The UK Health Security Agency is looking into how climate-change affects mental well-being‚ as more britʼs struggle with psychological issues. Extreme weather events like floods and heat-waves dont just harm physical health - they create long-lasting mental stress (according to the agencyʼs initial findings)
The research comes at a time when mental health services face huge pressure: the NHS helped about 3.8M patients last year which is way more than before covid. The UKHSA - which took over from Public Health England few years back - wants to know how to support people dealing with climate-related anxiety
The economic impact is clear: around 9.3M working-age people arent in jobs or looking for work; with roughly 2.75M saying theyʼre off due to long-term illness. More than half of these long-term sick people mention depression or anxiety as their main issue. This affects both the economy and peoples life-chances - its a double-hit situation
- Direct impacts from extreme weather events
- Growing awareness of climate threats
- Need for better mental health support
- Economic effects of widespread illness
The agency focuses on building what they call “psycho-social resilience“; helping people cope with changing climate conditions. Theyʼre asking for new ideas and evidence to understand which groups need most help‚ and how to make support systems work better