Natania Abebe
A new toolkit provides coping strategies for people who are anxious about climate change. These strategies include volunteering, building a community, discussing emotions with others, practicing mindfulness, and seeking therapy.
The toolkit, which was developed by nursing experts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, also offers reflection questions and a film with diverse voices for people to examine their values, emotions, and behaviors in relation to the environment.
"Many people have a hard time understanding the relationship between climate change and mental health and are experiencing high levels of stress about climate change," Natania Abebe, a registered nurse and graduate student at UBC who developed the toolkit, told Medscape Medical News.
"Youth, in particular, appear to have higher levels of consciousness regarding climate change because they're the ones who are going to inherit the planet," she said. "A big part of why they have mental health issues is that they feel trapped in sociopolitical structures that they didn't agree to and didn't necessarily create."
The toolkit was published online on April 20, 2022.
Empowering Agents for Change
Abebe was inspired to create the toolkit after giving guest lectures on climate change and mental health as part of UBC's Nursing 290 course.
