When your patient’s anxiety stems from an existential threat to humanity
Dr Cybele Dey says climate change is causing stress and anxiety for young patients.
Dr Cybele Dey remembers a seven-year-old boy with severe separation anxiety.
The trigger was the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. While the boy was not affected directly, his father was out fighting fires and his mother was volunteering in affected towns.
“He was fearful about not knowing what was going to happen to his parents,” says Dr Dey, a Sydney child and adolescent psychiatrist.
“He hadn’t been able to go to school. He’d barely been able to let his mum go to the toilet.
