Breaking Boundaries: Planet, Mind and Action

• To understand the severity and pervasiveness of the mental health impacts of the climate and ecological emergency (CEE) globally and across all generations. 
• To understand the nature of and factors contributing to climate distress, including the role of moral injury.
• To consider the implications of the above for psychiatric practice including questions about anxiety symptoms relating to the CEE when taking a psychiatric history. 
• To explore the role of psychiatrists as highly educated, respected and trusted professionals in raising awareness of the serious health impacts of the CEE and the urgency of the situation, in the UK and globally. 

In alignment with the theme of the programme, for this conference we are looking to deliver a more sustainable event. This will be reflected in our approach to catering, the selection and use of resources, and the monitoring and encouragement of sustainable travel options for both our attendees and speakers to the event.

Read further information on the College's position on Sustainability.

We are delighted to welcome the following speakers:

Dr Abi Perrin, Climate & Nature scientist, communicator & activist.

Dr Perrin is a research scientist turned climate and nature communicator and activist. Having recently stepped away from academia, she now focuses on facilitating both scientific understanding and emotional connection to what the Climate & Nature Emergency really means for our lives and societies.  Alongside creating resources and developing learning experiences for a range of audiences, Abi collaborates on various environmental campaigns and also works to establish community-owned renewable energy projects and networks for change in her home city of York.

Dr Amelia Cussans, ST5 trainee in adult psychiatry, member of psychiatry declares and Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee (PHSC) of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Dr Cussans is a psychiatry registrar and climate organiser based in Bristol. She co-leads the Climate and Health Scorecard Initiative, which supports health organisations to take meaningful climate action. She has led a campaign for the Royal College to move from Barclays to an ethical, sustainable bank. She is the Cover Editor for the Journal of Climate Change and Health and sits on the Executive Committee of the RCPsych South West Division as a planetary health champion. She has organised with Psych Declares, Right to Roam and Refugee Asylum Mental Health Network.

Dr Juliette Brown, Old Age Psychiatry, member of Psych Declares and climate activist

Dr Juliette Brown FRC Psych is a consultant in general and older adult psychiatry, Medact, Health XR, Just Stop Oil and Defend Our Juries.

Dr Marion Neffgen, Consultant Medical Psychotherapist, member of Psych Declares, and members of the Medical Psychotherapy Faculty Climate and Sustainability working group

Marion Neffgen is a Medical Psychotherapist and trainee Group Analyst at the Institute of Group Analysis and works in a Psychotherapy Service in London. In her free time, she campaigns, protests and organises for climate action and social justice as a member of Psych Declares and Health for XR, as well as other groups. She has organised and facilitated climate cafes, workshops and reflective spaces around the climate & nature crises.

Dr May Van Schalkwyk, Public Health Researcher, University of Edinburgh

May is a public health doctor and research fellow in commercial determinant in the Global Health Policy Unit and Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention at the University of Edinburgh. She has honorary positions with Public Health Scotland and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she is a member of the commercial determinan research group. Her research aims to explain how commercial actors influence ideas, knowledge, science and policymaking. She publishes research on the tobacco, alcohol, gambling, fossil fuels, opioid, pesticide and firearm industries. She has a special interest in the role of film in public health advocacy and policy change.

Dr Pete Knapp, Lived experience

Pete Knapp has had a career as a drummer, maths teacher, antimatter physicist, air quality researcher, and now filmmaker. In 2020, during his PhD, he joined Scientists for Extinction Rebellion and this marked the start of a significant mental health journey that has brought him here today. 

Satish Kumar, Environment activist, Founder and Editor Emeritus at Resurgence and Ecologist magazine

Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years.

Aged 9, Satish renounced the world and became a wandering Jain monk. Inspired by Gandhi, he decided at 18 that he could achieve more back in the world, campaigning to turn Gandhi's vision of a peaceful future into reality.

In his early 20s, Satish was inspired by the British peace activist, Bertrand Russell who was arrested aged 89 at an anti-nuclear demonstration. This prompted Satish's peace pilgrimage from India to Moscow, London, Paris, and America.

Walking with no money and depending on the kindness and hospitality of strangers, Satish delivered a humble packet of 'peace tea' to the leaders of the four capitals of the nuclear world. Next year Satish will be 90, and he has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration, social justice, and spiritual fulfilment.

A world-renowned author and international speaker, Satish founded The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity that seeks to inform and inspire a just future for all. He was the Editor of the charity's change-making magazine, Resurgence & Ecologist, for over 40 years, making him the UK's longest-serving editor of the same magazine. He continues to serve this publication as Editor Emeritus and by writing for this much-loved and acclaimed magazine which has been described by The Guardian as the 'spiritual and ecological flagship of the environmental movement'. Satish has been the guiding spirit behind several other internationally respected ecological and educational ventures. He co-founded Schumacher College which he continues to serve as a Visiting Fellow.

Dr Kirsten Shukla, Child and Adolescent psychiatrist

Originally from Germany, Kirsten has worked in the UK since 1995. She has been a consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry since 2013. Kirsten became interested in climate change and mental health in 2019 and has since participated at various events to do with this. She co-founded Psych Declares, a group of climate activist psychiatrists, in 2019. She co-authored a position statement on climate change and mental health published by the German

Psychiatric Association in 2022. She is a member of the RCPsych Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee.

Dr Shuo Zhang, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, PHSC and member of Psych Declares

Dr Shuo Zhang is Nature Matters co-lead on the Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee. Shuo is a trainee Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and a clinical academic currently undertaking a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD examining equity of access and outcomes for young people whilst they are waiting for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Her wider research focuses on the social and environmental determinants of poor mental health and how they might be ameliorated through better design and delivery of healthcare services.

