Fiona Doherty, a doctoral student and researcher in the College of Social Work, presents “Extreme heat preparedness and coping among older adults: A rapid systematic review” at the annual Society for Social Work and Research conference held in Phoenix on Jan. 20. Courtesy of Fiona Doherty
According to research from the Ohio State College of Social Work, there’s a larger connection between social work and climate change than many may think.
The literature review — awaiting publication — analyzed existing literature from around the world to identify how the extreme heat from climate change can impact aging communities disproportionately, the lack of current measures to cope with it and how social work strategies — such as discussions and education on climate change — can help them in the future.
Fiona Doherty, a graduate researcher on the review and doctoral candidate in the College of Social Work, presented her findings at the annual Society for Social Work and Research conference in Phoenix Jan. 20, revealing this relationship between preparing for the future of climate change and vulnerable communities.
“When we think about social work, we think about the people disproportionately impacted by all of these climate change events,” Doherty said. “These people are the vulnerable populations who social workers are already engaging with.”
The Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2022 that as global temperatures rise, extreme weather — including heat waves, drought and flooding — is more likely to occur in the future.
Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, co-researcher on the review and associate professor in the College of Social Work, said marginalized groups — including older adults — are at a greater risk of the negative impacts of extreme weather events for both social and physiological factors.
“Think about power outages and relying on electricity to breathe. You have an oxygen tank that only runs on battery so long before you need to plug it in,” Dabelko-Schoeny said. “You have medications that need to be kept cool or warm. As you age, your body sweats less.”
According to a National Library of Medicine study, over 90 percent of excess deaths during heat waves occur in the elderly, and the average population of the Earth is “rapidly aging” as people live longer.
Doherty said many of these vulnerabilities are structural and social factors at play. The inequities these vulnerable groups already face are exacerbated by extreme climate events.
Most of the research in climate change has been focused on mapping the vulnerabilities, which Doherty said is an important step to becoming more climate resilient, but there is still more work to be done.
“We’re at this turning point now where we really need to look at strategies to intervene and better prepare certain groups,” Doherty said.
The review found that most of the efforts used by older adults to cope with extreme heat are more reactive than proactive. Smitha Rao, co-researcher on the review and assistant professor in the College of Social Work, said she hopes the review can help bring a larger community and policy-level lens to the issues at hand.
“You can be recognized as a vulnerable group, but then older adults are often forgotten in terms of the planning efforts,” Rao said. “We are trying to change that and want to bring attention to their lived experience and learn from what they are going through.”
These proactive measures are where a working partnership with the College of Social Work’s Age-Friendly Innovation Center comes in, Anthony Traver, co-researcher on the review and a graduate research associate in the College of Social Work, said.
According to the AFIC website, the organization works to build stronger, more age-friendly communities in and around Columbus, working with Ohio State researchers to better address community needs.
Traver said with a close-knit network of community members and service providers, the center can work directly with older adults who face these climate challenges everyday and help them.
“The fact that we work closely and collaboratively with the residents of our community is something that makes us a bit unique as a university research center,” Traver said.
Doherty said the AFIC hosted a community discussion event last fall where older adults and other members of the age-friendly community talked about climate change vulnerabilities, gaps in services and barriers to preparation for extreme weather.
From these discussions, Rao said there is often a lack of awareness and education about climate change and sustainability, and the team hopes to focus on this with community engagement efforts in the next year.
“We are going to publish papers, but also produce some public scholarship that is helpful for communities,” Rao said. “We are going to be working with the community to see where the interventions can be designed.”
In addition to plans of community engagement, Doherty said the research team is writing up the complete study on older adults and extreme heat events, with the goal to submit to a peer-reviewed journal for publication in the spring.
Doherty said funding and resources obtained in collaboration with the AFIC may open the door to conduct more studies on older adults specific to central Ohio.
Dabelko-Schoeny said the team is hoping to be leaders in thought in climate change’s impact on older adults and encourage other colleagues to consider climate change and sustainability when addressing the other pillars of age-friendly communities determined by the World Health Organization — transportation, housing, service delivery and social inclusion.
