered, all-of-society approach which focuses on educating, equipping and mobilizing people with the skills necessary to effectively meet the mental health needs of those with which they interact. Special emphasis was placed on expanding access to training in psychological first aid (PFA), which is “designed to reduce the initial distress caused by traumatic events and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning and coping”. PFA is the mental health equivalent of emergency assistance, and is just as crucial in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, natural disaster or otherwise. First responders, as well as Department of Emergency Management (DEM) staff and volunteers, are primely situated to help carry out PFA during and after hurricanes like Beryl, which completely destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds across the region.
Jaime pointed out the need for year-round mental health/PFA public awareness and sensitization programmes, aimed at destigmatizing and normalizing this conversation among the general public, way before disaster strikes. Chelsea hit back at critics who deem post-disaster mental health assessments too long a process, emphasizing the immediate, short-term nature of PFA and the need for its inclusion in first-response situations. David lamented the absence of mental health experts at the decision-making table of disaster preparedness and response planning, calling for greater advocacy to this effect.
Coping Strategies and Moving Forward
As the night’s conversation drew to a close, our panelists shared various coping strategies they use to help them personally navigate climate anxiety and post-disaster mental health difficulties. Posed with the question as to how children and youth can build resilience and capacity to adapt and cope with the climate crisis, Jaime identified early preparation as one of her major methods of reducing climate-related anxiety, as well as the cathartic process of journaling. Chelsea labelled herself a list-maker, and concurred with Jaime’s sentiments of pre-hurricane prep, sharing how simple things like stocking up on “hurricane snacks” and pre-downloading shows and music to keep oneself occupied during a storm’s passing can help ease stress and anxiety. She also emphasized the importance of leaning into community for support and checking in with loved ones, which can help lessen much of the anxiety associated with losing contact during and after the passage of natural disasters. In a natural disaster scenario where there is often little we can actively control, coping strategies like these can be more useful than one might think.
Wrapping up the live stream, David, Chelsea and Jaime reiterated the importance of conversations just like these - destigmatizing, normalizing and increasing access to mental health and psychosocial support, especially in the post-disaster context. Responding to the climate crisis must be a holistic process, one that values the quality of life (and mental health) of those most affected by it just as much as life and property themselves. In saying this, there’s definitely something to be said about the relationship between climate justice and mental health - after all, it is those of us who contribute least to climate change who are most adversely affected by it. How we make sure the most marginalized and vulnerable in our societies have equitable and adequate access to quality PFA and mental health care is equally worthy of further discussion - but that’s a conversation for next time. For now, we might all do well to adopt Chelsea’s mindset on the matter: “a mental health resource isn’t going to bring back a house or put food on the table, but it gives you a better headspace, a bit more motivation to say I can carry on.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
McKenzie Gooding is a 24-year-old mental health advocate from Barbados, who recently completed a Master of Arts in International Development and Cooperation in South Korea. McKenzie uses her voice and shares her lived experiences to boost awareness and generate mental health literacy. She is a talented writer and enjoys talking about all things Culture, Film, and Mental Health. McKenzie is a contributor to the ACT!ON film/drama vertical of EnVi Magazine and is also a member of FORMATION, EnVi's vertical created to promote the work of black creators and contributors.
We could all use a little help and support sometimes. If you're going through a rough patch or need to get connected with a mental health resource, visit our YoungCaribbeanMinds.com digital mental health hub here. You can also find some other resources compiled by Let's Unpack It here. Help is just one click or one phone call away.
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