Climate Mental Health

Incorporate a Trauma-Informed Approach

Climate change impacts, such as more intense wildfires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes, can be life-threatening and result in significant damages, causing trauma and trauma-related mental health reactions for individuals, families, and communities. Violence and chronic stress (e.g., due to poverty) may be particularly susceptible to the effects of climate-change related disasters. Disaster exposure can trigger prior traumatic events and cause compounding distress. Additionally, as detailed in the "climate change effects on mental health" section, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness about future impacts of climate change can also have significant impacts on mental health.

Creating a trauma-informed learning environment in which climate change is addressed directly will reduce the potential for harm and increase the effectiveness of learning. The following strategies build on work by SAMHSA.

Learn to recognize trauma-related reactions and be conscious of potential triggers

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Resources:

Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network can help you to be conscious of triggers and therefore how to avoid triggering and/or retraumatizing youth.
Global Climate Change and Trauma Fact Sheet by the International Society of Traumatic Stress studies includes some foundational things to know about trauma and steps that need to be taken to address the trauma associated with climate change.
Environmental and Climate Responsive Crosswalk for Trauma Informed Schools by San Mateo County Office of Education has resources to help integrate a climate and environmental trauma responsive lens.

Create a safe, caring, and welcoming environment

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Safety: Ensure that those in a school environment, both youth and adults, feel both physically and psychologically safe. This includes creating a safe, caring, and welcoming environment. It is key to understand what safety means to those affected. This may include feeling that the classroom is a safe space to ask questions around climate change, share or explore controversial opinions, and reveal differences. Providing breaks, managing your own emotions, and demonstrating compassion and support all help to create safety. Work with youth to collaboratively develop a set of ground rules to ensure safety and respect in the classroom, e.g., how to disagree respectfully.

Resources:

Trauma-Informed Toolkit by Yasmeen Hossain at OSU Extension provides key tips for educators to create safe classroom spaces and integrate trauma-informed practices into lesson plans using a wildfire lesson plan example.
Creating Safe Spaces: Facilitator's Guide to Trauma-Informed Programming by the Family & Youth Services Bureau includes trauma-informed user friendly checklists that facilitators can use before, during, and after programs.

Build trust through transparency

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Trustworthiness and transparency: Those who have experienced potentially traumatic events around climate change may find it difficult to trust others. To build trust, it is critical to be honest and transparent with youth, including about the realities of climate change and both opportunities and barriers to mitigation and adaptation. Showing unconditional positive regard for youth, focusing on their strengths, and being vulnerable by expressing your own emotions about climate change can also help to develop trust.

Resources:

Building Rapport and Trust with Youth from the national council for mental-wellbeing outlines strategies for building trust.

Identify and reinforce examples of positive peer support

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Peer support: Connecting youth with their peers through shared solidarity about the climate is a powerful tool. Utilize peer support as a mechanism for establishing collaboration, cohesion, and safety. This may entail stepping back and creating space for youth to discuss and exchange support among themselves. The role of the facilitator is to identify and reinforce examples of peer support to encourage productive interactions.

Resources:

Emotional Resilience Toolkit for Climate Work from the Climate Therapy Alliance includes facilitated discussions and activities designed to build emotional resilience for climate work, categorized by age group.
Action for the Climate Emergency has started a "Let's Talk about It and Speak Your #Climate Truth" campaign where youth can talk about their climate anxiety and fears or share tips and inspiration with others through social media.

See the Join and Create Community page and the Listen and Validate Feelings page for more resources.

Acknowledge strengths, encourage youth voice and choice

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Empowerment, voice, and choice: Identify and acknowledge youth strengths, including their resilience and ability to survive and to positively cope with trauma and stress, especially when related to climate change. Provide education about climate change challenges and topics and then encourage and expect youth to make their own decisions about how they want to discuss and address climate change within and outside of the classroom.

Resources:

How to Amplify Student Voice: Listen provides strategies for how to engage student voices in discussions.
The Hazard Education, Awareness, and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) curriculum engages students in developing, sharing, and implementing their own community resilience projects.

See the Encourage and Take Action page for more resources.

Challenge stereotypes and biases, acknowledge oppression

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Cultural, historical, and gender issues: As climate change impacts and topics around climate justice are being explored with youth, be aware of and challenge stereotypes and biases related to culture, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, etc. Acknowledge ongoing and historical oppression and marginalization, including exposure to trauma and stress around natural hazards or climate events. Marginalized communities have been disproportionately impacted by climate change and also face greater barriers to advocating for change.

Resources:

An Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators has a variety of resources that explore decolonization & reconciliation, antiracism, and intersectionality within the lens of climate change.

See the Climate Mental Health Justice page for more resources.

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