If you’re feeling like the pandemic is never-ending, you’re not alone.
If you’re feeling like the pandemic is never-ending, you’re not alone. Sixty-four per cent of British Columbians are worried the COVID-19 pandemic will be around for years to come, with concerns about climate change adding fuel to the fire.
The latest results from a national mental health survey led by UBC researchers, in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), found that this sentiment was reflected nationally, with 57 per cent of respondents worried that COVID-19 will continue to circulate among the population for years to come. In BC, 65 per cent of people are worried about new strains and nearly half, 48 per cent of respondents in the province are worried about the compounding effects of COVID-19 alongside the climate crisis.
This is the fourth round of the Assessing the Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health survey led by Dr. Emily Jenkins (she/her), an associate professor in the school of nursing at UBC, and Dr. Anne Gadermann (she/her), assistant professor in the school of population and public health. Conducted in December 2021, almost a year after the third survey, it was completed by a nationally representative sample of 3,030 people ages 18 and up living in Canada.
And it’s the first time the survey has included a question about climate change anxiety, says Dr. Jenkins. “With the heat domes and atmospheric rivers B.C. experienced in 2021, there was more awareness of climate crisis effects compounding mental health struggles alongside the pandemic. All these different issues were colliding and we wanted to account for that.”
Read more at University of British Columbia
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