Climate Change vulnerabilities, resilience, and mental health in the Caribbean

Albert Persaud. (UK, Caribbean)
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College, London, UK.
Chair World Psychiatric Association Geopsychiatry Special Interest Group.
Distinguished Founding Patron. International Institute for Geopsychiatry. University Bern. Switzerland

The Caribbean, comprising over 700 islands and home to 45 million people with its unique history and geography, faces significant challenges due to climate change. The region with its small size, relative isolation, and location in the Hurricane Alley make it highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters. The mental health impacts of climate change are often overlooked but are becoming a growing concern, with Issues such as eco-anxiety, climate grief, and the psychological effects of frequent natural disasters are taking a toll, particularly on younger generations. Recent studies highlighted some of the mental health issues emerging in the Caribbean because of the climatic conditions which have led to the area being designated as ‘ground zero’. For example, the inability to continue to predict when hurricanes will arrive can be a source of anxiety, stress, and mood disturbance. Psychiatry must engage proactively in climate change mitigation and adaptation, promoting climate justice and equitable access to care. Addressing the mental health dimensions of climate change is crucial to building resilient psychiatric services capable of responding to the evolving environmental and societal landscape.

This presentation explores the various, mental health, environmental, social, and economic
vulnerabilities of the Caribbean in the face of global warming, and the strategies being employed to mitigate these risks.

References:
Vulnerability and resilience in small island developing states
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1494503/full

Geopsychiatry: climate change, migration, and mental health
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Climate change and the future of psychiatry: Challenges and opportunities for the next three decades
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8QEZQH5MXFBCAZQGMHAN/full?target=10.1080/09540261.2025.2523457

Global mental health and climate change: A geo-psychiatry perspective
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37030088/

Albert Persaud. (UK, Caribbean)