Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee

The core principles of practising sustainable psychiatry are:

• prioritising prevention
• empowerment of patients, communities and staff
• high value care
• consider carbon.

The most sustainable workforce is one that feels supported and fulfilled by their work and working conditions. A psychiatrist who is well supported and not "burnt-out" is better placed to help their patients stay well for longer and support them during acute illness. Optimising patients' mental health is by far the most sustainable thing we can do in all senses: personal, environmental, carbon use, financial, and so on.

There is one particular entity that sustainable psychiatrists must embrace: nature. This may involve incorporating green spaces into workplaces; facilitating patients to develop their own relationship with nature; or engaging with the natural world within our communities. Not only is there is a strong link between the impact of climate change on mental health, the evidence base regarding the benefits of nature for mental wellbeing continues to grow.

Supporting our members to continue their work in psychiatry avoids frequent staff turnover, the need for further recruitment and countless years of training. A resilient workforce is better placed to cope with the challenges that working in the NHS may bring - whether that be adapting practice to work within a global pandemic or adapting practice to work towards a net zero NHS.

There is no doubt that staff wellbeing is a key priority for the sustainability of the NHS, the people it serves, and wider society.

The Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee works closely with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, that runs the Mental Health Sustainability Network – a network for professionals working in mental health who are interested in sustainability.

Please join the network if you would like to stay abreast of what is happening for sustainability in mental health.

The College is a member of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.

This alliance brings together the voices of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals within the UK to advocate for action to combat and prevent climate change, emphasising the substantial co benefits to health of tackling climate change in a fair and equitable way.

This alliance aims to communicate the relationship between health and climate change to government and the health profession.

Greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of human activity such as deforestation are having profound effects on the earth. It is increasingly clear that climate change poses a major threat to human health worldwide.

Doctors are well placed to advocate for climate change mitigation and adaption.

The Lancet Countdown annual reports aim to track global progress on climate change and the impacts on health and was first started the same year the Paris Agreement was declared. The key theme from the 2024 report is how we will handle the record-breaking threats to our health and wellbeing which have resulted from delayed action on climate change.

Read the Lancet Countdown Report 2024

Country-specific briefs are published to accompany the report, including a UK brief which pulls UK data from indicators and makes recommendations to UK policymakers. These highlight three key priorities that the UK government must focus on for health and climate policy:

1. Development of low-carbon climate-resilient healthcare services
2. A focus on reducing air pollution and a call to legislate the right to clean air
3. Development of a National Green Infrastructure Strategy that focuses on Greener Cities for both adaptation to heatwaves and the health co-benefits