Picture this: An entire community has been severely run through by floods, forcing residents to flee and abandoning their houses. Now a formerly vibrant community has now succumbed to physical and economic damage, and the emotional toll on the locals is incalculable, this was the reality of many communities ravaged by the recent 2022 floods in Nigeria. You can also picture farmers struggling to raise crops and support their families but because of the record-breaking drought in East Africa, now people are caught between trying to survive physically and psychologically. These are only a handful of the numerous ways that climate change affects our mental health.
As the climate crisis persists, people’s mental health has been subjected to anxiety, stress, despair, and other mental health issues because they come in either direct or indirect contact with these changes.
Although we are aware that climate change can be detrimental to mental health, it can be challenging to determine just how much of an impact it can be given the numerous other factors at play in this intersection.
Project Launch
The Project Launch On April 18th, 2023, SustyVibes alongside the Imperial College London, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the Climate Mental Health Network, Force of Nature, St Luke’s Medical Center, the University of the West Indies, and Claretian University launched a new research project called Connecting Climate Minds supported by Wellcome Trust. The project is aimed at developing an inclusive and actionable research agenda for the emerging field of climate change and mental health, and our work will be rooted in the needs of those who have lived experience with the effects of climate change and mental health issues globally. We are doing this by involving people from different fields and working closely with communities impacted by climate change so we can have a fair and balanced global agenda that informs climate mental health research.
We also had creative games, courtesy of Dr Pablo Suarez of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, that encouraged guests to reflect on the emotional impact of extreme weather events, displacement, and loss of livelihoods, among other things, and what those feelings inspired, either positively or negatively. It was very interesting! The games were both entertaining and enlightening as they demonstrated the variety of ways that climate change affects us on a psychological level.
Our launch event was a great success, with many participants joining in from across the world to learn more about the project and find out how they can get involved. Our founder, Jennifer Uchendu co-chaired the launch event and she kept the audience engaged, all through the event.
You can watch it here
About our work
SustyVibes as a member of the Lived Experience Working Group in this global project, brings a youth perspective and takes the lead in global engagement efforts, particularly with vulnerable communities that include youths, indigenous communities and smallholder farmers, especially in the global south. As we’ve recognised that these aforementioned groups are often disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, engaging with these groups is important because it allows for their voices and perspectives to be heard, and for their unique needs to be taken into account. This is also part of the commitments of SustyVibes’ TEAP (The Eco-anxiety Africa Project), to understand and validate the emotions that are unique to Africans and provide platforms where African perspectives can be elevated.
Talking about the work that we are doing as part of the Lived Experience Working Group Jennifer referenced the work of SustyVibes in going out to the streets and community and engaging with people, market women, small business owners, and people who have historically faced some of these challenges of climate change and providing a platform to simply just have a grasp on why these impacts persist, and also validate their feelings as a result of these impacts.
The SustyVibes team in the Lived Experience Working Group is made up of Jennifer Uchendu(Founder and TEAP Project lead), Ayomide Olude (Project Manager), and Hope Lekwa (Research Lead). Our other team members consist of Britt Wray (Lead Special Initiative of the Chair in Climate and Mental Health, Stanford School of Medicine) Lian Zeitz (Co-founder of Climate Mental Health Network), Sacha Wrights (Research and Curriculum Coordinator, Force of Nature), and Sarah Newman (Co-founder Climate Mental Health Network).
While this is going on, SustyVibes will continue its work to raise awareness about the psychological impacts of climate change on individuals and communities through its work with TEAP in raising contextualized academic and nonacademic perspectives from Africans on climate mental health. With our work, we continue to reduce the stigma around mental health and climate change knowledge and ensure that people have access to the support and resources they need to stay mentally healthy in a changing climate.