A woman named Doraima, living in Palmarito located in Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus, is in a critical mental health condition without medical care, according to an urgent plea shared on Facebook by the community page "El Trinitario de a Pie."
Members of the page visited Doraima’s home and found her severely destabilized, apparently due to a lack of medication. "We found her in a very unstable condition, seemingly due to missing her medication," they noted in the post.
Efforts to approach and assist her were met with resistance, as Doraima refused any help. In the video accompanying the plea, she can be heard rejecting pills and food, saying, "No, I don’t want more pills, I don't want more pills or food. It’s the same poison."
A voice in the recording refers to the situation as "schizophrenia without treatment," suggesting that Doraima is suffering from a mental disorder without receiving necessary medication.
The video’s publishers warned that the footage does not fully capture the severity of the situation: "What you see in the video is just a part... the situation is much worse than it appears." They concluded with a request for specialists to evaluate the woman.
Doraima’s case is not unique. Just days earlier, a 26-year-old woman with paranoid schizophrenia in Velasco, Holguín, was confined in a barred room because her family could not manage her crises or obtain her medication, a case that also went viral on social media.
Both instances highlight Cuba’s medication shortage crisis, severely impacting psychiatric drugs.
BioCubaFarma meets only 40% of the national demand for psychotropics, with medications like risperidone, quetiapine, clonazepam, and sertraline among the scarcest.
In July 2025, Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda acknowledged that the availability of essential medications was below 32%.
By 2026, only three out of every ten essential medications were available in public pharmacies, turning the mental health crisis in Cuba into a silent emergency.
The "El Trinitario de a Pie" page functions as an informal community support network in Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus, and has previously highlighted other cases of vulnerable individuals in the area, amidst the lack of an institutional response from the Cuban health system.
The video concerning Doraima garnered over 11,400 views and hundreds of reactions, with neighbors and users across Cuba urging health authorities to intervene urgently.
Understanding Cuba's Mental Health Crisis
What is the current state of mental health medication availability in Cuba?
As of July 2025, essential medication availability was below 32%, with severe shortages in psychiatric drugs like risperidone and clonazepam.
How do community pages like "El Trinitario de a Pie" contribute to addressing these issues?
"El Trinitario de a Pie" acts as an informal support network, bringing attention to cases of vulnerable individuals and urging for institutional response.
Why are psychiatric medications so scarce in Cuba?
The scarcity is due to BioCubaFarma meeting only 40% of the national demand for psychotropics, exacerbating the mental health crisis.