Extreme heat events continue to impact communities around the world, including Toronto, where heat warnings remain on the forecast. These advisories come at a busy time in the city, with many people spending time outdoors—whether attending sporting events, celebrating holidays, or gathering with loved ones during the longer summer days. Extreme heat events represent particularly high risks for people living in housing with no access to cooling devices and for people who have less resilience to the impacts of heat such as older adults, children, people who are pregnant, have disabilities, or who face health disparities. It’s a timely opportunity to raise awareness of the risks of extreme temperatures and their impact on our health.
At CAMH, we’re committed to understanding the intersection of climate change and mental health, and extreme heat events are an urgent component of this research and practice. Extreme heat events are periods of unusually warm weather that persist long enough to pose risks to health and wellbeing. What makes these especially dangerous is the prolonged exposure paired with limited access to cooling environments or resources, which impairs peoples’/our bodies ability to regulate temperature and recover.
“When we think about the consequences of extreme heat, we often focus on physical health impacts such as heat stroke, dehydration and cardiovascular strain,” shares Dr. Sean Kidd, Senior Scientist and co-Director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH. “But growing research shows that extreme heat also affects mental health and wellbeing, influencing sleep, mood, stress, cognition, and a range of mental health outcomes across populations.”
Mental illness is one of the strongest predictors of heat-related deaths, and people living with severe and persistent mental health conditions are disproportionately affected, being three times more likely to die from extreme heat events than the general population.
People living with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, for example, face the greatest risks of death and poor outcomes compared with any other physical or mental health condition. Specific risk factors include medication side effects, co-occurring physical health conditions, poverty and a lack of access to cool environments, or symptoms of the illness itself. All of these factors contribute to lowered resilience and challenges with adapting to high temperatures.
CAMH is leading initiatives to better understand how extreme heat affects communities at greater risk of heat-related harms to their health, including people experiencing severe mental illness, housing instability, and multiple physical health conditions. By better understanding these experiences, we can identify accessible, barrier-free supports and treatment approaches that respond to people's needs. A large part of this research is conducted in partnership with hospitals, educational institutions, and community organizations.
“To comprehensively understand the impact and uncover relevant treatments, we rely on health and community partnerships,” shares Swelen Andari, Director, Climate Resilience and Youth Mental Health Strategy at CAMH. “Collaborating with hospitals, housing providers, and policymakers allows us to combine expertise and coordinate our response. Engaging people with lived experience at every stage ensures our work reflects real-world barriers to care and helps us identify gaps in current practices. Together, this ensures our work is evidence-informed and grounded in the needs of the communities we serve.”
A collaborative project with Toronto Metropolitan University is exploring how indoor environments—specifically temperature and air quality—impact diverse people experiencing poverty across the lifespan and with a wide range of physical and mental health challenges. Researchers are meeting with residents to hear about conditions from their perspective, as well as landlords and support workers to understand what solutions can be implemented to improve participant experiences. By considering environmental data and personal experiences, the project examines how environments impact wellbeing, with the hope of informing future policies and support services.
Other CAMH-led initiatives include a McConnell Foundation-funded program of knowledge mobilization that has established international and national collaborations to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the health of people experiencing poverty (www.cphecc.ca). CAMH is also, with CIHR funding, developing a participatory action initiative designed to empower youth to build collective, psychological resilience in the face of climate change - generating a scalable approach to addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on youth mental health and wellbeing.
Extreme heat is becoming an increasingly important public health issue, and understanding its impact on mental health is essential to helping communities stay safe. Through research, partnerships, and community engagement, CAMH is working to better understand who is most affected, why these impacts occur, and how to develop supports that meet people where they are. From research, to policy engagement, to working with local networks of hospital and community partners, to developing accessible and practical strategies to address the health threats of climate change, we are a part of a larger effort to be prepared in the face of mounting climate risks to physical and mental health.
Visit our resource guide to learn how climate change affects mental health and how to stay safe during periods of extreme heat.
- Keep this CAMH-created personal heat preparedness plan on hand to help protect yourself and your loved ones from heat-related conditions.
- Visit CAMH's Climate Change and Mental Health webpage to explore the relationship between environmental conditions and mental health, and for access to additional resources.
