Take the young person called back from boarding school to their family farm, where they and their siblings rose each morning at 3.30am to feed starving sheep. After brief respite at lunchtime, the feeding would resume until nightfall, and it was a routine that continued for a year. The person couldn’t recall a time when the farm was not drought-affected; when family members didn’t have to travel two hours to shower or deal with the constant spectre of red dirt and dead sheep, all without the luxuries of air-conditioning or the internet.
Or the young person whose family lost their inter-generational business, many of their household buildings and livestock during the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20. The financial pressures were such that this individual had to curtail their social life entirely, to the point that they didn’t dare ask for anything, especially not when their father was forced to travel interstate to work for months at a time.
“These are two of the harrowing stories that have already been shared,” says Natasha Searles, a UNE Clinical Psychology PhD student who is conducting in-depth interviews with young people who have directly experienced natural disasters. “Most of those I have interviewed so far had experienced multiple events; it wasn’t just a bushfire; it was drought before that or a bushfire and then flood.”
With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasting that Australia may face disproportionate temperature increases that outpace worldwide global warming, resulting in more acute weather events (bushfires, cyclones and floods) of greater intensity, the UNE research team is concerned for the risks this poses to the mental health and wellbeing of young people.
“These impacts are typically substantial, prolonged and costly,” says Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of New England (UNE), Suzie Cosh. “The Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009 demonstrated that direct bushfire exposure can result in increased rates of depression, anxiety, alcohol misuse and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder even up to four years after exposure. The risk for anxiety and PTSD remained elevated up to 20 years on from Ash Wednesday bushfires. Mental health constitutes the highest intangible cost of natural hazards, and these impacts accumulate with multiple stressors and traumas.”
The researchers hope that gaining an understanding of young people’s mental health needs, coping and resilience factors will help to inform targeted interventions. Adolescence and young adulthood is a time when many psychological disorders emerge and preparedness for future adverse events could help to stave off long-term mental health issues.
“Natural hazards may substantially impact on development and functioning, especially at a life stage when young people have limited life experiences, resources and coping skills,” Suzie said. “Individuals may also be exposed to their parents’ stress, which functions as secondary exposure. This could mean that young people are the most vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards.”
The fallout can be especially pronounced in rural and remote regions – those areas most commonly affected by natural disasters – where economic disadvantage and poor access to mental health support combine.
Natasha is identifying a number of key themes in the interviews she has conducted so far: that climate events are very disruptive to family functioning and the education of young people; that families tended to avoid discussing their impacts; and that local psychological support (if it is available) is not geared to their needs.
“All the young people said that their community came together and there were practical resources – like donated clothes or hay bales or water,” Natasha said. “But there was no one going around and asking after their wellbeing or someone they could talk to, to help process the disaster.”
Natasha is now looking for more young people to take part in one-on-one interviews and to complete a number of simple psychometric tests. “By learning about the vulnerability or coping resources of young people, we hope to identify where additional mental health support is needed,” she said.
The study builds on a body of vital UNE research in this space, which is critical in terms of future support. “In rural areas, there are already far fewer services and longer waiting lists, so having these big traumas, coupled with COVID, has meant there are insufficient services to meet community needs or interventions directed at specific life events,” Suzie said.
The cost of climate-related disasters – both personal and financial – can be great. The lifetime attributable costs for Victoria’s Black Saturday, alone, are estimated to be in excess of $1 billion. “If people are getting drought and fire and now flood, the costs are likely to completely blow out exponentially. It’s a real concern to the economy as well as to people’s wellbeing and happiness,” Suzie said. “And we know from the climate modelling that areas that were not traditionally impacted will be affected by climate hazards in future.”
They may be highly emotive accounts, but Natasha hopes that sharing the experiences of young people won’t be in vain. “I see their faces and hear their distress, but much of the research to date has focused on older farmers and not young people,” she said. “If we hear their stories and what has been most difficult for them, then we can do what we can to prepare and strategize for future events, to foster resilience and cultivate hope.”
To add your voice to the research, go to www.SeekingHope.com.au. Participants are being urgently sought, but must be 16-25 years and from a NSW location that has had a disaster declaration.
