With a large number of people migrating from Puerto Rico to find better jobs an opportunity, professionals and students are lacking.
This greatly impacts the mental healthcare of the public, with a lack of people and funds to pay professionals, leaving those who are in need, to suffer.
In the case of poverty, people are prone to experience depression, stress, addiction, low self-esteem and suicide.
[8] Daniel C. Marston, a cognitive and behavioral psychologist, conducted a study on the ‘Neurobehavioral and psychological effect on poverty’.
Marston's study states that adults in poverty display higher levels of withdrawal symptoms, somatic complaints and pervasive negative thinking.
[9] The first epidemiological study the status of mental health in Puerto Rico in 1985, shows that 165,497 people suffer from serious conditions in a population of 3,187,671.
Quoting the research, facilities accepted and treated those with serious and disabling conditions and not to those who, despite also suffering from mental illnesses, are still considered "functional."
[10] Daniel C. Marston concluded, "lack of access to appropriate care due to economic crisis, traditionally identified as in main reason why people in poverty do not receive services to help address neuro-behavioral problems.