Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy T118

Course Summary

Practice Level: Intermediate

Course summary

Course Format

This course, based on the Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy: A Manual for Clinicians, integrates the latest research and practices to guide clinicians in providing effective climate psychiatry and psychotherapy services. Climate-related concerns, such as air pollution, rising temperatures, natural disasters, and human displacement, as well as accompanying barriers to adaptation, food and water insecurity, and infectious diseases, will have widespread impacts on the mental health of communities, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized residents. Climate change can therefore lead to serious mental health consequences, including increased violence and suicidality. Mental health needs are projected to exceed current capacity and therefore require a shift in service delivery to focus on community, national, and international interventions.   

Designed for social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors, the learning material examines the best approaches to anticipate, prevent, assess, and treat these climate-related mental health needs. Suggested interventions range from strategies to reduce one’s carbon footprint at home and in the office, to global activism and research priorities. Case vignettes and key point summaries highlight learning objectives.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the development of climate psychiatry and its components as an area of clinical and public health concern. 
2. Explain ethical and justice-based considerations related to psychiatric engagement and interventions dealing with climate change. 
3. Identify mental health risk factors and concerns associated with extreme heat exposure, as well as ways to mitigate these issues. 
4. Describe the effects of air pollution on mental health and psychiatric outcomes.
5. Recognize how climate-related food and water insecurity, as well as nutritional deficits, can affect mental health. (6 questions) 
6. Explain the relationship between climate change, infectious disease patterns, and mental health concerns. 
7. Define terminology and associated mental health risks related to extreme weather events and natural disasters. 
8. Differentiate interventions for victims of natural disasters and climate-related displacement. 
9. Identify psychological, sociocultural, and systemic barriers that interfere with adaptive responses to climate change. 
10. Define emotional reactions and clinical syndromes associated with climate-related distress. 
11. Recognize therapeutic methods and tools to assess climate-related mental health concerns. 
12. Explain psychotherapeutic approaches for addressing climate-related distress. 
13. Identify key issues in climate psychiatry service delivery at community, national, and global levels, particularly in relation to the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. 
14. Describe strategies for reducing the environmental impact of mental health practices.

Course Syllabus

• Introduction and Overview
  • Introduction
  • History of Climate Psychiatry
  • Psychiatric Ethics, Climate Justice, Advocacy, and Activism
• Neuropsychiatric and Biological Effects of Climate Change
  • Extreme Heat and Its Implications for Psychiatry
  • Air Pollution and Its Effects on the Brain
  • Nutrition, Food and Water Insecurity, and Mental Health
  • Climate-Related Infectious Diseases, Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, and the Human–Microbiome Relationship
  • Extreme Weather, Natural Disasters, and Human Displacement
• IPsychological Responses, Assessment, and Psychotherapeutic Interventions
  • Obstacles to Rational and Adequate Responses to Climate Change
  • Emotional Reactions and Syndromes Associated With Climate Change
  • Assessment of Climate-Related Vulnerabilities and Psychological Effects
  • Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Climate-Related Distress
• Community, Institutional, and Global Responses to Climate Change
  • Coordinating the Climate Psychiatry Response: Global, Institutional, Educational, and Research Agendas
  • The Role of Community Psychiatry in Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
  • Sustainable Psychiatry: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Mental Health Care
• Professional Resources
  • Climate Mental Health Organizations
  • Resources for Professional Engagement and Patient Support

Author

Elizabeth Haase, M.D.

Elizabeth Haase, MD is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and a board-certified Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Deeply involved in a variety of climate—mental health efforts, Dr. Haase has written and edited for two essential books on climate and mental health, Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and Climate Change and Youth Mental Health, with Kelsey Hudson as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She was the inaugural Chair of the Committee on Climate and Mental Health for the American Psychiatric Association, founding steering committee member of CPA and is ongoing Chair of the Climate Committee for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. A Climate Reality leader, she is also producer and lead for Frogs in a Pot, a short documentary about helping kids to emotionally prepare for climate challenges. Dr. Haase is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale School of Medicine, and trained and served as voluntary faculty at the Columbia University Medical Center for twenty three years, where she supervised, lectured, and published in the areas of gender and sexuality, personality, adult relationships, and pain management. She likes to be in nature, and to dance.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE4Less.com maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/08/2024–08/08/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 12 clinical continuing education credits.

Level Education Group, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0355.

Level Education Group, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0835.

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