MHCC-TRN: About

The Mental Health and Climate Change Research Network (the Network) is the first to address the interconnecting social, mental, and emotional health impacts of climate change.

Our Vision

To secure the social and emotional wellbeing of our communities in an age of rapid environmental change.

In pursuing this vision, we anticipate that UQ’s Mental Health and Climate Change Research Network (the Network) will become the hub of expertise for the social and emotional wellbeing aspects of environmental disasters related to climate change. 

In five years, we aspire to

1. Establish a strong network that supports members in creating new knowledge about the social and emotional wellbeing aspects of a changing climate. 
2. Complete pilot projects in regional Queensland to create knowledge of mental health impacts associated with natural hazards, local experiences of the current systems of support, and local views on alternative approaches to supporting mental health.
3. Develop a simulation tool that can imitate scenarios and guide investment in interventions that support mental health in communities impacted by natural hazards. The simulation tool is to be validated in numerous regional communities throughout Queensland.
4. Develop pilot interventions, working with communities in their co-design and evaluation of mental health outcomes.

Climate change-related events are known to be associated with psychological distress, worsened mental health (particularly among people with pre-existing mental health conditions), increased psychiatric hospitalisations, higher mortality among people with mental illness and heightened suicide rates.

However, compared with other health areas, mental health and climate change has received little research attention, particularly in the context of rural and regional communities who are often most directly impacted by climate change.

UQ’s Mental Health and Climate Change Research Network (the Network) is the first network of its kind to address the interconnecting mental health impacts of climate change. It was established as the direct response to requests by government, industry, and community for the creation of new knowledge about the impact of climate change on mental health and to form the base for interventions that will build community resilience. 

1. To understand the experience, distribution, and determinants of mental illness/poor mental health in the age of climate change.

• Explore, characterise and quantify the full range of (short-, medium-, and long-term) mental health outcomes and emotional experiences associated with volatile climate, and identify which are most significant for communities.
• Understand how social/political/institutional forces shape emotional wellbeing, vulnerability, and resilience.
• Develop an appropriate and validated measure of the social and wellbeing impacts of a changing climate. 

2. To conceptualise the systems underpinning mental health in an age of climate change.

• Explore, define and quantify pathways and mediating factors connecting climate change exposures and mental health outcomes.
• Qualitatively identify critical points for intervention that can be quantitatively tested.
• Develop a model, which can be iteratively refined, where the most viable points for intervention can be tested prior to implementation and where scenarios can be run to help service planning on the ground.

3. To develop interventions to harness the political importance of emotional responses to climate change, while optimising the mental health of communities in an age of climate change.

• Explore existing community and psychosocial interventions for mental health in the context of climate change, and critically analyse their inclusivity, feasibility, effectiveness, and benefits.
• Develop novel interventions where gaps exist.
• Analyse and assess the co-benefits of taking action on climate change.

4. To inductively understand and quantify the benefits of addressing the social, emotional, and mental health harms associated with climate change.

• Analyse and assess the inclusivity, feasibility, effectiveness, and benefits of existing and novel community and psychosocial interventions for social and emotional wellbeing in the context of climate change.
• Explore, understand and quantify the benefits of intervening to reduce the social and emotional effects, including mental health harms, associated with climate volatility.

5. To translate knowledge into policy and practice through research with in-built impact to improve mental health in an age of climate change.

• Work with key stakeholders to develop research-based translation strategies that consider optimal mechanisms in context for policy and practice change.
• Understand how social and emotional wellbeing shapes climate change decision-making across sectors and evaluate the impacts of climate change decision-making on mental health.

National 

Climate Change is causing Australian communities to experience more frequent environmental hazards. Adversity caused by frequent assaults drains the resilience of communities and impacts people’s mental health and ability to cope.

State and national disaster management policies and strategies are geared toward keeping people safe, as well as making communities more resilient to disaster risks and impacts. Each of these policies and strategies references the need for high-quality, independent research to provide an evidence base that can guide decision making, allocation of resources, and drive continuous improvement.

The objectives of the UQ Mental Health and Climate Change Research Network (the Network) are well aligned with state and national disaster management, mitigation and risk reduction policies, strategies and frameworks, including:

• The 2016 Queensland Disaster Management Strategic Policy Statement
• The Queensland Disaster Resilience and Mitigation Investment Framework
• National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework

The Network aims to create new knowledge about:

• how climate change is likely to impact mental health through more frequent natural disasters
• evidence-informed interventions that will build community resilience

International 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised the urgency and significance of environmental change to health and health systems through its Special Report on Health and Climate Change.

This report states that “the current situation and the challenges ahead call for a transformation in the way we manage our environment with respect to health and well-being.”

The Network offers a mechanism for this transformation, by harnessing transdisciplinary expertise and providing opportunities for engagement with industry, government agencies and communities in the co-design and translation of research.