One of staff from Division of Epidemiology, Erni Astutik joined the online course about Southeast Asia Climate and Health Responders Course. The course was begun on June 6, 2023 and will be finished June 29, 2023. On Tuesday, 20 June 2023 session 5, the material of course is about climate change and mental health. Dr John Aruta, PhD from De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines presented virtually about that topic.
The course is very useful for a researcher, lecturer, academician, and stakeholder. As we know, climate change is global issue worldwide that climate change exacerbates the health problem, “explained Erni Astutik.
Climate crisis affects everyone in the world. The manifestation of climate change varies in each country such as melting ice, drought, flooding, fire, typhoon, and extreme heat. The impact of climate change in health such as allergies, asthma, food, water, and insect-borne illnesses. However, there is a little attention giving the impact of climate change on mental health, “explained Dr John Aruta, PhD.
Dr John Aruta, PhD also revealed that climate change can also have direct and indirect impact on mental health.
Direct paths include:
1) Typhoons cause trauma;
2) Bushfires cause trauma;
3) Drought causes depression and anxiety.
Indirect paths include:
- Sea level rise causes agricultural impact. The impact of agricultural causes economic burden. Then, it will impact on emotional distress
Drought leads agricultural impact. Then, agricultural impact effect on poverty. Then, it will increase the crime rate and induce trauma victimization.
Figure 2. Climate change and mental health
There are some categorize to tackle climate anxiety and other mental reactions. The emotion regulation, social connection, and nature exposure are the best solutions for climate anxiety. We can gain meaningful insight from the rich experiences of people in the Global South in relation to climate change. Bidirectional learning between Global North and Global South countries is necessary,” opined Dr John Aruta, PhD.
Penulis: Erni Astutik