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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

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Climate disaster and mental health service dynamics: From collapse to overload after the 2024 floods in Brazil

CLIMATE DISASTER AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE DYNAMICS: FROM COLLAPSE TO OVERLOAD AFTER THE 2024 FLOODS IN BRAZIL

Mental health service utilization collapsed acutely across all affected municipalities following the 2024 floods, after which recovery trajectories diverged markedly by municipality size.

The study aimed to assess changes in mental health service utilization after the 2024 floods and whether these changes differed by municipal population size. The methods involved an ecological monthly time series spanning 2018 to 2025, using data from official SUS mental health service records. Flood-affected municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul were stratified by population size; outcomes were defined as general care, crisis visits, new patients, and psychiatrist and psychologist consultations. Observed and expected rates were compared using negative binomial models with a population offset; the flood window was April to May 2024. Across all affected municipalities, overall visits decreased by 56.4% in May 2024 and 32.7% in June 2024. In the state capital (population over 1 million), overall visits decreased by 89.3% in May 2024 and 57.4% in June 2024, while crisis visits fell by 99.1% in May 2024 before increasing by 209.1% in July 2024. Crisis visits increased by 263.8% in May 2024 in municipalities with populations of 20,000 to 50,000, and by 1,521.6% in June 2024 in municipalities with populations below 20,000. In the later period, new patient numbers increased by 113% to 155% between July and October 2025 in municipalities with populations of 20,000 to 50,000, while psychiatric visits in the capital increased by 64% to 79% between May and October 2025 (statistical significance p<0.05). The discussion notes that service utilization collapsed in the acute phase, while crisis visits increased in some strata, recovery was uneven, and the capital experienced a sustained burden on psychiatric services in the later period. The clinical and policy recommendations are that post-disaster planning should extend beyond the emergency phase and account for local service capacity.

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