# Factors Influencing the Mental Health Consequences of Climate Change in Canada
## 1 Introduction  
Canadians are increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including impacts to mental health. The term mental health is encapsulated in the definition of psychosocial health. Psychosocial health refers to psychological and social wellbeing [1]. The mental health outcomes related to climate change affect the way people think, act, feel, and interact, and they can arise from short-term hazards, such as flooding or hurricanes, or from an understanding of the potential long-term effects of climate change [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15]. Mental health effects related to climate change include mental illness. Mental illness refers to conditions that result in moderate to severe mental disorders [15], and mental challenges [15; 16] as well as positive mental health outcomes [15; 17; 18].  
Recently, a scoping review by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2018) identified and synthesized evidence from the global literature on risks, impacts, and vulnerabilities related to climate change and mental health with a specific focus on the Canadian context [2]. Briefly, a scoping review refers to a type of literature review where researcher map evidence in a particular area of study, synthesize this evidence, and provide a narrative of the evidence, while also identifying gaps in the literature [19]. Notably missing in the global literature on climate change and mental health is a focus on psychosocialadaptation to a changing climate. This topic area is particularly salient in Canada, given it is warming twice as fast as the global average [20], thus both mitigation and adaptation efforts are urgently needed to protect human and planetary health. In this commentary, the authors present a new assessment of this original scoping review, exploring factors that influence the capacity to adapt to the mental health consequences of climate change in Canada. While the lessons learned from this commentary can be applied in other countries, this commentary focuses on the Canadian context to provide information required by decision makers facing challenges addressing climate change on mental health now. The objectives of this commentary are two-fold: (1) to identify response interventions and factors at the societal level that influence the capacity to adapt to the mental health consequences of a changing climate; and (2) to provide lessons learned for climate change adaptation in Canada. Briefly, societal level response interventions herein refer to: response interventions that can be taken by federal, provincial, municipal, or local decision-makers, to support adaptation within Canadian society.  
Before delving into the topic area, it is prudent to define three key terms used throughout this document. First, response interventions refer to any form of formal or community-based care, policies, or programs that support mental health. Second, adaptation in this report refers to any mechanism, practice, or behavior-change that helps people, communities, and institutions cope with the mental health impacts of climate change and thrive, increasing their resilience to future impacts [18; 21]. Third, adaptive capacity determinants refer to factors at the individual level or societal levels that support or enhance adaptation. At the individual level, adaptive capacity is determined by individual agency, the perceived need to adapt, the willingness to adapt, and the availability of resources to support adaptation [18]. At the societal level, adaptive capacity determinants include, for example: governance, economics, infrastructure, technology, information and skills, institutions, and equity [21]. The focus of this article is on societal level adaptive capacity determinants that support mental health in a changing climate.