Increased Heat and Mental Health - Kayla Davidson
Climate change will impact every part of Chico State, including the Counseling and Wellness Center. Cal-Adapt predicts extreme heat days to increase from an average of 3-4 days a year to 16-20 days a year by 2037. More extreme heat days is going to greatly affect the student’s mental health causing impacts in the Counseling and Wellness Center. Both students, faculty, and staff will be at risk for experiencing both mental and physical issues, such as heat stroke or anxiety attacks and will need to seek help from a medical and mental health professionals.
Mental health determines how people cope with stress in their lives and can affect the way a person functions. An increase in extreme heat days can lead to severe anxiety and stress, and combined with other climate change related events such as extreme storms, can cause depression, anger and violence. (1) With students being forced to worry about such events, and handle the extreme heat, their minds will be less capable of studying and finishing assignments which will then lead to even more stress and anxiety. Those who don't seek any professional help are likely to either fail and drop out, or in the faculty and staffs case, not showing up for work.
[1] Climate Change and Mental Health - American Public Health Association
