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TONIGHT’S TOPIC:�Impacts of Climate Change�On Our Physical + Mental Health

PRESENTED BY:

Summit County is a community where people can live a positive, healthy lifestyle through public health efforts focused on awareness, education, and preparedness.

Woodwell Climate Research Center conducts science for solutions at the nexus of climate, people, and nature—solutions that are urgently needed to propel us toward a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable world.

Facilitating tonight’s conversation…

ALEXIS PEARL LEE

University of Utah Health�Director of Environmental and Social Sustainability

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Objectives for this evening:

• Identify how climate change is and will continue to impact physical and mental health in the US and in our region�
• Understand how current conditions and health disparities impact vulnerability to climate change�
• Identify resources for coping with climate grief

PRESENTATIONS BY:

NATAUNYA KAY, MA, ATR

Creative Arts Psychiatric Program Specialist/Green Team Lead, Huntsman Mental Health Institute

KIMBERLEY SHOAF, DrPH

Professor, Division of Public Health, University of Utah Health

JEREMY BEKKER, MS, PhD Candidate

Clinical Psychology, �Brigham Young University

Scan this QR to submit your questions…

We may not get to every question. �Listen into This Green Earth on KPCW on Tuesday, Oct. 3 to continue the conversation!

SLIDO.COM�Access # 2299872

Let’s hear from the experts…�KIMBERLEY SHOAF, DrPH

• How changes in climate impact health
• Climate and vector-borne diseases
• Public health disasters + secondary hazards
• Are our health systems prepared?
• What you can do…

Professor, Division of Public Health, University of Utah Health

Climate Change and Health

@KimberleyShoaf

Kimberley Shoaf, DrPH

Division of Public Health

©UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

CHANGES IN CLIMATE IMPACT HEALTH

https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/14/

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POTENTIAL HEALTH IMPACTS

• Injuries
• Vector-Borne Diseases
• Water-Borne Diseases
• Heat-Related Illness
• Respiratory Health

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• Cardiovascular Health
• Mental Health
• Malnutrition

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CLIMATE AND VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES

• Warmer Temperatures
• Increased geographic range supporting vectors
• Increased flooding events
• More standing water/breeding grounds

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VECTOR BORNE DISEASES

Increase in Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Mexico and Southwestern US

Increase in Typhus cases in Los Angeles

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PUBLIC HEALTH & DISASTERS

• More and worse climate disasters
• Hurricanes
• Wildfires
• Flooding
• Drought

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SECONDARY HAZARDS

Flooding

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• Landslides
• Water Quality
• Mosquitoes
• Mold

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• Water Availability
• Wildfires
• Crop Failure/Food Insecurity

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Drought

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CASCADING DISASTERS

Las Vegas, NM declares emergency, with less than 50 days of clean water supply left/Aug 4, 2022

FEMA cuts first check for Las Vegas water supply restoration/Feb 16, 2023

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ARE OUR HEALTH SYSTEMS PREPARED?

• Health Care
• Continuity of Operations
• Surge Capacity
• Diagnostics

• Public Health
• Continuity of Operations
• Surveillance
• Emergency Response Capabilities
• Emergency Environmental Health Capabilities

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WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Mosquito breeding grounds
• Flea and tick prevention with pets
• Respiratory precautions on “bad air days”
• Keep indoor air clean

• Have a plan in an emergency
• Be firesafe in your home-clear vegetation around the home, etc.

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medicine.utah.edu/dfpm/public-health/practice/ohleh

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Let’s hear from the experts…�JEREMY BEKKER

• How changes in climate can impact mental health
• What’s “solastalgia”?
• What contributes to psychological vulnerability? What does that look like in Summit County?

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• Key components of social resilience

PhD candidate, Clinical Psychology, Brigham Young University

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Climate Change and Mental Health

Jeremy Bekker, MS

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Clinical Psychology PhD Candidate

Brigham Young University

Solastalgia

Solastalgia: The distress produced by negative changes to your home environment.

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• Fear and anger due to lost connection.
• Loss of comfort and connectedness to sense of place.
• Usually a result of environmental degradation or disaster.
• Our identities are tied to the places we call home, so damage to the places we call home can feel like damage to ourselves.

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(Warsini et al., 2014)

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Saddle Fire, 2020

How does climate change impact mental health?

Deteriorating Environmental Conditions

Acute Crises

Worries and Fears about the Future

Decreased Quality of Life

• Post Traumatic Stress
• Depression and Anxiety
• Sleep Difficulties
• Substance Abuse
• Suicide

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(Cianconi et al., 2020)

• Result in cardiovascular disorders, malnutrition, dementia and stroke.
• Physical conditions indirectly and directly impact mental health.
• Sucide, mood disorders, psychosis.

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(Bakolis et al, 2021;

Padhy et al., 2014)

• Increased anxiety and depression especially in younger people.
• Feelings of powerless, guilt, anger, and fear.
• These fears can be both functional or dysfunctional.

(Clayton, 2020;

Hickman et al., 2021)

• Decreased recreation quality and quantity.
• Decreased exercise and nutrition.
• Decreased socialization and travel.
• Migration and acculturation stress.

