The short answer: yes.
A Health Canada report from February 2022, Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Action, reveals that many Canadians experience post-traumatic symptoms and exacerbated pre-existing mental health issues in the aftermath of environmental disasters caused by climate change.
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The report reveals that climate change-induced catastrophes — such as floods, extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes, drought, sea-level rise and melting permafrost — affect the mental health of people in Canada in myriad ways. It also notes that environmental shifts cause complex environmental distress reactions, called, “psychoterratic syndromes,” which include, “ecoanxiety, solastalgia and ecoparalysis.”
(Solastalgia is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.)
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Climate change can also exacerbate pre-existing mental illnesses, such as psychoses, post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health stressors such as grief, worry, anxiety and vicarious trauma. The report outlines that this can also result in a feeling of, “a lost sense of place, which refers to the perceived or actual detachment from community, environment or homeland.”
Perhaps most importantly, climate change exacerbates economic insecurity, displacement, food and water insecurity. A unique facet of this 2022 report is its focus on how Indigenous communities are especially impacted.
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In many Indigenous communities, climate change is throttling the availability and quality of fresh water, as well as traditional foods and key natural resources that affect emotional, mental and spiritual health and well-being. These scarcities contribute to the disruption and denigration of cultures, knowledge and the traditional ways of life that make it possible for Indigenous Peoples to move through the world with purpose, connection and mental fortitude.
More broadly, climate change disproportionately affects Canadian populations that are already experiencing health inequities based on race, culture, gender, age, socio-economic status, ability and geographic location.
As noted in the Health Canada release on the report, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, says, “Climate change is not only an environmental issue, it also magnifies existing inequalities and vulnerabilities across Indigenous communities. The impacts of climate change continue to disproportionately threaten Indigenous Peoples’ safety and security. As Indigenous Peoples hold a spiritual connection to the land, their traditional knowledge and input are essential to advancing innovative climate change adaptation actions that will protect Indigenous communities from climate hazards.”
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More broadly, climate change disproportionately affects Canadian populations that are already experiencing health inequities based on race, culture, gender, age, socio-economic status, ability and geographic location.
Not only is climate both directly and indirectly linked to declining mental health in our country, it is affecting our most vulnerable communities in devastating ways.
