A sense of psychological connectedness with the natural world has important benefits for global health. In a time of environmental crisis, however, it may also be accompanied by mental health risks. We used national survey data collected after a severe Australian bushfire season (N = 3,875) to test a path model of the relationships between nature connectedness, worry about climate change, individual and collective climate action, and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, stress). We found that nature connectedness was positively associated with climate worry that, in turn, was positively associated with climate action and psychological distress. Whereas taking individual climate action was associated with reduced psychological distress, taking collective climate action had the opposite effect. Our findings provide new insights into potential processes underlying the association between nature connectedness and mental health in the climate change context and point to an urgent need to protect the well-being of people engaging in collective climate action.

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Abstract. Background: Understanding what types of crises help-seekers view as relevant for contacting crisis support services is needed to inform crisis service provision and training. Aims: This study aimed to explore help-seeker perceptions of what comprises a crisis, describing the main themes and examining how these relate to reasons for contact reported in previous research. This study further aimed to compare perceptions of what comprises a crisis between suicide-related and nonsuicide-related help-seekers. Method: As part of a larger online survey, Lifeline help-seekers ( n = 375) responded to an open-ended question about their perceptions of personal crisis. Results: Thematic analysis identified 15 crisis themes. The most endorsed by all participants were family and relationship issues, mental health issues, and assault/trauma. Suicide-related help-seekers were more likely to identify suicidality as a crisis, whereas nonsuicide-related help-seekers were more likely to identify general life stress as a crisis. Limitations: The self-selected convenience sample limits generalizability. Conclusion: Help-seekers perceive crisis as a complex concept comprising many themes, with some similarities and differences between suicide-related and nonsuicide-related help-seekers. The findings may inform crisis helplines in promoting and tailoring their services to better meet user needs.

Introduction: Evidence for crisis support service effectiveness is limited by inappropriate and inconsistent outcome measurement. The purpose of this study was to identify what outcomes should be measured.Method: We used a Delphi method with three expert panels: 32 people with lived experience of accessing crisis support, 25 researchers, and 58 crisis supporters. Across two online survey rounds (89% retention rate), participants rated the importance of 33 potential help-seeker outcomes of accessing a crisis support service via any delivery mode (e.g., phone, text, online chat). Participants also had the opportunity to provide open-text comments and suggestions. Outcomes that reached consensus (≥75% agreement) by at least two panels were included in the core outcome set. Results: Ten outcomes met the criteria for inclusion in the core outcome set. In order of importance, these were: distress, feeling heard, suicide risk, connectedness, hopelessness, overwhelm, non-suicidal self-injury risk, service experience, helplessness, and next steps. Conclusion: Our findings provide new insight into what outcomes matter most to help-seekers accessing crisis support. We recommend future service evaluations minimally measure and report the 10 outcomes identified in this study. More work is needed to determine how best to assess these outcomes in the crisis support service context.