Recently, I had the pleasure to join a panel discussion about the impact of climate change on mental health, organized by Project Petals.
The impact of climate change extends beyond environmental or planetary effects. It also profoundly impacts human health — something that has been felt by communities and healthcare professionals for a while, but only recently recognized at a UN Climate Change Conference.
Thinking about human health holistically, we can’t overlook the importance of mental health, and we need to recognize this other side of climate change: the anxiety and burnout that people feel when facing an uncertain future, the PTSD and trauma experienced by the victims of climate change-induced catastrophies like worsening fires and floods and storms, the loss of a sense of community when disasters wipe out whole neighborhoods, and even the isolation and quarantines that we experience during pandemics as new infectious diseases emerge from a changing natural environment.
I was honored to share my global health perspective stemming from work at the intersection of climate change and healthcare — together with other speakers bringing diverse perspectives, from an Advocacy Specialist for Indigenous Peoples at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, to a clinical psychologist from Latin America’s indigenous communities, to a New York-based resillience-focused systems designer. Thank you to my Vital Voices Visonary peer, Alicia White for inviting me to this discussion!
Link to the summary article can be found here: https://medium.com/@projectpetals/the-mind-and-our-climate-exploring-mental-health-in-a-changing-world-5341ca778fa4
