By Georgia Jackson, College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty in the USF School of Public Affairs received $999,920 from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program to examine the relationship between mental health, climate anxiety and climate mitigation, adaptation and preparedness. Their findings will inform interventions to support migrant farmworkers and their families in the U.S. and globally.
The three-year, collaborative grant will expand on disaster resilience research by Robin Ersing, director of the School of Public Affairs, and Christa Remington, an assistant professor in the same school. Ersing and Remington will work with Miranda Dally of the University of Colorado to collect data in Citrus, Collier, Hernando, Miami-Dade and Sumter counties on the mental health impacts of climate change.
“For migrant farmworker families, climate-change-induced hazards, such as increasing temperatures, storms and associated flooding, are resulting in severe negative economic and social impacts, including fewer opportunities related to diminishing crop yields,” said Ersing.
“Mental health impacts of climate-related challenges on families may include psychological distress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance abuse and risk of self-harm. Impacts on income earners and caregivers can have detrimental effects on the mental health and well-being of other family members and the overall functioning of families,” she added.
The U.S. is home to an estimated 3 million farmworkers, many of whom work in Florida. According to Ersing, at least 15 percent of the population migrates seasonally for agricultural work.
“The Gulf Coast is one of the most susceptible regions in the United States to the effects of climate change, but there is not a strong understanding of how living with these more frequent and intense climate hazards is affecting the mental health of Gulf Coast communities,” said Daniel Burger, program director of the Gulf Research Program’s Gulf Health and Resilience Board. “The projects supported through this funding opportunity will provide important insights into mental health risk factors among Gulf community members and support the development of intervention strategies to project and strengthen community health and resilience.”