Four months after Hurricane Harvey soaked the Houston area and displaced more than a third of the population, an alarming 52 percent of Harris County residents said they were still struggling to recover, according to a new report from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.
“What we found was that even though recovery around us looks to be moving at a quick pace, a fairly high percentage of people are still looking for alternative housing or have substantial unmet needs,” said Stephen Linder, Ph.D., co-author of the report and director of the Institute for Health Policy at UTHealth School of Public Health.
This survey, conducted four months after Harvey, provides more detail on how the storm affected people mentally and physically and reports unprecedented levels of serious psychological distress (SPD) among those directly affected by hurricane damage. While 18 percent of Harris County residents showed signs of SPD in the period since the storm (the national rate is 4 percent), among those who had serious damage to their vehicle, the number rose to 37 percent, and among those who had serious damage to their home, it peaked at 48 percent. By comparison, the Health of Houston Survey in 2010 found that only 8 percent of Harris County residents met the scientific criteria for SPD.
Among the residents who suffered serious damage and reported signs of psychological distress, only 30 percent considered mental health care a pressing need.
Read more at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Image: This is Stephen Linder, Ph.D., next to the Brays Bayou with the Houston skyline. (Credit: Maricruz Kwon, UTHealth)