By Laurie Goering
LONDON, Jan 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – As climate change hikes the risk of flooding in England, now being deluged by Storm Christoph, insurance firm Zurich UK has begun offering mental health counselling for clients, saying repairing flooded homes is no longer a sufficient response.
“With five million people in England at risk of flooding, and climate change intensifying the frequency and severity of extreme weather, a mental health crisis is looming,” warned David Nichols, Zurich UK’s chief claims officer.
The company’s work helping flood-hit homeowners fix up their properties showed that some of the emotional consequences of the damage – from ruined family photos and mementoes to lingering feelings of insecurity – were not being addressed, he said.
“It’s a highly traumatic experience. You lose so many valuable memories and personal possessions that insurance just cannot replace,” Nichols told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
People forced from their homes for long periods often are also anxious or depressed, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic as more people work at home or spend more time there.
Nowadays, for many people, home is “probably their only protective space”, Nichols said.
Last year, the company began experimenting with offering up to five hour-long counselling sessions for flood-hit insured families, a service it also made available to victims of break-in thefts and house fires, he added.
Only about 15% of those offered mental health support for any kind of claim took it up and most were women, he said.
But the company – a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Zurich Insurance Group – has now made the free counselling service a standard part of its flood policies and believes it is the first in Britain to do so, Nichols said.
“As more people get impacted, I think we will see the long-term impacts to mental health of flooding,” he said.
