Climate change is recognized as the top threat to global health in the 21st century. As a result, a new area of focus has emerged within mental health—climate psychology, including the phenomenon known as climate anxiety. This term refers to the experience of unpleasant emotions related to thinking about or experiencing climate change.

As health care professionals, we are both directly impacted by climate change and actively involved in reducing the health system’s environmental footprint through low-carbon practices. Together with the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division, we worked with our partners to identify solutions and strategies for navigating climate anxiety.

Simple Things You Can Do to Start Making an Impact

Individual actions can help support bigger system-level changes – reducing your own environmental footprint is the first step to mitigating the effects of climate change on mental health.

Seek Support From Others

  • Attend events about climate anxiety
  • Talk about climate anxiety with others
  • Ground yourself with the people and places around you

Seek Out Education and Information

  • Educate yourself on steps that can be taken to address climate change
  • Learn language to communicate about climate emotions and feelings

Reduce Individual Carbon Footprint

  • Reduce, reuse, recycle
  • Utilize sustainable transport

Take On an Advocacy Role

  • Share inspiring stories to build motivation
  • Share accurate information with your networks and organizations

Simple Things That Your Organization and Teams Can Do to Make an Impact

When we work together, we get further, faster. Bring in your organizations and teams to start making meaningful change for navigating and addressing climate anxiety.

Proactively Plan for Climate Events

  • Develop a clear plan for before, during and after climate events and share the plan with staff
  • Remain adaptable and recognize that best-practices are changing rapidly

Encourage Sustainable Practices by Staff

  • Close blinds during the summer
  • Organize a bike to work week
  • Form a planetary health working group or green team

Provide Holistic Care During and After Climate Events

  • Include people who are responding to the climate events
  • Include mental health supports to help address any trauma or PTSD

Make Structural Changes to Support Green Practices

  • Increase number of bike lockers
  • Provide transit incentives

Simple Things That Your Community and Systems Can Do to Make an Impact

Connecting actions across your community, and across the health system will bring others along the journey of a stronger, more resilient environmentally sustainable health system that can help reduce the effects of climate change on mental health.

Provide large scale education about climate change & climate anxiety

  • Ensure everyone has access to accurate climate change education

Align priorities around a liveable future for the younger generation

  • Consider mandates to ensure organizations prioritize this work
  • Provide funding opportunities for planetary health work at the individual, organizational and community level

Bring people together for conversations about climate change

  • Promote positive work taking place across the system
  • Attend or support community events

Proactively invest in green infrastructure

  • Revise existing policies or create new ones the support green space inclusion
  • Give incentives for green infrastructure development

More Information From HQBC and Our Partners

Explore the work we’re doing in the Low-Carbon, High-Quality Care space.

Subscribe to our Low Carbon Champion newsletter and receive links to resources, links to webinars and learning opportunities that focus on improving quality through a low-carbon lens.

Read these mental health tips from the Canadian Mental Health Association on Understanding and Coping with Climate Anxiety.

Check out the BC GreenCare resources that can help your teams start on an environmentally sustainable health care journey.

Discover how the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance is addressing the mental health impacts of climate change with the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance.