Loss of natural indigenous habitats and adolescent mental health in Latin America and Caribbean

Background: Climate change is a public health threat for the entire Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, which contains many low- and middle-income countries with fragile economic and health systems.

They are also home to over 40 million Indigenous people, whose health and well-being are intricately related to their ecosystems.

The alarming increase in annual deforestation rates has had devastating consequences for Indigenous people in the region.

About half of region’s indigenous peoples live in urban areas where they face disproportionate deprivation and discrimination. Substance abuse and suicide rates among Indigenous adolescents are high.

The research questions are: 1) Has the loss of natural indigenous habitats affected Indigenous adolescent mental health, and if so how? 2) How do policy actors and indigenous adolescents in Brazil perceive and act on the loss of natural indigenous habitats and adolescent mental health?

Objectives: To conduct a systematic scoping review on the loss of natural indigenous habitats and adolescent mental health; To obtain perspectives on enablers and barriers to coordinated policy implementation from policy actors, and to obtain adolescent narratives of lived experiences of ecological impacts on mental health.

Methods: We work package (WP) 1 weill develop a comprehensive and inclusive search strategy (including search terms in English, Spanish and Portuguese) covering the most prevalent changes in factors related to ecological degradation (e.g., greenhouse gases, water pollution, forest devastation) and adolescent mental health disorders.

The search will cover Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, LILACS, PsycInfo, Google Scholar, ERIC and government databases. In WP2, concept mapping will be conducted with adolescents aged 11-16-years, in Brazil. They will be sampled from schools, and will be representative of gender and socio-economic circumstances.

Additionally, policy actors and implementers, indigenous and non-indigenous departments, responsible for the development and implementation of climate and mental health related policies and programs, will be identified and invited to take part in semi-structured interviews. Ethics: We will follow the guidelines from our King’s college London and Brazil’s Indigenous secretariat.

Output: Findings will be made available to key decision-makers with authority for Indigenous health and other relevant stakeholders, published in 3 peer reviewed papers and on a multi-media website.

Future study: We will co-develop a grant application with indigenous stakeholders for a study that aims to improve Indigenous adolescent mental health via interventions that can enhance their natural environments.