Dr. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo: What Do Natural Disasters Mean for Our Mental Health?

Hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and other natural disasters make big news. While cameras show us the wreckage when disaster strikes, for communities on the ground, the story does not end there. The effects of these dramatic and scary events are scarring on our mental and emotional health. What does living in a world of worsening natural disasters mean for our mental health? How can we respond to the trauma that natural disasters inflict, especially on children? Psychologist and trauma specialist Dr. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo is all too familiar with this scenario. Having grown up in Puerto Rico, she has helped train thousands of people on her home island in psychological first aid. In this episode, she and the Surgeon General also talk about why social connection is critical to recovery, especially when everything feels hopeless.

(5:01) What is trauma?

(7:36) Helping children through a climate disaster

(10:03) “Honey, this one’s bad…”

(14:09) How full are our emotional buckets?

(21:14) What is Psychological First Aid?

(25:56) Healing space for disaster victims.

(29:19) What best predicts disaster recovery? (hint: Social connection).

(33:31) How can we really help disaster victims from afar?

(36:20) Building our mental health workforce for the future.

(36:55) Our planet is reeling.

(42:35) Hope for the future.

Dr. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo, Clinical Psychologist & Trauma Specialist

Twitter: @RosauraOrengo

About Dr. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo

Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She completed her BA in Psychology at the University of Puerto Rico, her MA and PhD at the University of Iowa, and a National Institutes of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship in traumatic stress research at MUSC. Her research focuses on addressing mental health disparities among underserved populations (specifically Hispanic youth) through innovative implementation and dissemination methods. She has an active program of research on the cultural and linguistic adaptation and international dissemination of trauma-focused assessment and intervention, particularly within post-disaster contexts.

Dr. Orengo-Aguayo directs the Puerto Rican Center for Intervention and Training in Trauma, a SAMHSA-funded program aimed at capacity building, resource sharing, technical support, and training in evidence-based trauma interventions. Her team has published several seminal publications on the impact of disasters on youth mental health (JAMA Network Open), and the implementation and dissemination of in-person and telehealth delivery of Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in Latin America and US (American Psychologist). She is a co-author in the first telehealth manual available in Spanish published in January of 2022 (Manual de Telesalud Mental). She is the 2022 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Program Chair and serves on the Executive Board of the American Professional Society on the Abuse on Children (APSAC). Dr. Orengo-Aguayo co-directs the World Changers Lab at MUSC & Puerto Rico, with Dr. Regan W. Stewart, whose mission is to “change the world, one child at a time.”