Climate-Induced Psychosocial Injury: Integrating MHPSS into Climate Adaptation

Climate change affects mental health through extreme weather, rising temperatures, displacement, livelihood disruption, ecological degradation, food and water insecurity, and the erosion of cultural and community systems. Current approaches frequently emphasize psychiatric symptoms and individual coping while giving insufficient attention to collective, cultural, ecological, institutional, and intergenerational harm. This conceptual article introduces Climate-Induced Psychosocial Injury (CIPI) as a population-health framework for understanding the cumulative damage that climate change can inflict on psychological well-being, social relationships, cultural identity, ecological belonging, livelihoods, institutional trust, personal agency, and confidence in the future. CIPI is not proposed as a psychiatric diagnosis. It is an integrative construct connecting clinical mental health care, community-based mental health and psychosocial support, public health, disaster-risk reduction, and climate-change adaptation. The framework comprises six interacting domains: emotional and psychological well-being, relational and social functioning, cultural identity and continuity, place and ecological connection, livelihood and meaningful roles, and agency and future orientation. A layered community-to-specialized-care approach is proposed for prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and transformational adaptation. Climate adaptation should ultimately be evaluated not only by whether infrastructure survives, but also by whether people preserve dignity, belonging, cultural continuity, meaningful participation, and hope.