Ellis Neville R, Albrecht Glenn A
Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, 90 South St, Murdoch WA 6150, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, NSW 2006, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 2017 Feb;175:161-168. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.009. Epub 2017 Jan 6.
'Sense of place' has become a central concept in the analysis of the cultural, personal and mental health risks posed by a changing climate. However, such place-related understandings of mental health and wellbeing remain largely limited to Indigenous health contexts. In this article we argue the relevance of sense of place in understanding the mental health impacts of climate change on family farmers who retain close living and working relationships to the land. We conducted a community-based qualitative case study located in the Western Australian Wheatbelt - a region that has experienced some of the most significant climate change in Australia. A three-part interview series was conducted with 22 family farmers between February 2013 and April 2014, and 15 interviews with various agricultural and mental health key informants. The research findings reveal that recently observed patterns of climate change have exacerbated farmers' worries about the weather, undermined notions of self-identity, and contributed to cumulative and chronic forms of place-based distress, culminating in heightened perceived risk of depression and suicide. The research findings highlight the tightly coupled ecosystem health-human health relationships that exist for family farmers living in regions affected by climate change, as well as the significance of farmers' place-based attachments and identities for their mental health and wellbeing.
“地方感”已成为分析气候变化所带来的文化、个人及心理健康风险的核心概念。然而，这种与地方相关的心理健康和幸福观在很大程度上仍局限于原住民健康领域。在本文中，我们论证了地方感在理解气候变化对与土地保持紧密生活和工作关系的家庭农民心理健康影响方面的相关性。我们在西澳大利亚小麦带开展了一项基于社区的定性案例研究，该地区经历了澳大利亚一些最为显著的气候变化。在2013年2月至2014年4月期间，我们对22位家庭农民进行了三轮访谈，并对各类农业和心理健康关键信息提供者进行了15次访谈。研究结果显示，近期观察到的气候变化模式加剧了农民对天气的担忧，破坏了自我认同观念，并导致了基于地方的累积性和慢性痛苦，最终增加了人们对抑郁和自杀风险的感知。研究结果凸显了生活在受气候变化影响地区的家庭农民所面临的紧密相连的生态系统健康与人类健康关系，以及农民基于地方的情感依恋和身份认同对其心理健康和幸福的重要性。
