The Mental Repercussions of an Unjust Environmental Landscape

 

Working on a behavioral health unit 4 months into the COVID pandemic, I was completing an intake questionnaire with a recently-arrived patient as a new nurse.  The patient was an African American mother of 3, and she had recently had a psychological break while taking heroin in the home.  She was so sad and ashamed, having slipped into drug use after losing her job and financial stability.  Speaking quietly with tear-glistened cheeks, she explained that the pandemic had changed everything, had taken her direction, her job, her pride, and now, her mental health. 

Many studies show that socioeconomic status is the largest single factor driving depression, PTSD, and other mental health problems for those communities who have experienced disasters.  For natural disasters in particular, socioeconomics is the most accurate determinant of mental health problems, especially for children, the elderly, and for unemployed persons, particularly unemployed women.  Cenat et. al produced a study that showed that survivors of the Haiti earthquake in 2010 were highly susceptible to mental health problems, and that post-disaster relief should focus on this wellness metric as much as any other.  Sutley et. al studied earthquake survivors in Los Angeles and concluded the same.  Aliet. al also showed high rates of mental health disorders, including PTSD, for survivors of an earthquake in Pakistan that killed 87,000.  With these and other disaster snapshots, results show that the communities who are already suffering the most have the highest likelihood of experiencing long-term mental illness from natural disasters, not to mention insurmountable economic losses. 

From these and other data, we start to see that not only must we begin to build better, curb resource consumption, and think in new ways about how to live in a warming world, but we must also proactively build on a more leveled foundation where pre-disaster economic disparity is not so egregious. 

“We’re in trouble.  I hope everyone understands that.” 

– John Kerry, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, in January, 2022

A new report estimates that over 4 in 10 persons in the United States were hit by major climate disasters in 2021.  Data would show that if you’re wealthy and insured, that those events may have not caused long-term emotional or resource losses.  However, for many of the poorest communities in the Northwest who experienced fires, for example, or in Louisiana or Kentucky where Hurricane Laura and tornadoes decimated entire communities, effects from these events will be felt for years if not decades to come. 

We can no longer avoid the reality of where we are in history.  Last year, 2021, was the 6^th warmest year on record.  Nineteen of the hottest years on record occurred in the last 20.  In this enormous, complex biosphere we all share, the theme is trends, and the ones we’re seeing aren’t good.  Although we won’t see our way of life change overnight, this cascade of events will come in fits and starts, from Harveys in Houston to Typhoons in Thailand and Fires in Fresno.  Cutting emissions now would mean dividends for the future, buying time for a world that desperately needs to change course, reducing avoidable U.S. climate-related hospitalizations by nearly 1.5 million annually, and reducing long-lasting population-scale mental health problems for decades to come.