Dr Catriona Mellor, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, PHSC, member of Psych Declares

Catriona is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with a special interest in integrating an awareness of climate change and the benefits of nature-informed care into mental health services. Catriona has undertaken extensive training in Eco-therapy and nature-based practice. She co-founded EcoCAMHS in 2019, and was involved in a major publication in Lancet Planetary Health about climate anxiety in a sample of 10,000 young people globally in 2021.  She is involved in the design and evaluation of nature-based health interventions in the NHS, and in the delivery of Nature Connectedness training to mental health staff.

Dr Lynne Jones OBE, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, writer, relief worker, consultant to WHO and Unicef and member of Psych Declares

Lynne Jones OBE, FRCPsych, PhD is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, writer, relief worker and an honorary associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has been engaged in assessing mental health needs and establishing and running mental health services in disaster, conflict, and post-conflict settings around the world since 1990.

She is a course director for the program on Mental Health in Complex Emergencies at the International Institute for Humanitarian Affairs, Fordham University, and consults to the World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNHCR. Her work has allowed her to witness first-hand the devastating impacts of the climate and ecological emergencies and the need for interventions to address it. This topic is addressed in her most recent book: Sorry For The Inconvenience But This Is An Emergency: The Nonviolent Struggle For Our Planet’s Future (Hurst 2024). Her doctoral research explored nonviolent activism during the cold war. In 2001, she was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for her mental health work in conflict-affected areas of Central Europe.

Dr Clive Dolphin had a long career in Engineering. He became aware of the impact of climate change from scientific and engineering sources. Clive attended multiple Extinction Rebellion from 2019 onwards. Clive joined Defend Our Juries soon after it started attending their second or third court sitting. Since then Clive has attended many court cases and kept up with the evolution of how the legal system has intersected with protest in the UK.

Dr Tom Nutting, Adult Psychiatrist and Medical Psychotherapist, member of the PHSC and Psych Declares

Tom is an ST6 in general psychiatry and medical psychotherapy in Bristol. He was previously a RCPsych Green Scholar on the PHSC and a RCPsych Higher Trainee of the Year. He has been an activist with Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, including taking part in non-violent direct action.

Fran Sowerbutts, Medical Student

Fran is a third-year medical student at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry with a prior degree in Biological Sciences. Fran's interest in climate change arises from this academic background and has evolved into a focus on its psychological impact, informed by both their own lived experience and that of peers. Fran is particularly interested in how climate-related uncertainty shapes young people’s mental wellbeing and worldviews.  Fran aspires to pursue a career in psychiatry following completion of medical training.

Dr Ching Li, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and member of Psych Declares

Dr Ching Li is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist working in Bristol. She was a Sustainability Scholar with the RCPsych Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee as a higher trainee and has remained involved with Eco CAMHS since this time. She has published articles and given talks on the role of health care professionals need to have in the climate crisis.

Dr Sue Crimlisk, Child and adolescent psychiatrist

Dr Sue Crimlisk is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist from Bristol. Sue became concerned about the Climate and Ecological emergency in 2018 following the publication of the International Panel on Climate Change report in November 2018. After that she felt motivated to use her influence to act. This included some activism with Extinction Rebellion. Sue also joined PsychDeclares and started the Climate Choir movement which is a community based, peaceful protest movement using our voices in 4-part harmony to raise awareness about the links between the financial sector, the fossil fuel industry and accelerating climate change and its consequences.

Caroline Hickman, Psychotherapist and globally recognised researcher and author

Dr Philippa Clery, Psychiatrist, PHSC, member of Psych Declares

Dr Daniel Harwood, Chair of PHSC, Older Adults Consultant Psychiatrist

The event will take place at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 21 Prescot Street, London E1 8BB. Take a look at a map and directions to help plan your journey.

The Citymapper website/app can help you plan your route within London, giving the best walking, cycling, bus and tube routes available. Use postcode E1 8BB as your destination.

Please note that you will need to make your own accommodation arrangements for this event. View our accommodation list to view a range of accommodation options within walking distance of the College.

Take a 3D virtual tour of the Royal College of Psychiatrists building. 

This event is primarily targeted toward psychiatrists, but it is also open to other non-psychiatric medical professionals and allied health professionals (AHP).

*The discounted allied healthcare professional rate is available for the following: allied healthcare professionals like nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, nutritionists etc. 

If you are unsure about which rate applies to you, please contact Miriam Muleba at miriam.muleba@rcpsych.ac.uk. 

Catering

Tea and coffee will be provided during the morning and afternoon breaks and a fork buffet lunch will be served during lunch.

If you have any dietary requirements please let the event team know.

Getting around the venue

Please contact us if you have any questions about the venue. There is a cloakroom on the ground floor and each floor can be accessed via one of our three lifts.

Parking

There is one disabled parking bay at the rear of the building in Yeoman's Yard, off Chamber Street which runs parallel to Prescot Street and can be accessed via Leman Street or Mansell Street. We understand that disability is not always simple and you will not need a Blue Badge to qualify to use our onsite parking space. This bay must be booked in advance by contacting your events manager or events administrator.

Toilets

Toilets can be found on all floors

• Lower ground floor - we have four gender neutral toilets, one toilet with a parent changing area. There is one accessible toilet with a shower
• Ground floor - we have five gender neutral toilets and one accessible toilet
• First floor - we have single sex toilets on this floor

Multi-faith room

This is located in the members lounge on the ground floor 

Quiet space

We will have a dedicated quiet room available at the College that you are welcome to use at any point during the conference.

Please read our terms and conditions before making your booking.