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Chapter 20 Climate change and psychiatric...
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Chapter 20 Climate change and psychiatric disability

Abstract

Several mental health responses (e.g., eco-anxiety, eco-distress, and eco-grief etc.) and conditions (such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, relapsed mental illness, substance use, and suicidality), with varied degrees of physical or psychosocial impairments are increasingly linked with climate change. Children, adolescents, seniors, and individuals with pre-existing mental health or developmental disorders are differentially affected by climate change and climate-related events or disasters. New mental health issues may occur among different subgroups in the general population or novel and relapse symptoms may occur among people with pre-existing psychiatric conditions, causing impairment in different domains of functioning and disability. These impairments can affect multiple domains of psychosocial function, physical health, learning capacity, and developmental function. Climate change related mortality that are related to psychiatric concerns have also been described. Hence, there is need for scalable intervention to mitigate the growing mental health impacts of climate change. This chapter describes the link between climate change and psychiatric disabilities, focusing on mental health consequences or reactions to climate change, especially among different subgroups of the population, the assessment tools, relevant interventions, and highlights recommendations to foster adaptations.

Authors

Olagunju AT; Madakadze C; Denga V-S; Manoj N

Book title

Climate Change and Disability

Pagination

pp. 159-170

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

January 1, 2025

DOI

10.1016/b978-0-443-31568-8.00030-1
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