Why Extreme Weather Is Becoming a Mental Health Crisis for Older Adults — Expert

By Tosin Clegg

As the climate crisis deepens across vulnerable communities, a Nigerian researcher based in the United States has revealed how environmental disasters and extreme weather continue to exact a disproportionate toll on older adults, particularly in rural and underserved regions. Uche L. Nwatu, a PhD student in Social Work at the University of Alabama, says her work is driven by lived experiences that began in her childhood community in southeastern Nigeria and now shape her research on aging, mental health, and climate change.

In a paper obtained by this medium, Nwatu examined how older adults experience, interpret, and cope with climate-related stressors, arguing that environmental disasters are not just ecological events but deeply social phenomena that expose long-standing inequalities. She noted that older adults are frequently left out of disaster preparedness and response frameworks, despite being among the most physically, socially, and psychologically vulnerable.

“My interest in aging and environmental vulnerability did not begin in theory,” Nwatu wrote. “It was forged in my rural community where flooding was not an occasional disaster but a recurring reality that reshaped lives, livelihoods, and survival.” She recalled growing up in Amagunze, a riverine community in Enugu State, Nigeria, where seasonal floods routinely displaced families and destroyed homes built largely with mud and other fragile materials.

According to her, the impact of these disasters was never evenly distributed. Older adults, many of whom lived alone after losing spouses or seeing children migrate to cities, were often unable to evacuate quickly or access support. “When floods came, younger people could run, relocate, and recover,” she explained. “Older adults were left behind, isolated, and exposed to danger.”

One defining moment in her paper was the death of an elderly neighbor in 2019, shortly after she completed her undergraduate degree in social work. The woman, who lived alone and struggled with arthritis, was trapped overnight when floodwaters entered her home. “Her death shook our entire community,” Nwatu said. “It exposed the painful limits of informal caregiving when disasters strike without warning.”

Following repeated flooding episodes, Nwatu became actively involved in grassroots relief efforts, working with the St. Vincent de Paul Society within her local Catholic parish. She described how the group provided food, clothing, and temporary shelter for displaced residents, particularly older adults with no family support. “Faith-based and community organizations became the first and often only responders,” she noted, stressing the absence of structured government intervention.
Beyond physical displacement, the paper highlights the often-ignored mental health consequences of environmental disasters on older adults. Fear, grief, uncertainty, and social isolation, Nwatu argued, linger long after floodwaters recede. “Older adults spoke to us about loss that went beyond property,” she wrote. “They feared dying alone, being forgotten, and becoming a burden.”

These early experiences, she said, pushed her to look beyond emergency relief and toward research that interrogates policy gaps, disaster preparedness, and environmental justice. “I began asking why older adults are consistently overlooked in climate and disaster planning, and how research can inform more humane and inclusive responses,” she stated.

Now based in the United States, Nwatu’s doctoral research focuses on the Black Belt region of Alabama, a historically underserved rural area facing rising temperatures and extreme heat. Drawing from environmental gerontology and mental health frameworks, her work explores how older adults perceive heat stress, cope psychologically, and strive to age in place amid worsening climatic conditions.
Using qualitative and arts-based methods such as storytelling and photovoice, Nwatu said she intentionally centers the voices of older adults. “Too often, policies are made about older people without listening to them,” she explained. “My research treats their lived experiences as knowledge, not anecdotes.”
Her academic trajectory, reflected in her extensive research, shows a consistent commitment to aging, disaster vulnerability, and social justice. With advanced training in gerontology from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom and social work education spanning Nigeria, Norway, and the United States, Nwatu has published widely on older adults, informal care, ethics, mental health, and climate-related vulnerabilities.
Currently serving as a Graduate Research Assistant and teaching Assistant at the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work, she continues to bridge scholarship and practice. She argues that the similarities between rural Nigeria and the rural American South reveal a global pattern of neglect. “Different places, same story,” she said. “Structural inequities shape how people age and how they survive environmental crises.”
Ultimately, Nwatu said her work is about accountability and hope. “Older adults deserve to be protected, heard, and supported as the climate changes,” she concluded. “If we fail them in disasters, we fail the very idea of a just and caring society.”