About this Research Topic

Background

Socioeconomic and climate-related factors present unique threats to the health and wellbeing of small island developing states (SIDS). Relative isolation, acute vulnerability to weather, seismic, and oceanographic events, and low economic diversification are common challenges. Psychiatric and psychological sequelae include stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Climate-specific constructs (e.g., eco-anxiety, solastalgia, and ecological grief) are emerging, but research has been largely confined to western cultures. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a useful framework, as evidenced by the 2023 WHO high-level technical meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health with SIDS, which include prioritizing mental health resources and outcomes in building climate-resilient societies.

SIDS are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with relevant knowledge for fostering resilience, but threats and workable solutions for varied countries and regions are likely to be context-dependent. Further research is needed to understand the dynamics of environmental threat and mental health and to elucidate mechanisms of resilience at the individual, community, and health systems levels.

The relationships between environmental vulnerabilities and population mental health in SIDS are not uniform across cultures and places. Further, the landscape of threat is not static and in some instances is intensifying, particularly with regard to weather intensification and oceanographic changes. Given the accelerating pace of climate threat and vulnerability of mental health and health systems, the Research Topic will provide a venue for urgently needed research to identify, explicate, and address threats to mental health in SIDS. Further, we will solicit papers that propose or inform contextually appropriate global health solutions supporting individual and community resilience. We welcome contributions from all interested authors but seek especially to amplify voices of researchers and health professionals currently working in SIDS.

The complex environments of SIDS give rise to vulnerabilities in public health, including mental health, for which a robust and integrated research base is needed to inform the wellbeing of individuals and communities. This Research Topic invites empirical research, commentary, and systematic reviews concerning challenges to mental health and health systems in SIDS, as well as interventions (broadly defined) that promote resilience. We are particularly interested in papers that examine interconnections between mental health and vulnerable physical, social, and economic environments.

Vulnerabilities of interest include:

• Weather and climate-related threat
• Food sovereignty and food security
• Infectious diseases
• Non-communicable diseases
• Political and social violence

Papers exploring mental health challenges, interventions, and outcomes at all levels are encouraged, including those with measurement, monitoring, and evaluation components. Quantitative and quantitative methodologies are welcome.

Keywords: Vulnerability, Resilience, Small Islands Developing States, SIDS, Eco-anxiety, Mental Health, Solastalgia

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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