Parallel Session B 10.00
Dr Ang Li and Rebecca Bentley
NHMRC Centre of Research and Excellence in Healthy Housing, University of Melbourne
Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent, heightening the risk of mental distress within communities. To effectively protect the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, it is critical to understand their sources of vulnerability and resilience. However, recent reviews have indicated a significant gap in evidence on the impact of extreme weather events on individuals with mental illness and how social determinants of health such as housing can protect health or impede recovery. Using population based longitudinal data in Australia over a decade, this study investigates how the health and housing trajectories of extreme weather events (including floods, bushfires, and cyclones) differed based on mental illness status and the role that housing affordability, security and suitability played in supporting or interrupting the mental health recovery of individuals living with mental illness.
Results show that extreme weather events were associated with greater mental health impacts among individuals with mental illness compared to controls. Additionally, individuals with mental illness experienced increased risks of residential instability (18.07%, 95%CI: 0.0995, 0.2618) and housing unaffordability (9.40%, 95%CI: 0.0283, 0.1596), compared to those unexposed to disasters. Findings have implications for design, access, and allocation of health services and medication preparedness for people with mental illness before, during, and after disasters, ensuring their access to health resources and reducing their vulnerability to the impacts of extreme weather events.
About the presenter
Ang Li is an Australian Research Council DECRA Senior Research Fellow and applied economist at the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, the University of Melbourne. Ang holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney, awarded with the Walter Noel Gillies Prize for Best PhD Thesis in Economics. Bridging economics, epidemiology, and housing studies, her research examines the role of housing and housing policies in health and social wellbeing over the life course. Her recent work has included investigations of housing and health consequences of climate-related extreme events and causal analyses of the health effects of housing affordability, energy poverty, and tenure security. She has received the Emerging Researcher Award and the Research Excellence Award from the University of Melbourne.