Covid and the psyche - How important is environmental psychology?
Mental health is particularly at risk in times of crisis. This also applies to the Covid 19 pandemic. A survey of 1,300 psychologists shows that demand for psychological counseling or therapy has increased sharply since the summer.
The Covid 19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it are also affecting mental health. A survey of 1300 psychologists provides clues to the extent. Forty-six percent of respondents report that demand for psychological therapy or counseling has increased since the summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
Psychologists speak of increasing existential fears. Switzerland shows a need to catch up. There are gaps in care not only in the area of medication, but also in mental health. "Patients have to wait up to six months for outpatient therapy," says dedicated psychologist Yvik Adler. Adler is alarmed, "If the need increases additionally now, the consequences can be devastating." (Source: psychology.ch)
Maya Mathias, president of the association Initiative Psychologie im Umweltschutz (IPU), sees environmental psychology as a great opportunity for the society affected by the pandemic, but also for individuals. Last but not least, young female scientists such as the well-known English epidemiologist Tolu Oni report on why technical innovations alone are not enough to compensate for psychological problems in today's world.
Why is it so difficult for us to move from knowledge to action? And why is there reason for hope after all?
Where environmental psychology helps
Environmental psychology deals with the interaction between humans and the environment. On the one hand, it is about how humans influence the environment with their thoughts and actions, for example with their leisure behavior or in urban planning. On the other hand, the effect of the environment on humans is of interest, for example the effect of near-natural recreational areas or human-friendly architecture.
At the IPU are particularly interested in the areas of environmental protection and sustainability. Behavioral patterns such as airplane travel, driving, the enormous consumption of resources to satisfy our reward and consumption desires are having an increasingly damaging effect on the climate, nature, but also on ourselves. Per se, human actions are considered the cause of many environmental problems.
"For this reason, the solution should also be sought in people," says Maya Mathias, IPU President, and emphasizes: "Technical innovations are not enough for us to live more sustainably, since efficiency gains are usually cancelled out by additional consumption." Environmental psychology shows how psychological knowledge and appropriate strategies can be used to promote environmentally friendly behavior.
Thus, Maya Mathias is concerned with better understanding needs and motivations, attitudes and thinking. These insights can be used to promote environmentally friendly behavior. For example, human choices and behaviors play a role in energy consumption, Mobility, Travel, Nutrition, Consumption, Waste prevention and disposal or sustainable lifestyles play a role.
Investments against the corona blues
Tolullah "Tolu" Oni is an epidemiologist involved in Department of Sustainable Urban Development. Oni is not only studying at the Medical Research Council of the University of Cambridge, the young woman is already a Fellow of the "NextEinstein" Forum and an exhibitor of the "Young Global Leaders" at the World Economic Forum.
The epidemiologist writes about the need for a global "Marshall Plan for Planetary Health" on a WEF blog, saying that the focus so far has been too much on securing wealth and food, which has led to greater motorization in cities without regard to the need for space for physical activity in clean air.
"We can and must do better by launching a bold new investment program for the health of the planet," Oni writes.
Measuring well-being by GDP
She cites the increased corona mortality among the poorer population in the UK as an example of the negative impact of failed housing policies. Although several global philanthropic initiatives have attempted to improve urban health, including with success, today's flawed systems need more fundamental change.
Governments as well as the private sector should be challenged, policy makers should act, and better health and resilience of people, for example in big cities, should not be seen as a consequence of their economic successes, but as a goal of new urban planning from the outset.
Such approaches already exist, he said, from Bhutan in the Himalayas with its "happiness factor" in the measurement of gross domestic product to New Zealand, where a so-called "wellbeing economy" is being pursued.
"Similarly, multilateral development finance institutions (MDFIs), such as the African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank, could help," Oni says. As noncommercial organizations that provide capital for economic development projects in a wide range of member countries, such institutions are uniquely positioned to advance the scheme in the manner of a universally understood Marshall Plan through conditionality in lending and funding, he says.
You can also find more approaches to environmental psychology and urban development on Oni's blog:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/tolu-oni-3469ffacac
