International Conference on Building Personal & Psychosocial Resilience for Climate Change

Event Type: 
In-Person Meeting
Geographic Focus: 
National
When: 
November 3, 2016 - 8:30am to November 4, 2016 - 5:00pm
Location: 

Washington, DC

The psychological traumas caused by more frequent and extreme weather events, as well as the toxic stresses resulting from heatwaves, droughts, new illnesses such as Zika Virus, and more, will undermine personal mental health and aggravate psychosocial problems such as crime and violence. Without significant preventative measures, these harmful reactions will threaten the safety, security and wellbeing of families, organizations, communities, and entire societies. Because dysregulated people exist in a self-protective survival mode, they also threaten to block efforts to cut carbon emissions and reduce the climate crisis to manageable levels.

Few mental health, public health, disaster response, education, faith, or climate change programs address these risks. International and national preventative initiatives are urgently needed to help individuals and groups learn how to constructively cope with the traumas and toxic stresses associated with climate change and use them as catalysts to learn, grow, and thrive.

At the conference, participants will learn about the mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change. They will also learn skills to aid their organizations and communities in building personal and psychosocial resilience for the impacts of rising global temperatures. 

What Participants Will Learn At The Conference:

  • The personal mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change on children and adultsorganizations, communities, and entire societies and how they impact physical health.
  • Why preventative human resilience building initiatives are urgently needed to address these risks.
  • Methods and policies for building personal resilience to climate change-related adversities.
  • Methods and policies for building psychosocial resilience within groups, organizations and communities for climate change-related impacts.

See the Detailed Session by Session Conference Agenda here.

Register for the meeting here

Issue Area: 
Climate Change / Energy

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