Climate is changing our mental health

Associate Professor Fiona Charlson answers your questions about 'eco-anxiety'

Protesters gather to rally against climate change denialism.

Climate change is having an impact on our mental health, UQ research has found. Image: Adobe Stock/Ink Drop

Climate change is having an impact on our mental health, UQ research has found. Image: Adobe Stock/Ink Drop

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Associate Professor Fiona Charlson is a Research Fellow with the National Health and Medical Research Council at the Queensland Centre of Mental Health Research and School of Public Health at The University of Queensland.

She is a psychiatric epidemiologist and health services researcher with vast experience in addressing some of the most challenging global mental health research questions.

Among these is how climate change could be impacting our mental health.

In 2021, Associate Professor Charlson was recognised by The Australian as one of the nation's top early career researchers.

Research News spoke to Associate Professor Charlson about her career so far, and her recent findings in the field of global mental health.


You've done a lot of research into the impact of climate change on mental health. What drew your attention to this issue?

I’ve always had a focus on populations which disproportionately experience poor mental health outcomes. For example, my PhD was on the mental health of conflict-affected populations. With the health impacts associated with climate change beginning to emerge, it was a natural transition to move into this field.

What is "eco-anxiety" and what impact is it having on the public?

Eco-anxiety is the existential dread of climate change. For many Australians, the existential dread of what the future holds in the face of unmitigated climate change is having documented impacts on their mental health. Australia’s youth have been exemplary at voicing their despair and 'eco-anxiety' around the foreseeable deterioration of our planet.

For those too young to have a voice, parents are feeling anxiety and distress on their behalf. Mums and dads are under pressure to instil values such as caring for the environment, while worrying about the future of the planet they are leaving their children. This emerging narrative of how climate change is impacting people’s mental health is not complete. The relationships between climate events and mental health are complex and not always apparent.

What can the public learn from your work in the area of climate change?

When people think of the mental health impacts of climate change, I suspect they might think of trauma related to bushfires, or ‘climate anxiety’ experienced by youth, because these are the scenes the media show us. But there much broader mental health impacts which are looming. These impacts are not very well understood yet and are a focus of our research network but will include many indirect impacts related to things like people having to leave their land and homes – think drought and rising sea-levels, loss of employment or livelihood. Heat is known to increase negative emotions and suicide rates.

What intrigues you most about mental health and its link to global events? 

Mental health is intertwined into everything: from our physical health to our relationship with the planet and the environment. Globally, it is impacting populations that are already facing the greatest inequalities, such as those in countries in crisis. I really enjoy working on big challenges which hopefully have big benefits in terms of improving people's lives.

Men look at the floodwater from the Brisbane Flood in 2011.

Men watch helplessly as flood water rips through a Brisbane street in 2011. Image: Adobe Stock/Matt Palmer.

Men watch helplessly as flood water rips through a Brisbane street in 2011. Image: Adobe Stock/Matt Palmer.

How did your career in psychiatric epidemiology and health services research begin?

I originally trained and worked as a pharmacist for years before I moved into public health. It was early 2000 when I started to feel the pull towards public health and eventually undertook a Master of Public Health while living and working overseas. After moving from Geneva back to Brisbane, Professor Harvey Whiteford, from Global Mental Health at The University of Queensland, offered me work as a research assistant. Twelve years later, I’m still here.

What does your latest research tell us?

One of our key research papers – released last year – found that while climate change is considered the biggest threat to global mental health in the coming century, tackling this threat could be the most significant opportunity to shape our mental health for centuries to come because of health co-benefits of transitioning to more sustainable ways of living. Research on the impacts of climate change on mental health and mental health-related systems will assist decision-makers to develop robust evidence-based mitigation and adaptation policies and plans with the potential for broad benefits to society and the environment.

What has been your proudest breakthrough or achievement?

My proudest achievement is the establishment of UQ’s Social and Emotional Wellbeing and Climate Change research network. We created this network in response to government, industry and community requests for new knowledge about how climate change is likely to impact social and emotional wellbeing through more frequent natural disasters, and for evidence-informed interventions that will build community resilience in the face of these disasters.


Associate Professor Fiona Charlson's research utilises a wide range of highly-specialised skills, from traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods to new and innovative methods aimed at breaking down barriers to progress in the field.

Her technical expertise is highly sought after and has attracted collaboration requests and funding from a wide range of national and international stakeholders, including Queensland Health, the World Health Organization, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (University of Washington), US National Institutes of Health, Alan Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (University of Cape Town) and various organisations in low- and middle-income countries.

E: f.charlson@uq.edu.au

Associate Professor Fiona Charlson