Systems-level risks of the climate crisis are currently missed: A mental health lens

In presenting mental health as a lens through which to trace cascading and cross-sectoral impacts, this article hopes to broaden the systemic risk literature, traditionally focused on finance, infrastructure, and food systems, towards a more integrated account that includes human health and wellbeing as central to resilience. Addressing these issues systemically could also improve mental health care overall, an endeavour that remains sorely underfunded and unrecognized more generally by national governments.

Climate research and risk models must endeavor to more adequately capture the cascading and compounding risks, indirect risks and risks perpetuating across geographies, throughout the life course of individuals and across generations. This will require transdisciplinary approaches and incorporations of new datasets and technological methods.