Psychological toll of Cuba’s multiple crises pushing many islanders to breaking point

HAVANA -- Sweltering nights. Water and power shortages. Dwindling fuel and crumbling homes. Limited public transportation and weak cellphone signals.The psychological toll of daily life in Cuba is pushing many to their breaking point on this island of nearly 10 million people, with no relief in sight as a U.S. energy embargo persists and longtime economic and financial troubles deepen.“Before there was hope,” Dr. Yomeidis Felicó Riverón said. “Right now, what people have lost is exactly that.”Felicó Riverón is a primary care physician, but she has embraced an additional role as Cubans grind through their days.“They come and cry about their troubles, because they have no one else to vent to,” she said of her patients. “We end up having to play psychologist.”On a recent sunny afternoon, six girls and one boy crowded around a table as their parents sat in the background, trying to fan away the stifling heat.The children were learning how to make gift bags and perfume, a free workshop that offered them a brief respite from Cuba’s realities.“My son doesn’t know if there’s food or if there’s no food,” Felicó Riverón said, confiding that she never tells him when she doesn’t have money to ...