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(Cianconi et al., 2020)

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What Increases Vulnerability to Climate Change?

• Mental health is impacted by the many life systems that people interact with (their families, workplaces, ecological environments, and their own emotions).

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• Each of these systems can positively or negatively impact mental health.

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• Individuals who are the most vulnerable to climate change are those that have less power and resources in their systems. These groups include young people, disabled people, homeless people, and people with work environments directly and indirectly impacted by climate change.

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Key Components of Social Resilience

(Thomas et al., 2019, figure 1.)

1. Access to resources

For example: housing, money, and education

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• Governance

Strong connection between policy makers and social groups (families, religious groups, unions, etc.).

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• Cultures

Close relationships and connections within communities.

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• Knowledge and information about climate risk

Distributed through diverse forms of communication that fit community needs.

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(Thomas et al., 2019)

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Key Components of Psychological Vulnerability

• Lack of social support, connection, and power to create change.�

Eco-anxiety, eco-dread, and eco-grief can be particularly challenging without adequate community support and political power.

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• Ineffective strategies for dealing with thoughts and emotions�

Using avoidance and rumination often reduces painful feelings of uncertainty in the short term, but can increase psychological challenges in the long term.

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• Strong connections to vulnerable places �

Having close relationships and connections to vulnerable places can make losses particularly painful.

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• Compounding personal stressors �

Work challenges, health challenges, strained family relationships, and financial stressors can compound psychological difficulties (e.g., increase in suicide among farmers).

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How Might These Vulnerabilities Look in Summit County?

• Increase in challenging emotions
• Disengagement and avoidance of problems because of challenging thoughts and emotions

• Disconnection from friends and neighbors
• Loss of shared recreation and socialization activities

• Loss of work opportunities and sources of income

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• Loss of recreation, spiritual, and community spaces
• Loss of family traditions and personal rituals
• Loss of community identity

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Working with Young People

• The main challenge in working with young people is balancing acceptance and change

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• The challenging situations, thoughts, and emotions facing younger generations aren’t going anywhere.
• The goal is not to remove these thoughts and emotions, but instead to figure out how to use them effectively.

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• My course focuses on combining systems level change with individual change to enhance well-being for young people and the ecological environment.

References

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Bakolis, I., Hammoud, R., Stewart, R., Beevers, S., Dajnak, D., MacCrimmon, S., ... & Mudway, I. S. (2021). Mental health consequences of urban air pollution: prospective population-based longitudinal survey. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 56, 1587-1599.

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Cianconi, P., Betrò, S., & Janiri, L. (2020). The impact of climate change on mental health: a systematic descriptive review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 74.

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Clayton, S. (2020). Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. Journal of anxiety disorders, 74, 102263.

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Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., ... & van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863-e873.

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Padhy, S. K., Sarkar, S., Panigrahi, M., & Paul, S. (2015). Mental health effects of climate change. Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 19(1), 3.

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Thomas, K., Hardy, R. D., Lazrus, H., Mendez, M., Orlove, B., Rivera‐Collazo, I., ... & Winthrop, R. (2019). Explaining differential vulnerability to climate change: A social science review. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 10(2), e565.

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Warsini, S., Mills, J., & Usher, K. (2014). Solastalgia: living with the environmental damage caused by natural disasters. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 29(1), 87-90.

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Let’s hear from the experts…�NATAUNYA KAY

• Understanding and managing eco-distress
• Solutions and the role of organizations

Creative Arts Psychiatric Program Specialist/Green Team Lead, �Huntsman Mental Health Institute

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MA, ATR

FACING ECO-DISTRESS

Nataunya Kay, MA, ATR

nataunya.kay@hsc.utah.edu

@nataunya

©UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

• March, 2020, a survey of 2000 young people aged 8–16 years commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation showed that 73% were worried about the state of the planet, 19% have had a bad dream about climate change, and 41% do not trust adults to tackle the challenges presented by climate change. *

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• September 2021, a survey of 10,000 young people in 10 countries aged 16-25 Respondents across all countries reported a significant amount of worry, with close to 60% saying they felt “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change Over 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily lives. These varied by country, but levels were high across the board. Countries expressing more worry and a greater impact on functioning tended to be poorer, in the Global South, and more directly impacted by climate change.**

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• March 2023, Feelings similar to PTSD were reported by 67% of people impacted by the California Camp Fire of 2018. 68% of U.S. adults reported some anxiety about climate change.***

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* Thomson Reuters Foundation, March 2020

**Caroline Hickman, Elizabeth Marks, Panu Pihkala, et. al., The Lancet, December 2021

***Emily Hough, Nathaniel Counts, The Commonwealth Fund, March 2023

ECO-DISTRESS TODAY IN YOUTH AND ADULTS

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CHANGING ATTITUDES�ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

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DEGREES OF DISTRESS

Mild – Some feelings of being upset, but easily distracted from those feelings. They believe that “others” will come up with solutions. Anxiety is reduced by focusing on individual actions such as recycling. They avoid painful feelings.

