Climate Change and Mental Illness
  
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The mental health impacts of climate change are likely to be gradual and cumulative. The connection between climate change and mental health may not always be clear, even to those who are affected. Each individual will react to climate change differently based on a variety of factors such as where he or she lives, occupation, and previous significant interactions with the environment.
Sense of Place

Places are locations with which people and communities feel an especially strong relationship based on shared experience. Our ties to places and the environments, traditions, and customs of those places- are often very deep and are part of our own identity. The impacts of climate change will not be uniform, and some areas will be more severely and/or frequently impacted than others. Therefore, an individual's place will be a key determinant of exposure to environmental changes or natural disasters.

Disasters and Mental Health

Negative mental health outcomes of disasters are not only attributable to exposure to the initial event. Many people who experience disaster struggle with displacement (temporary or long-term), unstable or unknown housing circumstances, difficulty finding temporary shelter, lack of access to support services, and loss of employment and possessions.

 

Most people who experience disaster are resilient, and basic support after an event will be sufficient to prevent negative mental health outcomes. However, stress, anxiety, or fear that lasts for several weeks or impacts an individual's daily activities and quality of life may indicate that additional mental health resources and support are necessary.  

Loss

Climate change can contribute to several sources of loss that may include:

  • Water shortage and drought
  • Loss of livelihood for those who have a career dependent on stable and expected climate conditions
  • Loss of property, pets, or possessions due to disaster
  • Loss of place due to forced migration or displacement due to disaster or loss of job

All of these losses can cause stress, sadness, anxiety, or depression amongst individuals or populations that are impacted.

Populations at Risk

Individuals who may be at an increased risk of the mental health impacts of climate change include:

  • People with preexisting mental illnesses such as psychosis, anxiety, or depression. Individuals with existing mental illnesses are particularly susceptible to additional mental illnesses, stress, and difficulty coping after a natural disaster.
  • People with low incomes. Socioeconomic disadvantage and unemployment are linked to poor mental health through increased exposure to psychosocial risk factors including reduced personal autonomy, negative self-perception, stress, insecurity, and social isolation.
  • People who have experienced disaster or live in disaster-prone areas.
  • Responders who work during a disaster are a potentially vulnerable population as well.
  • People who rely on stable and predictable climate conditions for their livelihood.

No one is immune from the stress of drought, severe weather or disasters, or the changes to our environment that we are experiencing. Anyone can experience mental health challenges due to climate change.

Contact Community Friendship, Inc. about mental health supportive services at 404 875-0381.  Follow our community work at

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