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Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis

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Climate Change and the Responsibilities of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists

The global climate crisis has arrived and is impacting pediatric mental health in the form of children facing more frequent and severe weather-related trauma, experiencing climate-related deprivation and displacement, and experiencing anxiety and grief related to inevitable losses to come. Child and adolescent psychiatrists must respond: we are care providers to individuals and families in distress; we are contributors to the crisis through our own emissions; and we are potential mediators of

Effects of Climate Change on Mental Health

Climate change affects human health through heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses, injuries and fatalities related to severe weather, increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, altered distribution of vector-borne disease (including Lyme disease, malaria, dengue, and Zika fever), and disease related to scarcity of food and water.2 The impact of climate change on mental health is also significant. Weather events with mental health consequences may be sudden (hurricanes, flooding,

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists as Care Providers

Child and adolescent psychiatrists will be called on to treat youths experiencing climate change–related impacts, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Child and adolescent psychiatrists should be prepared to care for a growing population of climate migrants, including youths whose families may be homeless or displaced by climate change impacts that are potentially temporary (eg, a single natural disaster) or permanent (eg, engulfment of a community by rising seas).

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists as Contributors to the Crisis

All physicians share responsibility for climate change as contributors through their individual greenhouse gas emissions. High-impact lifestyle changes (eg, flying and driving less, eating less meat and dairy, choosing renewable energy sources) are relatively easy to adopt, may have health benefits, and model healthy decision making. We must reassess the necessity of fossil fuel–intensive air travel, not just for leisure but also for academic meetings and professional interviews that could be

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists as Cultivators of Hope, Agency, and Action

Despair about climate change is as dangerous as denial about climate change: both lead to inaction. The climate crisis will most gravely impact our patients, and our patients also represent the greatest hope for the resilience, remediation, and innovation that will be essential in the coming decades. As child and adolescent psychiatrists, we foster hope and agency in children who are too often buffeted by chaos in their homes and communities. The threats posed by climate change represent a

References (5)

  • Greta-speeches-FridaysForFuture

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    The imperative for climate action to protect health

    N Engl J Med

    (2019)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (14)

  • Eco-anxiety in youth: An integrative literature review

    2023, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
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The authors have reported no funding for this work.

Disclosure: Drs. Pinsky, Guerrero, and Livingston have reported no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

All statements expressed in this column are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. See the Instructions for Authors for information about the preparation and submission of Translations.

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