Meeting mental health and psychosocial support needs
Major impact of climate change on individuals’mental health and psychological functioning would include: trauma, shock, stress, anxiety, depression, complicated grief, severe reactions, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder, strains on social relationships, substance abuse, mental health emergencies, sense of loss, hopelessness, fatalism, and resignation, loss of autonomy and sense of control, loss of personal and occupational identity and – less obviously suicide.
Women, children, and older adults may be especially susceptible to some mental health impacts.
According to the American Mental Health Association, some of climate change’s impacts on mental health will come about from the direct and immediate physical impacts of climate change, like storms, floods and extreme heat. Others will come about as a result of climate change’s more gradual impacts on the environment, like changing temperatures and rising sea levels
• 25-50% of people exposed to an extreme weather disaster are at risk of adverse mental health effects.
• Up to 54% of adults and 45% of children suffer depression after a natural disaster.
SPEAKERS
%
of children suffer depression after a natural disaster
%
of people exposed to an extreme weather disaster are at risk of adverse mental health effects
%
of adults suffer depression after a natural disaster
The closing speech – Pr. Jean-Jacques ELEDJAM
I would like us to be able to respond to this distress call with a message of hope.
We will spread the word long after these two days are over, and well beyond both the humanitarian field and our own movement.
Highlights in video
Highlights video THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WORLD CONFERENCE
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WORLD CONFERENCE
