Sustainability, Climate Change and Mental Health Conference

On the 22nd October, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales is hosting a virtual event with support of the BJPsych Bulletin.

The event Sustainability, Climate Change and Mental Health will be chaired by Delyth Jewell MS, Plaid Cymru member of the Senedd and the spokesperson for Climate Change, Energy and Transport.

The conference is for clinicians, policymakers and stakeholders across the health, social care and environment sectors, as well as the wider public sector in Wales.

The aim of the conference is to highlight the mental health impacts of climate change, including eco-anxiety, as well as the material consequences of climate change, such as heatwaves and flooding, and how these impact on our mental health.  

During the conference, we will hear from a variety of speakers, including researchers, academics, clinicians, secondary school pupils and the voluntary sector.  As well as highlighting the challenges, speakers will set out a number of practical and creative solutions to tackling climate change and mitigating its impact on mental health.

Please find a link to the provisional programme for the conference.

BJPsych Bulletin is an open access, peer-reviewed journal owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The journal is published bimonthly by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the College.

The journal recently issued a special issue: Climate and Mental Health. In this issue they considered what the destructive effects of the climate and ecological crisis entail for the mental health of populations, and what the response of psychiatrists, both individual and collective, must be. They also highlighted the opportunities and benefits a more sustainable and preventative approach could offer individuals, communities and the planet.

We are delighted to be working in partnership with BJPsych Bulletin and they've prepared complementary resources in advance of the conference, this includes the Green Psychiatry Collection.

Please complete this short Microsoft Form to register for the event.

The event will take place online using Zoom as a webinar. Participants will be able to view a video of the speaker alongside any slides. Participants can also pose questions, where the programme allows, and some speakers may use polling or other interactive features.

All registered attendees will have access to a recording for up to two months after the event.

The webinar is taking place online via Zoom. To take part you will need: 

• access to a reliable internet connection 
• a PC, laptop, tablet or phone 
• Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser or Zoom installed on your PC, laptop, tablet or phone 

Note: you do not need to have a Zoom account to attend.

Some users may experience difficulty joining Zoom meetings due to security settings. If this is the case, we suggest you select the option to join via a web browser, rather than the Zoom app. If you cannot join on your computer you can still join on your phone.  Please take a look at this helpful guide on how to join a Zoom meeting.  

It is your responsibility to ensure you have read and understood the guidelines before the event.