Climate Change and Suicidality: Exploring the Nexus

In this course, Professor Kairi Kõlves (Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University) offers the United Nations definition of climate change, explaining how extreme weather events increase exposure and vulnerability. She shows a chart outlining direct and indirect impacts of global increased temperatures and reviews recent major meta-analyses and systematic reviews, observing how inconsistent the findings have been. It is difficult to pre-design studies which can establish the associations between climate change and suicidality. Dr. Kolves discusses the emergence of eco-emotions, citing the large proportion of mental health professionals surveyed who reported seeing evidence of suicidal ideation and attempts as a result of climate change. Implications for policy and practice are briefly noted.