Organised by Dr Victoria Whitford, Academic Clinical Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, and DPhil student Jess Schiff from the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences, its thought to be the first forum to bring together the topics of climate change and mental health in Oxford.
Dr Whitford said:
Climate change and environmental destruction will severely affect global mental health, and efforts to improve mental health need to keep the planet in mind too. I wanted to raise awareness of these issues amongst researchers and clinicians, and bring together speakers who could help us think about how climate change and mental health are closely intertwined.”
Jess added: “It was important to me to put on this event because I sometimes feel that mental health is an overlooked health outcome when thinking about the impacts of climate change. I wanted to bring attention to this topic and to bring together people who are either researching this topic, working in related fields, or who were simply just interested in learning something new. I think it’s important to host events like these to connect people and share ideas.
The event opened with a keynote address by Professor Myles Allen, Head of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, who spoke on climate anxiety and how climate change can be stopped in its tracks.
The conference also heard how heatwaves result in an uptake of violent crime (Dr Laurence Wainwright of the Smith School, University of Oxford), the impact of climate change on child development (Professor Alan Stein, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford) and the close connections between land and culture for indigenous people, and how loss of land leads to "solastalgia", a kind of grief or trauma (Dr Ayesha Ahmad, St George's University of London), among others.
Other speakers included Associate Professor Radhika Khosla from the Smith School, who was instrumental in creating a target for emissions reduction related to global cooling and Associate Professor Sara Khalid, who is an expert on machine learning and environmental modelling and runs the planetary health informatics lab at Oxford, as well as from Professor Gesche Huebner from the European Centre for Human Health and the Environment, who talked about the mental health and climate co-benefits of physical activity and environmental activism.
Professor Kam Bhui, from the Department of Psychiatry, was one of the keynote speakers at the event and spoke about his recent research on air quality and mental health. He said:
Air pollution and mental health are both major challenges that the world must grapple with now and for years to come. This makes this area of research a vital public health priority.
We need to understand how climate change affects air pollution and find better ways to measure exposure to pollution. We also need more research to address critical knowledge gaps such as the mechanisms by which particles and bioaerosols may cause and worsen health conditions.
If we can better measure the effects, and understand the mechanisms, we can put in place more effective prevention strategies in the population, as well as provide better care for those with pre-existing conditions.
This needs to be an interdisciplinary team effort, which is why it was great to be part of this event, bringing together people from a broad range of disciplines to discuss these issues and help accelerate the pace of research in this area.”
The event sold out in advance and was well attended by people from the department and beyond, who were engaged and asked thoughtful questions.
Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry team, Dr Emma Soneson, who attended the forum, said:
“The event really underscored the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the far-reaching consequences of climate change for human health and wellbeing. While there are no quick wins in this area, the speakers made clear that change is possible and highlighted many synergies in terms of approaches that can benefit both the climate and health. However, these benefits will only materialise if researchers, policymakers, and the public can come together to marry up our best scientific evidence with meaningful, sustained action.”
Victoria and Jess hope to hold the forum in the future with a wider variety of topics and speakers and include researchers from many different contexts and institutions.