Sleeping badly? Feeling low? I bet I know the culprit

As the planet warms, the effect on mental – as well as physical – health is not distributed evenly

World leaders have been travelling to Egypt for the annual meeting about the climate crisis at Cop27. The focus this year is how wealthier countries should compensate developing countries for the role they played in accelerating change to the climate, leading to extreme weather events.

It is understandable why so much attention is given to the physical impact of the climate crisis, such as flooding, forest fires, hurricanes and drought. But this ignores the influence of the crisis on individual and population mental health.

The Welcome Trust recently released a report outlining what we know already about the way extreme weather is affecting people’s mental health. This ranges from young people’s anxiety about their future – which many perceive to be bleak – through to grief caused by losing loved ones; as weather conditions such as the recent floods in Pakistan take their toll.

As the planet warms, the effect on mental – as well as physical – health is not distributed evenly. Heatwaves are known to increase the rate of suicide in affected areas. Likewise, hospital admissions for mental health problems also rise during heatwaves.

We still don’t fully understand why an increase in temperature leads to a rise in mental health problems. However, we do know that, for example, a rise in temperature can lead to difficulty in sleeping. Also, some medications used to treat mental health problems interfere with body temperature regulation.

While some will recover over time from a heat trigger, many will not. As a consequence, this reduces the opportunity for employment, self-sufficiency and building supportive networks – as well as critical relationships.

In that sense, the effects of the climate crisis set in motion a series of events starting with a deterioration in mental health – but spreading to the wider social determinants of health; like unemployment, financial instability and fracturing important social networks.

There are also some subtler (or, at least, not as obvious) ways that environmental change has an impact on mental health. The changing climate is responsible for introducing infectious diseases such as malaria in some parts of the world.

Contracting diseases and living with the effects also prompts poorer mental health in part due to the stigma associated with these conditions. Even if individuals aren’t stigmatised – being hospitalised and then living with the consequences of a disease creates life-changing circumstances.

What is particularly concerning about the increased risk of developing a mental health problem due to the climate is the capacity of the affected country to support and provide specialist mental health treatment to its population. Many developing countries don’t have the health infrastructure to respond effectively to a rapidly growing need for mental health treatment in hospitals or the community. These countries often have small budgets for mental health as historically it has not been a priority when they have faced threats such as drought or famine.

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Tempting as it may be to think that money would solve the problem, it is unlikely – especially without training a workforce and providing the associated facilities (such as hospitals and outpatient departments). It could take years before services are in place and accessible to those that need them.

While we might like to think that we have progressive views about mental health, the absence of discussion and planning at meetings like Cop27 about the way the climate crisis has an impact on us suggests we have a lot more to do.

Raising awareness of the issue is an important first step – but is meaningless to those who are suffering psychological distress and have little hope of accessing support and treatment.

At the very least, world leaders should commit to a plan with the aim of establishing mental health services in countries that are experiencing the greatest effects of the climate crisis.