Mental health during heat waves
Photo by Mi Pham for Unsplash.org. Creative Commons licensed.
Heat is not only uncomfortable, it can be dangerous--both to our physical and mental health. Portland is facing a historically-high heat wave this weekend, with temperatures 30 degrees F higher than usual for late June (1). Read on to find resources for handling the heat, assisting our unhoused neighbors, and managing mental health.
Metro-area public places with AC: Cooling Centers, Libraries, and Public Transit
In Multnomah County, cooling centers will open starting at 1pm on Friday. The Oregon Convention Center, the Sunrise Center, and Arbor Lodge will be open 24/7 through Monday for people *and* their pets (pets must be leashed or caged). Several libraries will be open, and Trimet won’t turn anyone away for lack of funds who wants to use public transit to escape the heat. Masks are required in these spaces (2). The Portland Mercury has all the details here.
For LGBTQ-specific cooling centers, the Q Center has daytime hours through Monday, including cold drinks, snacks, sunscreen, and aloe vera gel. Here’s the details.
On OHP? You can get reimbursed for air conditioner purchases
Photo by Tim Mosshold for Unsplash.org, Creative Commons licensed.
If you have OHP, you can ask your provider to submit paperwork so that you can get reimbursed for a “health-related service”--which includes air conditioning units! The provider has to be able to demonstrate a connection between your diagnosis, and how it would worsen in the heat withOUT the air conditioner. (For example, a person with depression might find that their lethargy is increasing due to the heat). For sure, everyone’s mental health will be impacted by this heat wave. But because this is an insurance-related service, it requires a mental or physical health diagnosis in order for the AC unit to be reimbursed. Here’s the link to the form that your provider should complete.
Houseless folks
Our unhoused Portland neighbors stand to suffer the most this weekend. As you encounter folks, make sure that they know that there’s a heat wave coming up. Handing out bottled water, Gatorade, electrolyte packets, shade umbrellas, and sunscreen can be lifesaving (3). Several mutual aid groups are coordinating supply delivery, including Be Loved Bloc, Meals On Us PDX and Defense Fund PDX. Find them on Instagram for the latest updates on how to help in real time. Money and supply donations are the best.
Mental health in the heat, plus Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke
There are physical risks to heat, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke (here’s a handy infographic from the CDC on how to prevent, recognize and respond to those life-threatening situations!). Also important, though, is the mental health impact of high heat. It’s easy to get cranky, irritable, and sluggish--especially when dehydrated. The risk of interpersonal conflict and domestic violence is heightened, and coping strategies become less effective (4). It’s even literally harder to think--complex cognitive tasks become much more difficult or even impossible during times of heat stress.
The bigger picture: Climate Grief and Wildfire PTSD
Last year’s Calwood fire. Photo by Malachi Brooks for Unsplash.org, Creative Commons licensed.
This year has been hard, y’all. We are managing multiple global crises and local tragedies, in addition to our personal lives. There’s been no time for the grieving that is long overdue--whether it is about deaths from COVID-19, murders of Black and brown folks at the hands of police, or the recent unearthing of the mass graves of Indigenous/First Nations children at boarding “schools” in the US and Canada.
Part of what makes this heat wave emotionally challenging is that it is a sign of a human-made climate crisis. We are in the midst of the “Anthropocene”--a term coined by climatologists referencing the ways that, unlike ever before in the vast scale of geologic time, humans are a dominant factor in shaping climate, biodiversity, and global geochemical forces. Here in Oregon, a major sign of that is increasing wildfires. For many of us, the tinge of smoke and baking heat trigger our memories of last year’s deadly fires--inducing a PTSD-like threat-survival response in our bodies. However, our threat detection systems developed when the dangers were a lot more straightforward: outrunning a bear, fighting off an enraged saber toothed tiger (5). But with climate change, there is no easy way to “fight or flight” when the danger is in the air. Thus we feel stuck, anxious, hypervigilant.
Some antidotes
Help yourself by helping your neighbors: donate or drop off supplies for houseless folks (see resources above). Taking action can help move us out of stuckness. Orient toward the appropriate threat: just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions (6). Hone in to your internal locus of control: what steps *can* you take to increase a felt sense of safety and comfort in your environment? Take action to help yourself feel prepared: That could be making yourself a batch of iced tea, precooking food so you don’t have to turn on the oven this weekend, or prepping a DIY swamp cooler. Pause and slow down: the heat can make us frantic. Lie on a cool floor right in front of the fan, with a wet towel over your forehead, and breathe deeply. The heat will pass.
SOURCES
(1). https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/22/heat-wave-pacific-northwest-historic/
(2). https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2021/06/23/34377638/multnomah-county-to-open-cooling-centers-this-weekend
(3). https://www.pdxmonthly.com/news-and-city-life/2021/06/helping-in-the-heat-how-to-help-those-in-need-portland-heat-wave-homeless-houseless-elderly
(4). https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/impacts-extreme-heat-mental-health
