Helping Patients Cope with Emotional Reactions to Climate Change: Advice for Mental Health Clinicians

• By Elizabeth Haase, M.D.
• APA Leadership, Treatment

Climate change is not easy for the human mind to understand. It has qualities, like its enormous scale, complexity and uncertainty, that make it hard to comprehend. Greenhouse gases are invisible, and what is happening on one part of the planet is not happening on another: you can’t “see” it.

Addressing the Public Mental Health Challenge of Climate Change

• By Katherine Catalano, Elizabeth Haase, M.D.
• Patients and Families, Public awareness, Trauma

For most Americans, the face of climate change is extreme weather and natural disasters. More than 40% of Americans live in a county impacted by a major natural disaster in the last year. In the last seven years, natural disasters cost the United States more than a trillion dollars in damage and more than 5,000 lives were lost.

Air Pollution’s Impact on Mental Health

• Patients and Families, Teens and young adults

Air pollution is a major environmental health risk — the links between air pollution and health conditions such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases are well established. Though less well-understood, there is substantial evidence that air pollution also impacts mental health.

New Research Points to Disparities in Autism Prevalence and Access to Care

New research based on data from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network found that among 8-year-old children, 1 in 36 were identified with autism spectrum disorder in 2020. This is an increase from 1 in 54 in 2016.

APA Announces New Events for Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

• Children and Youth, Diverse populations, Teens and young adults

APA celebrates each July with a series of community-wide events focused on mental health equity for young people of color. Check out what's in store for this year!