In Kenya, a search for links between a changing climate and mental health

KILIFI, Kenya– KILIFI, Kenya (AP) — The daily grind of putting food on the table is stressful for people around the world, especially women, who still do most of the work. Climate change adds to the anxiety.

Kaloleni, in Kilifi County, is one of the poorest areas in Kenya. Women carry buckets of water for miles across the dusty landscape. The houses are mostly built of mud and have no indoor plumbing. Corn plants wilt in the heat.

“These communities struggle to grow their crops and have to spend money on food,” said Zul Merali of the Aga Khan University, who established a local institute for mental and brain health. “It creates a lot of pressure, especially on women, because they are responsible for making sure children and families are fed.”

This farming community is one of the most studied populations in Kenya. A network of community health workers visits every household every month to check on how people are doing. They fill out questionnaires that the government uses to understand the needs of rural communities.

Humphrey Kitsao is a community health promoter who serves 115 households in Kilifi County, totaling 532 people. He has been doing this work for 18 years and says he has seen a lot of changes.

“People here still farm, but their income is not like before,” he told the Associated Press. “They have to spend a lot of money on their farms, but often there is no harvest.”

Jasmit Shah is a data scientist at the Aga Khan University’s Brain and Mind Institute who wanted to study the impact of climate change on the mental health of women in rural farming communities in Kenya. While climate anxiety has been studied in the United States and Europe, no mental health studies have been conducted among women in this region. There was no reference.

The university was already supporting the Government of Kenya in its data collection in Kilifi County. For his own research on mental health and climate change, he only needed to add a few questions.

“The questions are quantitative: do you have suicidal thoughts, and if so, do you have them every day, several days a week, a few times a month?” Shah said. “Then we asked them about 15 questions related to climate shocks and looked at the correlation between climate shocks and people reporting suicidal thoughts.”

Shah said the survey of nearly 15,000 women produced worrying signs. For example, he says, it appears that droughts and heat waves are linked to much higher levels of suicidal thoughts.

Elizabeth Amina Kadenge is a 41-year-old farmer and mother of four in Kaloleni. At the time of the study, his corn crop had been wiped out by drought. This year it was wiped out again – because of too much rain.

“It has been very stressful because agriculture is also my business,” Kadenge said. “When I farm the way I know how, part of my corn goes to food and part goes to my business. But if it fails, I have no food and no business.”

Kadenge responded to his anxiety about the uncertain weather by turning to cassava planting, which is less fickle. But corn takes three months from planting to harvest. Cassava takes a year. If the family is hungry, they must uproot it before it is big enough to sell and use for food “because we have no other choice.”

With issues like these in rural Kenya, mental health is often not a priority. “We don’t talk about it a lot, not just in this community, but everywhere,” Shah said.

Mercy Githara is the Mental and Psychosocial Health Officer at the Kenya Red Cross Society. In his experience, the mental consequences of droughts or floods are very real.

“There is a lot of psychological distress within these communities, and some of them have developed mental health issues like depression,” she said.

She wants to see more emphasis on mental health. “Ensuring communities facing climate change can access mental health services,” she said.

Shah hopes this is already starting to happen. He highlighted the government’s community health promotion program across Kenya and mental health training for participants. “So if they see a problem with a certain household or an individual, they can refer them to a facility where they can be seen by a medical professional.” »

Merali said such support was needed in the long term: “Climate change is not going to be a short-term thing. It is here to stay.”

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