THE GROWING IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PEDIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH, WAYS TO ADDRESS IT, AND WHAT PSYCHIATRY CAN DO TO DECREASE ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT

Climate change and the natural disasters associated with it pose a significant threat to public health. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the mental health consequences related to climate instability, including eco-anxiety and climate-related traumas. This panel intends to strengthen mental health providers’ understanding of the research and resources available in this rapidly progressing field, as well as to stimulate conversation about what mental health providers can do to treat these conditions, advocate for patients, and decrease psychiatry’s contributions to climate change. This interactive presentation will begin with a review of what is known about the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on children’s mental health. This will be followed by 2 presentations on research addressing related issues: 1) a new, evidence-based children’s book to model conversations about climate anxiety; and 2) a review of the effects of greenspace on children’s psychological development and mental health. The final presentation will review research on how psychiatrists can reduce their impact on climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of their medical conferences and through use of telepsychiatry in clinical practice. We will conclude the panel by discussing current efforts of “climate-aware” psychiatrists to promote advocacy and action around these issues and open the floor to dialogue with the audience about their own experiences and challenges with these topics. Throughout the presentation, we will also invite the audience to participate through virtual polling. By the end of the panel, the audience will be able to summarize the effects of climate change on pediatric mental health, describe current directions of research in this field, and identify ways to take action in clinical practice and through advocacy. The effect of climate change on mental health is of growing concern within the pediatric population. After attending this panel, attendees will be more climate-aware mental health providers with the necessary background to help contribute to ongoing AACAP efforts to address the mounting effects of climate change on pediatric mental health.