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Medium – More frequent feelings of being upset, some doubt in “others” coming up with solutions, but still a belief that the experts will solve the problem. More lifestyle changes, such as less frequent flying, but mostly maintaining their life as before.

Significant – Daily feelings of distress. Fears of social collapse along with climate change distress. Cognitive/thinking changes such as guilt and shame in relation to children and grandchildren. Major lifestyle changes such as choosing not to have children. Group actions such as campaigning reduce anxiety.

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Severe – Severe cognitive/thinking changes such as intrusive thoughts, poor sleep and preoccupation with the climate emergency. Difficulty enjoying any aspect of life because of fears of the future. May be unable to maintain employment, pay bills because “it doesn’t matter”. At most extreme, thoughts of suicide or having to kill their children. Personal security is found only through belonging to a activism group which is driven by guilt rather than self-concern.

Brit Wray, Generation Dread, 2022

©UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

• Anxiety
• Ambivalence
• Aspiration

THE MYTH OF APATHY

Renee Lertzman, PhD, Project Inside Out

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SOLUTIONS AND THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONS

• Training for health professionals on climate change and mental health should be increased. �
• Enhanced clinical assessments and support are needed. �
• Already-proven individual and group therapy strategies should be harnessed.� 
• “Social prescribing” and exerting effort towards solutions could be increased.�
• Focus on families.
• Given the degree of distress in children and youth, it is important to consider a healthy family-oriented response to a shared external threat, including acknowledging the challenge, encouraging parental insight into young peoples' responses, providing time for empathetic communication with children and youth, validating their feelings of fear and disillusionment, and jointly mobilizing hope through meaningful goal-directed activities.

Ashlee Cunsolo, et, al, July 2020

©UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

SOLUTIONS AND THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUALS

”Our grief does not need healing. Our healing needs our grief.”

Shauna Janz

• Normalizing eco-distress
• Talking about one’s feelings in a supportive community
• Mindfulness
• ACT Therapy
• Embodiment of difficult emotions
• Grief Ceremonies and Rituals
• Creativity

“Be less of an individual.”

Bill McKibben, Thirdact.org

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RESOURCES

Organizations of Mental Health Professionals

• Climate Psychology Alliance – www.climatepsychology.us
• Climate Psychiatry Alliance – www.climatepsychiatry.org
• Global Climate Psychologists for a Just Future - International

Support Groups and Retreats

• Boundless in Motion – Meditations and retreats specifically for BIPOC - (Boulder, Colorado)
• Plum Village – Meditations and retreats (France)
• Good Grief Network – 10-Step Support Group
• The Work That Reconnects – Joanna Macy, Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado
• Climate Awakening – Margaret Klein Salamon (online)
• Climate Cafes – Climate Psychology Association of North America
• Embodiment Matters – Erin Geeseman Rabke and Carl Rabke
• New Moon Rites of Passage – Kinde Nebeker

©UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

RESOURCES

Podcasts, Guides, Short Videos and Newsletters

• Climate Change and Happiness – podcast with Thomas Doherty and Panu Pikula
• Climate and YOU – podcast with Domyo Burk
• Generation Dread newsletter - Brit Wray
• Eco-anxious stories - Rachel Malena-Chan
• Project Inside Out – Renee Lertzman
• All We Can Save Circles - Facilitation guide
• SacredInstructions.life – Sherri Mitchell
• Joanna Macy – The Gifts of Uncertainty
• Renee Lertzman – How to Turn Climate Anxiety into Action
• Britt Wray – How Climate Change Affects Your Mental Health
• Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality

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RESOURCES - BOOKS

• A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety – Sarah Jaquette Ray
• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis – Edited by Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
• Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change - Leslie Davenport
• Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement (Psychoanalytic Explorations) - Renee Lertzman
• Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis – Britt Wray
• How to Live in a Chaotic Climate – LaUra Schmidt, Aimee Lewis Reau and Chelsie Rivera
• Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Guide to Hope and Healing in a Divided World - Katharine Hayhoe
• The Quaking of America - Resmaa Menacham
• The Work that Reconnects – Joanna Macy
• We Were Made for These Times: 10 Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss and Disruption – Kaira Jewel Lingo
• When Things Fall Apart – Pema Chodron
• Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future – Patty Krawec
• Hospicing Modernity – Vanessa Machadi de Oliveira Andreotti
• Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth - Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narváez PhD, et al.
• Sacred Instructions - Sherri Davenport

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PANEL DISCUSSION

JEREMY BEKKER, MS, PhD Candidate

Clinical Psychology, �Brigham Young University

NATAUNYA KAY, MA, ATR

Creative Arts Psychiatric Program Specialist/Green Team Lead, Huntsman Mental Health Institute

KIMBERLEY SHOAF, DrPH

Professor, Division of Public Health, University of Utah Health

Raise your hand �or text your question �using Slido.com

AUDIENCE Q&A

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THANKS FOR ATTENDING!

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Listen into This Green Earth on KPCW on

Tuesday, Oct 3rd for continued conversation!

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• Community Solutions Conversation