Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change and Resilience Among Women in Coastal and Northern Ghana

Climate change is increasingly reshaping everyday life in Ghana through coastal erosion, flooding, erratic rainfall, water scarcity, heat, and agricultural insecurity. While these changes have been widely examined in relation to livelihoods and adaptation, much less attention has been given to their mental health consequences, especially among women whose daily responsibilities for care, food provision, and household survival often intensify under environmental stress. This study examined how climate change influences stress, trauma, and resilience among women in Salakope and Choggu Yapalsi, two climate vulnerable communities representing coastal and northern ecological settings in Ghana. Guided by Feminist Political Ecology and the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, the study adopted a qualitative multiple case study design. Data were generated through in depth semi structured interviews with sixteen (n=16) women and analyzed using Thematic Network Analysis. The findings showed that climate change affects women’s mental wellbeing through layered pathways that include ecological loss, livelihood disruption, caregiving overload, heat related bodily strain, domestic insecurity, and displacement trauma. Women described eco anxiety, sadness, fear, exhaustion, and emotional instability as recurring features of life under worsening climate conditions. At the same time, the study found that women were not passive recipients of harm. They drew on social support, spirituality, livelihood diversification, savings groups, and grassroots collective action to cope with distress and restore agency and hope. The study concludes that climate vulnerability in Ghana must be understood not only as material exposure to environmental risk but also as a mental and emotional condition shaped by gendered labor, unequal social relations, and culturally grounded forms of resilience.