How Climate Change May Affect Addiction Recovery

A new video animated by Jon Bonebrake and produced by the UB School of Social Work offers ideas for action steps for social workers, service providers and people in recovery.

As mounting evidence shows that climate change will influence nearly every aspect of our health, a researcher at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work is the first to explore how climate change may affect people who are recovering from addiction.

Using recovery capital theory, Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, associate professor in the UB School of Social Work, describes many ways climate change can affect addiction recovery, including how marginalization by race, income or age could increase these effects for specific groups. While other studies have examined the effect of climate change on rates of substance use, Bowen’s work, which is freely available Research and theory of addictions until December 31 — is the first peer-reviewed paper to discuss its implications for addiction recovery.

“Although sometimes portrayed as a single apocalyptic event, climate change is widespread and already affects the health and livelihoods of many groups, including people in recovery,” says Bowen. “With this paper, my hope is to stimulate urgent conversation and action among researchers, social workers, service providers, and people in recovery.”

Recovery capital takes a holistic view of recovery, encompassing all the resources in a person’s life that could support or hinder their journey to wellness. The theory was developed more than 20 years ago by Robert Granfield, PhD, professor of sociology and vice chancellor for faculty affairs at UB, and William Cloud, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.

In his paper, Bowen cites more than 75 studies on health, recovery and the environment to identify links between climate change and the four domains of recovery capital: social (the people in life), physical (their work, housing and other resources), human. (individual attributes such as health, education and attitudes) and cultural (community-level traditions and supports).

For example, as rising temperatures and sea levels make some areas uninhabitable, people may be forced to migrate, cutting them off from their social networks and disrupting their access to health care and community services such as recovery support groups.

Bowen describes how climate change threatens both physical and mental health, an effect that can be particularly severe for people in recovery who have chronic health conditions or mental health problems. According to Bowen, about 38 percent of people in the United States with a substance use disorder also have a mental health diagnosis.

It also notes that climate change increases the likelihood of homelessness and cites a report by the US Congressional Research Services that found climate change will decrease economic productivity and reduce incomes and employment in certain sectors

“Recovery is significantly more difficult without safe and stable housing, adequate income, health insurance and reliable transportation,” says Bowen. “Unfortunately, people with a history of substance use problems already experience greater discrimination and job instability than the general population, so people in recovery will be especially hard hit by climate-related economic challenges.”

Throughout the paper, Bowen also discusses how people in recovery who already face systemic discrimination based on their race, gender, age or other characteristics will likely feel the worst effects of climate change.

For example, according to Bowen, indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to climate-related displacement, adding to centuries of policies that force natives off their land, disrupting cultural traditions and contributing to higher rates of problems of alcohol or drugs that we see today in some indigenous populations.

“The people with the least resources and the least political power have the most to lose from climate change,” he says. “The climate crisis will only increase the disparities already facing marginalized populations in recovery.”

Bowen hopes her work will inspire both researchers and practitioners to take steps to help people increase their recovery capital in the face of these challenges. A new video, animated by Jon Bonebrake and produced by the UB School of Social Work, is a first step in sharing its findings and providing ideas for action steps for social workers, service providers and people in recovery

With no other research examining climate change and recovery, Bowen says the likely effects he identified could serve as a starting point for researchers to generate and test hypotheses. To her fellow academics, she suggests prioritizing diversity to see how effects differ among specific populations and partnering with people in recovery as co-researchers.

“There’s a well-known serenity prayer used in 12-step meetings that begins, ‘God, give me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change,'” says Bowen. “In contrast, climate change is an urgent call to action to change what we literally cannot accept or live with, as a people and as a planet.”