Mental Health Risks of Climate Change, Solutions Raised at National Conference

Organize, empower, and amplify the voices of the medical community.” This was the central message at the Climate and Health Solutions for Our Future Conference held at George Mason University in April. The conference was organized by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, a coalition of some 500,000 clinicians working together to educate policymakers and the public about the health risks associated with climate change.

Among the 26 consortium member societies are APA, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Family Physicians; there are also 21 affiliated organizations.

“The challenge for us as health care providers is to share what we already know,” said Mona Sarfaty, M.D., executive director of the consortium, during her opening remarks.

Members of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance (CPA), a grassroots affiliation of psychiatric professionals focused on the impact of climate change on mental health and well-being, joined hundreds of medical professionals from across the country for the two-day meeting. Lectures and panel discussions focused on ways to educate patients, policymakers, and business leaders about the health dangers associated with climate change.

Experts spoke about the immediate repercussions, such as allergies, sunburn, and asthma, as well as the long-term psychosocial problems people face after severe weather events.

The conference incorporated media training workshops and national and state advocacy opportunities and concluded with a visit to Capitol Hill.

Carissa Caban-Aleman, M.D., medical director of behavioral health for student health services at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, attended the meeting on behalf of APA and CPA.

Caban-Aleman is a board member of CrearConSalud, a nonprofit formed originally in 2014 by a group of Puerto Rican psychiatrists living and practicing in the mainland United States, to foster efforts that strengthen Puerto Rico’s mental health services and workforce.

During a panel discussion, she said that depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide have been on the rise in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria last September, and thousands were still without electrical power and running water.

The reality that climate change will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable such as the young, the old, people with limited financial and educational resources, and minorities was a point repeated throughout the meeting.

Caban-Aleman said climate-related disasters hit these groups the hardest. Several projects are under way to build psychological resiliency among people living in remote areas of Puerto Rico, she said. “We are partnering with local leaders who really know the communities and where the help is needed.”

Addressing climate change involves much more than responding after a disaster takes place, Caban-Aleman explained. Efforts such as sustainable farming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have become more common among younger, environmentally conscious Puerto Ricans, she said.

“If we only stick to [psycho]therapies and medications after a disaster, we are not going to empower” these communities,” she said.

David Pollack, M.D., a professor of public policy in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and a founding member of CPA, also attended the meeting.

Health professionals have a “duty to warn” the public of the health risks associated with climate change, he told Psychiatric News after the meeting. Framed in this way, the public is more likely to heed the warning, he said. ■