According to IPCC, rapid climate change is a growing threat for mental health.

Climate change is a serious threat to mental health. For the first-ever time, a New climate reportThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has evaluated the impact of climate change on mental health worldwide.

As climate change has made it more difficult to protect mental health, so research and public interest in the topic have increased over the past decade.

Weather and climate extremes like floods, droughts or heat events can have devastating effects on mental health. Slow onset events like changing seasonal and environmental norms, sea level rise and ice patterns can also affect people’s mental well-being.

Evidence is mounting that the effects of climate events that are rapid, widespread, and pervasive may have a variety of consequences. Anxiety, PTSD, Higher suicide rates, A decreased sense of well being (stress, sadness)., Ecological griefA rise in domestic violence cultural erosionand a decrease in social capital and social relationships

Scientists who contributed to the most recent IPCC report Climate Change 2022: Vulnerability, Adaptation and ImpactsWe are pleased to announce that the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) has been completed. It assesses climate change’s impact on mental health. This is a significant advancement and a new contribution.

Important threats

The Earth will By 2040, it is likely that 1.5 C of warming will be achieved above preindustrial levelsUnder intermediate and high greenhouse gas emission scenarios, it brings with it Higher temperatures in the ocean and on land, decreasing sea ice, more heat waves and more rainfall in certain regions, and greater chances of drought in others.

Increased exposure to these dangers leads to more negative mental health outcomes. The report’s findings confirm the importance, breadth, and depth of climate change’s impact on mental health. These negative mental health outcomes are increasing and unevenly distributed as a result of climate change, according to global research.

Here are three important things that the IPCC report has to say about North America’s mental health and climate change.

1. It is now easier to understand the negative effects of climate change on mental health.

When the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC(AR5) was published in 2014. There was limited research on mental health outcomes. The report mentioned that climate change could affect mental health, but there wasn’t enough published research available then to fully assess its impacts.

As the volume and variety of research on Climate change and mental health have grown in importanceThis new report can now assess its impact. Researchers have been able to examine how both climate and weather extremes such as storms, floods, droughts and fires and slower-onset climate changes such as warming temperatures and changing environmental norms interact with people’s vulnerabilities such as socio-economic inequities, age, gender, identity, occupation and health and lead to a diverse range of negative mental health outcomes.

For example, Synthesis of global literature found that those exposed to flooding events — such as the floods in southern British Columbia in 2021, in Ottawa in 2019 and Alberta in 2013 — experience PTSD, depression and anxiety in the short term and have elevated risks for these mental health outcomes in the long term. Similar mental health outcomes were observed for those who were not exposed to flooding events. Exposed to wildfires and smoke from related sources, such as the wildfires of the Northwest Territories, Alta. in 2014, Fort McMurray in Alta. in 2016, and Lytton in B.C. in 2021.

Our Your own workLabrador’s Inuit, Nunatsiavut (Labrador) shows how slower, cumulative effects of rising temperatures and declining sea ice, as well as changing seasonal, animal or plant patterns, can have a devastating effect on land-based activities, livelihoods, and livelihoods. This can have negative effects on mental and emotional well being. This includes Strong emotional reactions(stress, anger and fear, as well as distress). Ecological griefLoss, anxiety, depression and expressions thereof Loss of cultural knowledge, place-based identities, and connections.

2. The effects of climate change on mental health are not evenly distributed.

Climate change works across intersecting social determinants of health — factors such as age or gender that influence health and how people live — to disproportionately affect certain groups.

AR6, for example, shows how certain communities and individuals are most at-risk for worsening mental illness outcomes. This is due to their proximity and dependence on the environment.

3. It’s not too late to promote resilience.

Climate change is not an insurmountable threat. It’s a growing reality. It is imperative to take immediate action to protect individuals, communities, health systems, and mental health from the effects of climate change. This will also help support individual and community resilience. Climate-specific mental health outcomes training, policy action, and other support services can help increase resilience.

For example, the American Psychological Association outlines strategies to build personal resilience, including building belief in one’s own reslience, fostering optimism, cultivating coping strategies, finding sources of personal meaning, finding social support networks (family, friends, organized groups), fostering and upholding a connection to place and maintaining connections to one’s culture.

It is crucial to incorporate climate-specific training into education, for doctors, nurses, psychologists psychiatrists, counsellors, and other health professionals. This will help build climate-literate health professionals who can support individual and community resilience, and prepare health systems for better service to those with climate-sensitive mental illnesses.

Finally, Health systems and health authoritiesIt is important to take steps to improve the health system’s readiness to handle growing mental health needs, increase disaster planning and training, and to support individual and collective resilience to climate change.

Moving forward

The evidence suggests that climate change has already had a significant impact on mental health and is likely to continue. Climate change will remain a serious threat, even with strong and immediate action towards adaptation and mitigation. It is crucial that we recognize the serious dangers that climate change poses for mental well-being, and that we take immediate action to support health systems, improve individual and community mental health, and resilience in a changing climate.

Although more research is needed to determine which programs and policies are most effective in reducing negative mental health outcomes due to climate change, the effectiveness individual and group psychotherapy, culturally sensitive mental health infrastructure and place-specific therapy has been shown to be effective. Nature-based therapiesThese have been well-proven in previous areas, and they show promise.

Protecting individual and community mental health and well-being requires action from all levels of government and health authorities and integrating a mental health lens and a “All Policies Concerning Health” approach. Major Benefits from co-benefits to health and well-being Mental health, and general health in general, can be improved when decision-makers from all sectors consider and encourage health and equity through adaptation strategies. While taking urgent steps to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and limit global warming at 1.5 C,