Eco-anxiety among regional Australian youth with mental health problems: A qualitative study.

AIM: In Australia, climate-related disasters disproportionately affect rural, regional and remote young people with effects ranging from severe flooding and catastrophic fires to unbearable heat and yet most studies on eco-anxiety are based on reports by urban youth who do not have direct experiences of such impacts. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research on how eco-anxiety impacts those who already experience mental health problems. The present study aims to address this gap by focussing on the lived experiences of regional Australian youth with recent experience of climate-related disasters alongside clinical insights from those involved in their care. METHODS: Two groups, a clinician and client group, were recruited through headspace Port Macquarie-a primary youth mental health service in a regional city of New South Wales, Australia. In all, 25 participants took part in focus group discussions, including 13 clinicians and 12 clients of the service. Clients and clinicians responded to a version of the same questions: (1) whether the effects of climate change impact on regional youth with mental health problems, (2) how young people cope with eco-anxiety and (3) how regional communities can help young people cope with eco-anxiety better. Group discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed according to the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis using a team approach. RESULTS: Three dimensions of eco-anxiety were identified by clinicians and clients-helplessness in the present, hopelessness about the future and acute stress and anxiety related to experiences of severe flooding and fires. Clinicians and clients also thought that a misalignment between young people and older generations, including government, was a source of eco-anxiety and having a collective voice was seen as important for regional youth as was community support through social media sites. Clinicians thought that eco-anxiety was 'in the background' for their clients, whereas the clients who participated were clearly experiencing eco-anxiety. Whereas clinicians could identify potential coping strategies, clients could not. CONCLUSIONS: Eco-anxiety can be experienced by regional youth with mental health problems as both an acute response to natural hazards and a more sustained sense of hopelessness about the future. Impacts of acute anxiety and chronic hopelessness, with its associated depression risk, among young people with pre-existing mental health problems warrants further investigation as this study suggests that it may exacerbate their existing conditions. Clinicians and clients in this region would benefit from specific training and resources related to the identification and treatment of eco-anxiety. Future research on climate-related mental health should be inclusive of the perspectives of those who have direct experience of climate-related adverse events.

A multiple needs framework for climate change anxiety interventions.

Climate change anxiety is a growing problem for individual well-being the world over. However, psychological interventions to address climate change anxiety may have unintended effects on outcomes other than individual well-being, such as group cohesion and pro-environmental behavior. In order to address these complexities, we outline a multiple needs framework of climate change anxiety interventions, which can be used to analyze interventions in terms of their effects on individual, social, and environmental outcomes. We use this framework to contextualize a systematic review of the literature detailing the effects of climate change anxiety interventions. This analysis identifies interventions centered around problem-focused action, emotion management, and enhancing social connections as those which have beneficial effects on the widest range of outcomes. It also identifies interventions that may have detrimental effects on one or more outcomes. We identify gaps where more research is required, including research that assesses the effects of climate change anxiety interventions on individual, social, and environmental outcomes in concert. An interactive website summarizes these insights and presents the results of the systematic review in a way that is, accessible to a range of stakeholders. The multiple needs framework provides a way to conceptualize the effectiveness of climate change anxiety interventions beyond their impact on individual well-being, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the effects of this global phenomenon. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Climate change and rural mental health: a social geographic perspective.

CONTEXT: The objective of this commentary is to suggest ways in which current and future research on climate change and rural mental health can be enhanced by social geographic perspectives. As the effects of climate change escalate, the mental health of rural and remote communities will be placed at increasing risk. As such, it is imperative that academics and practitioners recognise the value of multidisciplinary approaches to tackling this issue. ISSUES: As social geographers, the authors of this commentary outline concepts from their field that they find helpful in understanding the relationship between people and places, and how these relations give rise to emotions that are responsive to environmental conditions. LESSONS LEARNED: Ultimately, the authors would like to prompt a re-thinking of 'social' as a category, which is usually confined to interpersonal interactions between humans and suggest a broadening of the concept to include both human and non-human worlds.

Preferences and intention of rural adolescents toward seeking help for mental health problems.

