Climate Change and Mental Health

Climate is known to affect human health in
different ways. The health impacts of climate
change can occur through a number of direct
and indirect causal pathways, and the severity
is in part determined by the adaptive capacity
of the population.People living in poverty,
those geographically vulnerable to extreme
weather events, those highly dependent on
agriculture for their livelihood and those
vulnerable to develop mental illness are at
high risk. The principal and direct concerns
include injuries and fatalities related to severe
weather events and heat waves; infectious
diseases related to changes in vector biology,
water and food contamination; allergic
symptoms related to increased allergen
production; respiratory and cardiovascular
diseases related to worsening air pollution;
and nutritional shortages related to changes in
food production. Major concerns, for which
data to support projections are less robust,
more complex and have multiple determinants
are the mental health consequences,
population dislocation and civil conflict
following the above-mentioned direct
sequels.Mental health consequences need
to be studied from several dimensions:
psychological distress per se; consequences of
psychological distress including proneness to
physical diseases as well as suicide; and
psychological resilience and its role in dealing
effectively with the aftermath of disasters.