Caroline Hickman, lecturer at University of Bath and psychosocial researcher on climate change, joins Cheddar News to discuss climate change's impact on mental health.

Between Bells

Psychosocial Researcher on Climate Change Talks Extreme Weather's Impact on Mental Health

Welcome back between Bells everyone. It's hard to forget the deadly cold in texas last year. The extreme heat waves battering the pacific Northwest and crazy flooding here in new york city, climate change is becoming more and more prevalent as this weather becomes the new norm. But other than our infrastructure, climate change is also impacting our mental health. Joining us now to discuss is Caroline Hickman, psychotherapist and lecturer at University of Bath and psychosocial researcher on climate change. Welcome to the show. They're still believe it or not. And I know you know, this climate deniers out there, how much does this lack of urgency impact those who are directly impacted and worried by this extreme weather Caroline? Oh, that's an excellent question. Thank you. It impacts hugely. Not only are people dealing with the worsening impacts of the climate crisis, but then they're left feeling as though they're alone with this. Then people around them say things like climate change is a hoax. Climate change isn't really happening. And when you're watching your family drown or you're running away from fires and you're watching your your whole livelihood be threatened, then it's just a horrific situation where you're not only struggling with this on your own, but you feel that people don't care around you. I'm so glad we're discussing this and mental health because a lot of people don't realize that aspect. As you know, how should those who are feeling the mental health struggles of climate change take action to help themselves and the loved ones. Well, again, that's excellent. The recent Intergovernmental panel on climate change, the iPcc report, which was published on monday, talked about the impact of mental health for the very first time. So previous reports have talked about the impact on physical health, but now we're recognizing that climate change itself is leading to direct experience of trauma, depression, anxiety and symptoms very similar to post traumatic stress disorder. We're also recognizing that this is an equal stressor to other adverse childhood experiences like being caught up in a war situation or a terrorist attack. That this is not just having a short term impact on mental health, but also long term impact on mental health. So it's not an acute stressor that you will recover from quickly. This is going to impact on Children and young people in particular for the whole of their lives. So, what we need to be recognizing is that increasing numbers of people are going to need support to talk about the stress, to get help with the stress and to find ways to stop that stress from overwhelming their lives to the point where they just can't function. And it's not just anxiety and depression, it's also grief and anger and frustration and despair. These are a whole range of complex feelings. We mentioned texas is cold weather, the flooding here in new york city that we saw last year Seattle's heat waves, extreme weather impacts everyone in these specific communities. However, we've learned this. Poor communities are even more vulnerable. There are so many disparities here. What way should those communities prepare themselves when it comes to the mental health ramifications, Caroline? Well, absolutely. And that's again being flagged up, right? This recent IPCC report about the injustice, the global injustice, around climate change, that you're already struggling with poverty with racism, with other social pressures and political pressures and economic pressures. And then on top of that, you are the most vulnerable communities to the climate and biodiversity crisis. I think what these communities need to do is be speaking out about this, but we, as other communities need to be putting infrastructure in place to support them. And it's not just about psychological support, it's about financial support and practical support because climate change and climate change stress isn't just fear of what's happening in the environment. It's also triggered by the fact that people have caused this and people are failing to act to mitigate the worst of the prices. So it's often that relational pain, the feeling that your community is being abandoned, that your community isn't being cared about. That's what causes a lot more of the distress for people. A lot of the research we've done with Children and young people which included in the United States at the end of last year, They were telling us, 52% of 10,000 young people that we interviewed told us that they felt that their security was threatened. So this security is not just personal security or psychological security, it's about their ability to live their lives in the future and make plans for the future. 75% of these young people told us they thought the future was frightening. You can just imagine how that's going to impact on their feelings about going to school, about getting jobs, about having pensions, About taking out insurance. If you feel the world is a safe place for you, then you're not going to invest and you're not going to feel secure. 56% of these young people told us they thought humanity was doomed. And then when we asked them which is awful, right? And then when we asked them about what happened, when they tried to talk about how they felt about this, 48% told us that they were dismissed or ignored when they tried to talk about how this felt. So that's something we could do something about today. Listen to young people when they tell us this was young people between the ages of 16 and 26. We're not just talking about young Children, this is young people who are making plans for the future and who really want to be setting out into the world, making a contribution to their community, economically, socially, politically. You know, this is such a great inside Carolina. We hope you come back. This is a space we cover very closely here at Chattanooga's Caroline Heckman psychotherapist and lecturer at University of Bath. And psychosocial researcher on climate change.