Official statistics versus mental health reports in cases of disaster: A comparative analysis between the profile of morbi-mortality among elderly people and the perceptions of municipal managers in the States of Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (in Portuguese).

The occurrence of major disasters in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro
marked the years 2008 and 2011 in Brazil. Their impacts on elderly people remains
understudied in the national literature, especially regarding its repercussions on mental
health. By analyzing hospital admissions and mortality and comparing them with the
reports ofmunicipal officers, the present article aims to understand the mental health
effects suffered by elderly people who lived in areas affected by these water-related
disasters. Among the main results, the article highlights the mismatch between the
reported effects of the disasters and the official statistics. The analysis didn’t find
significant statistical correlation between the statistics and the acute crisis caused by
the disasters. On the other hand, the reports of the municipal officers suggest that there
existsan alarming and silenced impact of these disasters, concerning the worsening of
elderly people’s mental health.