BackgroundThis article provides an overview of the current and projected climate change risks and impacts to mental health and provides recommendations for priority actions to address the mental health consequences of climate change.Discussion and conclusionThe authors argue the following three points: firstly, while attribution of mental health outcomes to specific climate change risks remains challenging, there are a number of opportunities available to advance the field of mental health and climate change with more empirical research in this domain; secondly, the risks and impacts of climate change on mental health are already rapidly accelerating, resulting in a number of direct, indirect, and overarching effects that disproportionally affect those who are most marginalized; and, thirdly, interventions to address climate change and mental health need to be coordinated and rooted in active hope in order to tackle the problem in a holistic manner. This discussion paper concludes with recommendations for priority actions to address the mental health consequences of climate change.

Background This article aims to provide an introduction to emerging evidence and debate about the relationship between climate change and mental health. Discussion and Conclusion The authors argue that: i) the direct impacts of climate change such as extreme weather events will have significant mental health implications; ii) climate change is already impacting on the social, economic and environmental determinants of mental health with the most severe consequences being felt by disadvantaged communities and populations; iii) understanding the full extent of the long term social and environmental challenges posed by climate change has the potential to create emotional distress and anxiety; and iv) understanding the psycho-social implications of climate change is also an important starting point for informed action to prevent dangerous climate change at individual, community and societal levels.

Both the direct and flow-on effects of climate change place children at risk of mental health consequences including PTSD, depression, anxiety, phobias, sleep disorders, attachment disorders, and substance abuse. These in turn can lead to problems with emotion regulation, cognition, learning, behavior, language development, and academic performance. Together, these create predispositions to adverse adult mental health outcomes. Children also exhibit high levels of concern over climate change. Meaning-focused coping promotes well-being and environmental engagement. Both direct and indirect climate change impacts affect children's psychological well-being. Children in the developing world will suffer the worst impacts. Mental health professionals have important roles in helping mitigate climate change, and researching and implementing approaches to helping children cope with its impacts.

Climate change poses an urgent threat to future generations. Children are more susceptible to its effects than adults, with immediate and lifelong impacts on their physical and mental health. In addition to having direct experiences of climate impacts, children and youth respond psychologically in troubling ways to their awareness of the climate crisis. Children’s and youth’s needs for support vary across contexts. Climate impacts are generally greater in the developing world (despite the fact that people there are less responsible for causing the crisis), where capacity to prepare for and adapt to the effects is weaker. Hence, we need urgent action on both mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts. In doing this work, we must acknowledge and build the agency and engagement of children and youth, which also builds resiliency and hope. Although many programs are encouraging, they fail to reach all children in need and are limited in terms of evaluation. Experts in child development can help fill these gaps. In the developed world, few studies address how to support young people in face of their feelings regarding climate change. Listening and providing opportunities for active engagement are among the ways adults can help young people cope, and build a sense of efficacy and a capacity to tackle the crisis and adapt to climate impacts. The upsurge in school strikes for climate action demonstrates young people’s deep concerns about their future and their determination to prevent a climate catastrophe. The climate change crisis raises questions about how professionals committed to the well‐being of the next generation should respond—business as usual is no longer an option, and many valuable ways exist to help ensure that children can thrive on a livable planet.

Background: In the aftermath of disaster, a large proportion of people will develop psychosocial difficulties that impair recovery, but for which presentations do not meet threshold criteria for disorder. Although these adjustment problems can cause high distress and impairment, and often have a trajectory towards mental health disorder, few evidence-based interventions are available to facilitate recovery. Objective: This paper describes the development and pilot testing of an internationally developed, brief, and scalable psychosocial intervention that targets distress and poor adjustment following disaster and trauma. Method: The Skills fOr Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) program was developed by an international collaboration of trauma and disaster mental health experts through an iterative expert consensus process. The resulting five session, skills-based intervention, deliverable by community-based or frontline health or disaster workers with little or no formal mental health training (known as coaches), was piloted with 15 Australian bushfire survivors using a pre-post with follow up, mixed-methods design study. Results: Findings from this pilot demonstrated that the SOLAR program was safe and feasible for non-mental health frontline workers (coaches) to deliver locally after two days