Climate change causes more suicidal thoughts and visits to emergency departments among groups with mental health problems

Groups with mental health problems have more visits to emergency departments, more suicidal thoughts and higher mortality rates associated with rising temperatures due to climate change. These are the findings of a study by Mònica Guxens, a doctor and ICREA researcher at ISGlobal and CIBERESP, presented today at the Mental Health and Uncertainty: how to prepare conference, held at Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu as the last event in the 1st Mental Health Week.

Experts say that urgent and effective measures to adapt to high temperatures are crucial for coping with the new climate scenario. The impact is especially worrying in children, teenagers and vulnerable families in poorer neighbourhoods who are more exposed to the effects of climate change. This was confirmed by Hicham Achebak, a researcher at ISGlobal and Inserm, who in today's opening presentation reported on issues including energy spending levels in the two Madrid neighbourhoods with the highest and lowest standards of living.

This context compels healthcare professionals to address a more collaborative emergency model between institutions to meet new needs. "Climate change has completely changed what wildfires are like," argued Étel Arilla, a deputy inspector in the Catalan Fire Service’s Forest Action Group (GRAF), adding that the new aspects of these emergencies "which are now civic" generates uncertainty which has to be managed in advance and together aside from the actual response. “Managing uncertainty calls for strategy, planning and citizen collaboration."

As pointed out by the panel participants, one of the dangers of poor coordination between emergency systems is precisely the risk of having to deal with a "breakdown". Arilla was talking about the simultaneous occurrence of wildfires, yet this same scenario can also be found in medical emergencies, as noted by Catalina Serra, area head of the SEM, and in interventions in conflict zones, as outlined by Cristina Carreño, a mental health expert at Doctors Without Borders.

The experts agreed on the need to prepare young people to deal with new crises in various areas at a time when events are revealing the vulnerability of an increasingly complex society. Local planning and prevention through education to furnish these groups with tools are crucial to meeting future challenges. These were the points raised by the experts when discussing potential solutions to situations involving disasters, forced migration or humanitarian crises.

Today's event has made it clear that collective resilience and community readiness are essential in the new climate situation which will compel us to rethink emergency systems to ensure a more ethical and sustainable response, generating shared solutions and coordinated actions under the new scenarios of uncertainty.

Mental Health Week: Five days, five big challenges
The 1st Mental Health Week 2025 has featured five days of conferences, panel discussions, experiential workshops and activities open to the community from 6-10 October at Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu. The programme covered five key areas: young people, families, sport, research and how to prepare ourselves for managing uncertainty. Over the course of the week, a thousand attendees and a hundred speakers visited the Parc Sanitari's facilities to share the results of the latest research, experiences and thoughts with mental health professionals, family members and people who have lived through it first-hand. Dr Antoni Serrano, director of the Mental Health Network at Parc Sanitari SJD, was happy with how this week's activities contributed to the discussion: “We understand that people are really sensitive about this issue, society is on board and we need to come up with a joint strategy to tackle this problem."