Climate Change advocates, environmentalists and social psychologists have called for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures that address not only environmental challenges but social and psychological needs of people.
They said the impact of climate change must not only be seen as an environmental challenge but one that affected the social and psychological needs of the vulnerable, mostly children, women and people living with disabilities (PWDs).
Speaking at the Bosch West Africa Regional activity on gender and climate change and the impact on fishing community, at Shiabu, a suburb in Dansoman, Accra, Madam Sylvia Hagan, Project Lead, Climate Mental Health Initiative said, there was an indirect relationship between climate change and socio psychological.
She said climate change had multifaceted effects on social, economic and psychological needs; with consequences on livelihoods, properties and mental health.
“In the fishing community, the rise in sea level which destroys their canoes and buildings, low yields of catch that fishers are experiencing, and others are deepening the social inequalities and stress level. This raises serious mental health issues,” she said.
Madam Hagan called for psychological support for community members to teach them how to cope with stress. He also urged the government to provide sustainable alternative livelihoods programmes and make psychotherapy part of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Mr Roland Padi, Lead Researcher, Bosch Alumni, Ghana Research Team, who studied the socio psychological factors that affected women living along Ghana’s coastal belt, said the women in the Shiabu community had lamented the effects of climate change.
“Their rainfall patterns have changed, they complained of sea pollution, low yields from their fishers and high sea levels. The lack of engagement on the closed season has affected their social and economic lives, leading to high levels of stress,” he said.
Mr Padi called on the government to expedite the construction of the sea defence at Shiabu, work with fishing authorities and assemblies to create awareness of climate change and sensitise community members on waste management.
Miss Emmaryn Lucy, West Africa Regional Coordinator, Bosch Alumni Network, West African, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the project was to know distress concerns these women were going through, adding that marriages had been affected by the impacts of climate change.
She said policy directions would help address these challenges and make the vulnerable within the fishing sector productive since most of them were not part of the decision-making processes, adding that they donated some bins to some households.
Bosch West Africa Regional activity was a week-long programme, which had panel discussion on creating a good structure of engagement between policymakers and fishers with members from Senegal, The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.
Other activities include cleanup exercise at the La Boma Beach, partnering with several Ghanaian corporate institutions, donation exercise and presentation of research findings.
Source: GNA
