Section outline

  • This presentation discusses the information provided in ITRC Coordinator Bob Doppelt’s new book Preventing and Healing Climate Traumas: A Guide to Building Resilience and Hope in Communities (Routledge Publishing). It describes the urgent need, methods, and multiple benefits of using a public health approach in communities to build population mental wellness and resilience for the climate emergency. During the presentation, Doppelt also describes how the “Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act of 2023” that has been introduced in Congress would fund and support these community initiatives.

    Participants will learn:

    • How the relentless toxic stresses and disasters generated by the climate crisis are producing widespread individual, community, and societal traumas that are undermining mental and physical health, safety, and wellbeing, and also blocking solutions to the climate emergency.
    • The results of an extensive 2+ year international research project by the ITRC that determined that, to prevent and heal climate traumas, a public health approach was needed in communities to build population (or universal) mental wellness and resilience.
    • The core principles, processes, and foundational elements involved with using a public health approach in communities to build population mental wellness and resilience. * Examples of communities using this approach and the many benefits they have achieved.
    • The key roles nurses and other professionals can play in community mental wellness and resilience building initiatives.
    • How the “Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act” that has been introduced in Congress would fund and support communities nationwide that use a public health approach to build population-level mental wellness and resilience.
  • Not available unless: The activity Author Talk Evaluation is marked complete