With an El Niño summer promising hotter and drier conditions for much of Australia, we must rethink how we measure the impact bushfires and other extreme weather events have on our mental health and wellbeing, according to experts from The Australian National University (ANU).

They also argue authorities most likely underestimated how many Australians experienced declines in their mental health and wellbeing because of the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires.

ANU researchers surveyed more than 2,000 residents in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and surrounding regions in the aftermath of the Black Summer fires to determine their level of exposure to the fires using a bushfire impact score.

“What we show in this study is that the direct impacts of the bushfires is not the only factor that determines mental health and wellbeing outcomes - it’s also the psychological stress, both acute and more subtly, of experiencing the loss of cherished environments, ecosystems and wildlife.”

“Solastalgia is often deeply connected to a location or place, but how we’ve come to understand place is changing,” co-author Associate Professor Aparna Lal, from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, said.

According to the authors, the findings suggest policymakers and mental health organisations should be more aware of the role of solastalgia and its impact on peoples’ mental wellbeing, and how we distribute mental health support services across the country, particularly as climate change-driven disasters become more frequent and intense.