CLIMATE CHANGE AND MENTAL ILLNESS PREVALENCE: A CORRELATIVE REVIEW

The significant and devastating consequences of climate change for the environment are generally described by the scientific community as including rising sea levels, extreme and more frequent bushfires and floods, and other catastrophic changes in the worlds' climate systems. These climatic impacts should be considered when researching solutions to climate change, but not at the expense of the mental health impacts of climate change which research to date has tended to neglect. Severe weather events can have an alarming impact on mental health and wellbeing, and such impacts are likely to be exacerbated and increase as climate change unfolds. This study briefly explores the correlation between severe weather events and mental illness, discussing a range of key social, economic, and environmental events that are clearly linked to serious mental illness outcomes, suggesting these serious outcomes will occur at an increasing rate, and examines how the climate mental illness nexus will impact both people with existing mental illness and those of stable mental health.