The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

PRIME Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis says his administration is seeking to engage more psychiatrists and psychologists to have them speak with Hurricane Dorian survivors who may still be suffering from trauma associated with the deadly storm.

Mr Davis comments comes as the country observes Dorian memorial week, which ends September 4.

Events planned for the week include a Dorian memorial service, a wreath laying ceremony and several memorial concerts that are scheduled to be held on Abaco, Grand Bahama as well as New Providence.

However, the government has received heavy backlash over the events, specifically the manner in which they are being held and the terms that were previously used to describe it, for which officials have since apologised.

Yesterday, Mr Davis responded to continued criticisms of his administration over the events, saying “I think the concern was because of the use of the word ‘celebration’ and I never used the word celebration.”

He added: “As I’ve indicated to the press before, we are commemorating one of the most tragic events are country has experienced and we need to continue to remind ourselves of those events because people are still healing.”

“We still have to identify some of those bodies that were laid in the mass grave. We are still trying to sort that out. We have lessened the period of time for the presumption of death to bring closure in respect to the person’s bank accounts and to be able to deal with inheritance issues, insurance issues and we did that and so that’s one step towards assisting and bringing relief.”

Mr Davis also said: “The more important thing for me in respect to all of this is the mental health of persons traumatised by the events so we have to be sensitive always and, yes, we get exuberant and carried away with our language at times but words do matter and we need to be careful with the words that we use and even though it would’ve, it was an unintended consequence, I hope that those know that there are some lessons learnt on the manner of which we speak and that we be sensitive to the healing process people go through, particularly after a traumatic event like Hurricane Dorian.”

Asked yesterday how the government was assisting those still suffering from trauma related to Dorian, Mr Davis added: “We are seeking, the Minister of Health is seeking to engage more psychiatrists and psychologists and making them available to persons to call and talk to their challenges and that’s one of the things that we’re doing.”

Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019, as a Category 5 hurricane before barreling toward Grand Bahama.

Three years later, the islands remain in recovery mode.

According to Prime Minister Davis, work continues to restore the storm impacted islands to normalcy.

“We have been providing relief and we have been identifying the areas of which we can lend immediate relief. Some are more long term than short term. For example, housing in Grand Bahama and in Abaco are acutely short, particularly Abaco,” he added.

“And so we have started a housing programme. Houses are being built there. We are just now resolving the dome city where we are asking persons to move from those places so we can move those domes to build more homes at that site and in addition to that, we are providing some assistance to them to be able to take care of themselves in another place until we find alternative residences for them.”