KEY POINTS:
- Half of those surveyed that had experienced a natural disaster said their mental health had been impacted.
- Most experienced anxiety.
- More than one-third of survey participants said there was too little mental health support available to them.
When Susan Conroy was asked if she needed anyone to talk to after experiencing the devastating Lismore floods in 2022, she said she was okay without even thinking.
Just a few months later she was trying to get an appointment to see a psychologist.
She said in the months after swimming through floodwaters out of her home to higher ground, she had been in "survival mode".
"At first it was just figuring out how to save ourselves and our neighbours, then it moved onto what to chuck out of your home and the cleanup," Ms Conroy said.
Susan Conroy said she never expected floodwaters to go beyond the ground floor of her Lismore home, as it did in February 2022. Source: Supplied
Ever since the flooding in February 2022, rain, even a small amount, had also been triggering anxiety in Ms Conroy.
Results from a survey looking at the mental health toll of extreme weather events on people in Australia show she is not alone, with half of those surveyed that had experienced a natural disaster saying their mental health had been impacted.
Mental health toll
Ms Conroy was one of the 80 per cent of about 2000 people, who, when asked in , said they had experienced an extreme weather event at least once.
A follow-up survey of people who had been through a natural disaster found the most common mental health symptom experienced was anxiety.
Many others experienced symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
One-in-five respondents said the disaster they went through had a “major or moderate impact” on their mental health.
Is there sufficient support?
More than one-third of survey participants said there was too little mental health support available to them.
While 33 per cent of those in urban areas reported inadequate or unavailable mental health services the issue was more obvious for those in rural areas, with 41 per cent indicating this was an issue.
Ms Conroy said the question from outreach workers who stopped her in her street while she cleaned her uninhabitable home in the weeks following a second flood, was the only such prompt she'd had in regard to her mental health.
"It was random as to whether they approached you, I wasn't living there at the time and that once isn't really enough in the grand scheme of things," she said.
Ms Conroy said almost a year on from the floods she is now aware of and able to deal with the reality of the scale of the upheaval the floods would have on her life.
Of those surveyed, 42 per cent had experienced a bushfire, 47 per cent flooding and 63 per cent, a heatwave. Credit: Diego Fedele
Beyond Blue’s lead clinical adviser, Associate Professor Grant Blashki, said climate change was not just a physical threat, but a mental one too.
“It’s as much about broken spirits as damaged buildings," he said.
"Yet, despite the high levels of need, many people affected by climate disasters find it difficult to access the mental health assistance they need."
A call for better planning
Dr Blashki said Australia's mental health systems needed strengthening to cope with the demands of extreme weather events.
"[A] whole system approach rather than piecemeal band-aid approaches during a crisis. We need to prepare the mental health system for early support of those affected, and co-opt a more diverse workforce,” he said.
Australian National University climate scientist Joelle Gergis said there needed to be a national conversation about climate change adaptation where the experiences of people who have lived through disasters were listened to.
“Extreme weather events are going to escalate as our planet continues to warm, so the impacts we have witnessed in recent years are really just the tip of the iceberg," she said.
"We urgently need to develop plans that protect and support our local communities.”
SBS News contacted Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt, for comment. His office referred the request to the office of the Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Emma McBride, which did not respond.
Readers seeking support with mental health can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. More information is available at . supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
