Mental Health Considerations for Climate Migrants

During NCTTP’s 16th Annual Symposium on March 18, 2024, Dr. Mikel Matto presented “Mental Health Considerations for Climate Migrants.”
 
Abstract:
The United Nations and World Bank estimate that by 2050 between 200 million and 216 million people will be forcibly displaced due to climate change. The geographic, social, political, and economic consequences of climate change are expected to render regions and entire countries uninhabitable and will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations with limited recourse. As rising numbers of climate migrants seek refuge in less impacted countries, resettled populations will arrive with the depressive, anxiety, or stress- or trauma-related disorders familiar to refugee health providers. This presentation will discuss some of the unique challenges that arise as service providers care for migrant populations who have experienced the climate change traumas that providers likely fear themselves or experience in a more limited way. The presentation will discuss features prevalent in climate migrants and their providers, including complicated grief, survivor’s guilt, vicarious trauma, and empathy, compassion, and recovery fatigue. It will also address the psychoterratic syndromes (such as ecoanxiety, ecoparalysis and solastalgia) that providers will both be managing in their clients or patients and potentially experiencing themselves. The presentation will discuss specific strategies and techniques for provision of effective mental healthcare to those experiencing climate migration and self-care for those who treat them.
 
Author:
Dr. Mikel Matto is faculty at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical schools. He is the Medical Director of OHSU’s Intercultural Psychiatry Program as well as the Torture Treatment Center of Oregon. He is board certified in the fields of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. Dr. Matto is Chair of the Committee for Trauma & Stress and Co-Chair of the Committee for the National Security and Human Rights at the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Dr. Matto’s clinical practice is devoted to mental healthcare for resettled refugees and he is a forensic expert who has testified on the subjects of trauma, torture, and human rights.