The results of climate change-more frequent and intense storms, extreme heat, and prolonged wildfire seasons, among others-are leaving a wreckage of socioeconomic consequences for society and future generations. Increasingly, attention is shifting to the neuropsychiatric damage and emotional effects of the climate crisis, including traumas, anxiety, grief, and rage. Although a number of books have been written in response, they have largely been aimed at the layperson; none have been written by physicians to support the day-to-day work of psychiatrists as they address these symptoms and struggles with their patients. The Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy has been written to fill this gap, putting everything the mental health clinician needs to know in one place. It provides the science and guidance needed for the psychiatric and psychological response to climate change in a format accessible to office- or clinic-based mental health clinicians, including physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and allied professionals. Divided into four sections, this volume includes * An introduction to climate justice, and the ethics and public health activities of engaging climate change as a psychiatrist * An examination of the neuropsychiatric impacts of climate effects such as extreme heat, air pollution, vector-borne illness and food and water insecurity * Practical guidance on performing climate-informed patient assessments and psychotherapy interventions at individual and group levels * A review of the community, global, institutional, research, and educational aspects of climate psychiatry Designed for maximum utility for the busy clinician, this guide features compelling case vignettes, handy tables, and key points in each chapter. Readers will gain practical tools to assess and address each patient's symptoms and to foster the innate resilience that can lead to positive change.
Elizabeth Haase, M.D., is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and Medical Director of Psychiatry at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City, Nevada.
Part I: Introduction and Overview Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. History of climate psychiatry Chapter 3. Psychiatric ethics, climate justice, and climate advocacy and activism Part II: Neuropsychiatric and biological effects of climate change Chapter 4. Extreme Heat and its implications for psychiatry Chapter 5. Air pollution impacts on the brain Chapter 6. Nutrition, food and water insecurity and mental health Chapter 7. Climate-related shifts in infectious diseases, their neuropsychiatric symptoms, and associated issues in the human-microbiome relationship Chapter 8. Climate change, extreme weather, nature disasters and human displacement Part III: Psychological responses to climate change, their assessment and the psychotherapeutic response Chapter 9. Obstacles to rational and adequate responses to climate change Chapter 10. Emotional reactions and syndromes associated with climate change Chapter 11. Assessment of the patient: climate-related vulnerabilities and psychology Chapter 12. Psychotherapy considerations and approaches to climate-related distress Part IV: Community, institutional and global psychiatry for climate change Chapter 13. Coordinating the climate psychiatry response: global, institutional, educational and research agendas Chapter 14. Community psychiatry and its role in climate mitigation and adaptation Chapter 15. Sustainable psychiatry: reducing the carbon footprint of mental health practice Acknowledgements
