Sustainability resources
Net Zero Mental Healthcare Webinar Series
The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) have developed a report and educational resources on delivering greener, more sustainable and net zero mental health care.
Their free webinar series is now available to watch on the KnowledgeHub. The webinars are also available on YouTube:
Climate Cares
Climate Cares is a collaboration between Imperial College's Institute of Global Health Innovation and the Grantham Institute. The College collaborated with them on 'We need to talk about mental health in a changing climate'.
Nature and health resources
These documents provide a comprehensive list of resources focusing on nature based interventions for mental health care. They include publications from sources such as the Natural England Commissioned Report, MIND, University studies, Defra, and experts from around the world. View more resources in specific areas:
- Overviews
- Child and adolescent mental health
- Faculties
- Interventions
- Mechanisms
- Public health
- Nature on prescription
For further resources on child and adolescent mental health, see also the following pages:
Report by the Climate Coalition and UKHACC
The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) – in collaboration with Climate Coalition – have produced a report which the College's sustainability leads, Jacob Krzanowski and Lisa Page, contributed to.
This Report Comes With a Health Warning: The Impacts of Climate Change on Public Health highlights that more than 12 million people in the UK are vulnerable to climate change through heatwaves and major flood events.
Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee reading list
Members of the Sustainability Committee have sought out recommendations of books, podcasts or anything that has inspired them in the fields of sustainability and planetary health. Here are some of their reading recommendations, aimed at provoking thought, giving interesting perspectives and related content.
Committee co-chair, Jacob Krzanowski, recommends Deep Ecology by David Abram. Jacob says: "The essay ... discusses a wonderful, humbling and, I think, above all, tender way of relating to our place in space. Abram describes this idea further in the 'Spell of the Sensuous'. His writing has, without exaggerating, transformed how I relate to the natural world."
Shuo Zhang recommends a two part podcast ' For Some Future Time', in which Historian Giulia Smith and South London Gallery's Art Assassins discuss ideas around utopia, gender, health and well-being in the context of The Peckham Experiment archive. Visit the exhibition website for more information, or read the brochure about the project.
Catriona Mellor's pick this month is the book The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac (of Outrage and Optimism). She says:
"I love their way of combining what they've learned from their years of hard-core experience with heart and spirit. I found it personally inspiring and instructive for communication with others."
Katie Blissard-Barnes has chosen this month's offering which explores Women's Empowerment for Resilience and Adaptation Against Climate Change. She says:
We often think about what we need to change in our homes or our workplace in order to be more sustainable but I do believe having a broader and more global perspective is also vitally important if we are to get through this. The UNFCCC has done a huge amount of work promoting the empowerment of women in developing countries and I think there is a lot to ponder about the importance of this in combating climate change.
I hope you enjoy and it gets you delving a little deeper into this topic!
Dr Alan Kellas often recommends The Well Gardened Mind, by Sue Stuart-Smith, to his patients when nature might help. It's a Sunday Times Bestseller and also comes highly recommended by Stephen Fry!
It combines observation, horticulture, literature and history to elucidate how mentally enriching it is to swap screen for green.
Florence Williams also makes a compelling argument for time outdoors in Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative and is another high on Dr Kellas' recommendation list.