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Health professionals in Canberra to call for action on summer of anxiety

Doctors for the Environment

EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2025

 

As Australia braces for a brutal summer, leading doctors will on Tuesday visit Parliament House to warn that worsening climate change is driving a mental health crisis — and will call for mental health to be front and centre in Australia’s climate and health policies.

The serious climate impacts that Australians are already experiencing include:

• October heat records being broken in several states already 

• Algal bloom in South Australia

• Drought in regional Victoria 

• High insurance premiums for increased flood risk, with one in six homes at risk of flooding today.

 

Since the release of Doctors for the Environment Australia’s How climate affects mental health in Australia report earlier this year, DEA will launch an updated version showing new evidence that climate change is already harming Australians’ mental health, with impacts projected to become severe by 2050. 

 

Our leaders can reduce climate distress by showing meaningful action to protect people from heat and extreme weather now, and by rejecting new and extended fossil fuel projects.

 

The event at Parliament will be hosted by Parliamentary Friends of Climate Action, which is co-chaired by Zali Steggall MP, Jerome Laxale, MP, and Senator Maria Kovacic. 

 

Dr Kate Wylie, GP and Executive Director of DEA

“Our changing climate is making both our bodies and minds sicker. Doctors see the clear links between climate change, physical illness, and mental health. Conditions like asthma and heart disease — both exacerbated by rising temperatures and pollution — are closely tied to anxiety and depression. 

 

“Climate change is putting mothers and children at risk in ways that have lifelong consequences. Complications during pregnancy, including pregnancy loss, premature births and low birth weight are devastating. And the rates of children who are born prematurely or with low birth weight have higher rates of mental disorders as well as those of the developing brain and nervous system. 

 

“Even witnessing a parent in danger during a disaster can cause PTSD in children. The effects can last well into adulthood.”

 

Dr Cybele Dey, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

“Hotter days are linked with more suicides, more domestic violence and more mental health emergencies. In Australia, even mild heat has been shown to increase suicidal distress among young people, with more presenting to Emergency Departments the hotter it becomes. With suicide the leading cause of death for 15-44 year olds -we need to act to prevent suicidal behaviour by reducing heat exposure now and address the underlying driver, fossil fuels, to save lives into the future.

 

“People in rural and remote areas, especially farmers, are particularly vulnerable as they face both more extreme weather and limited access to care. We need to recognise that climate adaptation is mental health prevention — safe, cool homes, trustworthy information on staying healthy and safe, and local mental health care for the long term can save lives.

 

“Extreme weather can disrupt community mental health services. As healthcare professionals, we see increased mental health emergency department presentations and hospital admissions with hotter weather, which increase as the heat increases”

 

Media interviews

Please contact DEA’s Media and Communications Lead, Carmela Ferraro, on 0410 703 074 and [email protected]

 

Who will attend?

Zali Steggall MP; Jerome Laxale MP; Senator Maria Kovacic,

Dr Kate Wylie, GP and DEA Executive Director; Dr Cybele Dey, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, UNSW Researcher; Dr Matthew Barton, Psychiatrist, University of Sydney researcher; Dr Pramudie Gunaratne, current Chair of the NSW branch of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists: A/Prof Fiona Charlson, University of Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) and a Principal Research Fellow at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR); Prof Susan Rees (UNSW Psychiatry & Mental Health and Harvard University), Prof Deborah Lupton (UNSW Social Health & Policy), Prof Sarah Perkins-Kilpatrick (Climate Scientist, ANU and UNSW author of paper establishing measurement of human health harms from an Australian fossil fuel project); Courtney Kovac (co-founder of Ecomind), Dr Charles Le Feuvre (Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Psychology for a Safe Climate); Dr John Van Der Kallen (former chair DEA); Prof Kay Wilhelm (UNSW, Professor of Psychiatry at NotreDame University); Dr Conny Harris (General Practitioner); Dr Michael Dudley (Psychiatrist and UNSW researcher); Dr Elizabeth Moore, Past president Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, past ACT DIrector of Mental Health; Dr Marjorie Cross; Prof Steve Robson, ANU, Former AMA President

 

Facts on mental health impacts

• Increased rates of physical illness, like asthma and heart disease, which are both linked with mental disorders - asthma with anxiety disorders and heart disease with major depression

• Complications during pregnancy, including pregnancy loss, premature births and low birth weight

• Children who are born prematurely or with low birth weight have higher rates of mental disorders as well as those of the developing brain and nervous system. Rates of these outcomes have increased over the time of increased exposure to extreme weather (a known risk factor)

• For children, the experience of having a parent or caregiver’s life threatened during an extreme weather event can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even if the child themselves was not under direct threat. 

• Increased suicide rates with increased annual temperatures. An Australian study showed that young people presented with suicidal thoughts and behaviour even with mildly hot weather and these worsened the hotter it became. With suicide the leading cause of death for 15-44 year olds - the potential to prevent suicidal behaviour by addressing risk factors is crucially important

• Hot weather and heat waves are associated with increases in physical and sexual assaults and with domestic violence - access to cool shelter and sustainable ways to stay cool, rental standards and safe community spaces which are cool could also make a difference

• People living in rural and remote communities are at increased risk of mental health impacts, and have lower levels of funding, resources and more fragmented mental health care over time. Farmers and others whose livelihood depends on primary production and stable climatic conditions, also represent a group at increased risk

• Presentation can occur months or years following the acute traumatic event from extreme weather, and childhood exposure is linked to an increased risk of mental disorders as an adult.

• Extreme weather events impact mental health care both by disrupting access to community mental health care and increasing the need for mental health care.

There is clear evidence of increased mental health emergency department presentations and hospital admissions with hotter weather, which increase as the heat increases.

 

About DEA

Doctors for the Environment Australia is the leading medical voice on health and climate.

We work with communities and health professionals to respond to the health effects of climate change through practical support, education, and by encouraging strong government action to reduce pollution.

 

–ENDS–

Contact details:

Please contact DEA’s Media and Communications Lead, Carmela Ferraro, on 0410 703 074 and [email protected]