Geological and Climatic Vulnerabilities of South Asia: Mental Health Perspectives of Climate Disasters
摘要
The chapter explores the significant health threats posed by natural disasters in a global warming scenario, focusing on mental health impacts in the South Asian region. It highlights the region’s susceptibility to various climate-related hazards, such as cyclones, floods, extreme heat waves, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, etc., directly affecting over 2 billion people in this region. The chapter broadly focuses on the mental health consequences of climate change, emphasizing the increase in the mental health risk with increased frequency of extreme weather events, leading to slow and fast-onset disasters. It also addresses the role of integrated climate and geological services in reducing the socioeconomic vulnerabilities as well as mental health risks, particularly among lower- and middle-income individuals with limited access to advanced healthcare. There is a strong requirement to integrate climate services in the mental health sector, and it is recommended that both climate and geological hazard information be incorporated into mental health policies in a more systematic way through interdisciplinary actions to enhance resilience against the combined impacts of climate change and geological disasters.