UNLABELLED: INTRODUCTION In Australia, rural adolescents still face barriers to obtaining professional psychological help due to poor availability and accessibility of services in rural areas when delay in seeking help for mental health problems can lead to poorer treatment outcomes. The aims of this study were to: investigate the preferences and intentions of rural Australian youth towards seeking help for mental health problems; determine predictors of help-seeking intention among rural adolescents; and verify results from previous qualitative research on the barriers to help-seeking in a rural context. METHOD: Participants were 201 adolescents recruited from 8 rural schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. Participants ranged in age from 11 to 18 years. Using the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA+), approximately 149 participants were classified as currently living in an inner regional area of Victoria, whereas 52 participants lived in an outer regional area. Participants completed an open-ended survey of help-seeking intention. RESULTS: Overall, 55.7% of the sample indicated that they would seek help for a mental health problem. The majority of participants, regardless of subgroup, indicated that they would seek help for a mental health problem from a school counsellor as their first choice. Gender differences were observed such that males had a higher preference for seeking help from a psychologist than females. Furthermore, older adolescents were more likely to prefer seeking help from a GP than younger participants. A multivariate analysis of help-seeking intentions revealed that ARIA was the only predictor of help-seeking intention; however, when extreme scores of depression and anxiety were also taken into account, these also predicted help-seeking intention. A content analysis of the barriers to help-seeking nominated by participants revealed that perceived limited availability of professional services in towns, perceived social proximity and fear of rural gossip, and difficulties associated with travelling to obtain help were the most significant concerns for these youth. CONCLUSIONS: These findings verify previous research on help-seeking among rural youth and reinforce that these young people face additional barriers to help-seeking by virtue of living in a rural environment. The availability of services for rural youth needs to be improved, as do young people's knowledge of service availability and access (especially travel options). It must be taken into account that rural adolescents of different ages and sex may differ in their help-seeking preferences. Finally, mental health promotion work with rural youth should consider the influence of rural culture on help-seeking intentions.

Coping and resilience in farming families affected by drought.

OBJECTIVES: The present study was a qualitative investigation of the impact of drought on rural families of southern New South Wales, Australia, with particular emphasis on the concept of resilience in times of stress. The aim was to provide insight, from a psychological perspective, into the experiences of rural farmers in a time of adversity, and to identify the coping resources utilized by these farming families. METHOD: Participants were 11 members of five families from Blighty, a small farming town in the Riverina district, experiencing drought and decreased water allocation to their local area. Family members were interviewed on two separate occasions at their farms. RESULTS: Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that a wide range of coping strategies were being utilized by these families from problem-focussed coping, optimism and positive appraisal to less adaptive strategies such as cognitive dissonance, denial and avoidance of negative social influences. A significant finding was the discovery of a range of collective coping strategies used by the families in this study and the reliance on social capital as an adaptive resource. There were signs, however, that social cohesion of this community had become compromised due to competition for resources. CONCLUSION: The adaptive coping mechanisms traditionally employed by these farming families are starting to weaken and urgent work to enhance the individual coping strategies of farmers is needed. Furthermore, Government needs to recognise the importance of social capital as a coping resource that will enable farming families to adapt and survive drought conditions into the future. Providing financial assistance to support current community initiatives and collective coping strategies may prove more beneficial to farmers than allocating inadequate amounts of funding to individual farming families.

Harnessing the social capital of rural communities for youth mental health: an asset-based community development framework.

In Australia, we are facing a period of mental health reform with the establishment of federally funded community youth services in rural areas of the country. These new services have great potential to improve the mental health of rural adolescents. In the context of this new initiative, we have four main objectives with this article. First, we consider the notion of social capital in relation to mental health and reflect on the collective characteristics of rural communities. Second, we review lessons learned from two large community development projects targeting youth mental health. Third, we suggest ways in which the social capital of rural communities might be harnessed for the benefit of youth mental health by using asset-based community development strategies and fourth, we consider the role that rural clinicians might play in this process.

Issues in rural adolescent mental health in Australia.

The mental health of adolescents living in rural Australia has received little research attention. In this article, the extant literature on rural adolescent mental health in Australia is reviewed. Given the lack of literature on this topic, the review is centered on a vignette presented at the beginning of the article. The case represented by the vignette is that of a young Australian growing up in a rural area. The issues raised--including the nature of mental health issues for rural adolescents and barriers to seeking professional help--are then discussed in terms of the available literature. The article concludes with a future focus for research efforts in the area of rural adolescent mental health.