Climate Corner For Mental Health

As promised, we’re introducing new, regular content into Fast Facts to enhance your experience and add value.

Welcome to the first instalment of Climate Corner, where we will be bringing you a potpourri of subject matter ranging from articles on the health-related consequence of climate change and other environmental problems, to specific resources for your office and your patients, to links and information about partner agencies working on system change. We hope this new feature will be both thought-provoking and useful.

Why the Division and why now? Our mandate has always been to support members in their practices to improve primary care in Vancouver. There’s no question that the climate crisis has major impacts on our patients, and our own, physical and mental health. The Canadian Climate Institute reports that three-quarters of Canadians feel that climate change affects their mental health, and one-third feel hopeless in the face of global warming. The Lancet notes that 84% of young adults are moderately, and 59% extremely, worried about climate change. In our offices we see increasing respiratory illness related to wildfire smoke and other pollutants. With our 1300 members making incremental changes in our own lives, our clinics, and our patients’ lives we can have a large collective impact.

As we launch Climate Corner we’re also launching the ever-popular Clinic Grants Program – funding to help you in your practice. You may have an eco-friendly project in mind. A ‘green’ audit of your clinic? Support to prescribe alternative COPD medications with lower carbon footprints? We encourage you to keep the environment in mind when you think about applying for this year’s grant.

You may be early in your journey of learning more about how individual and planetary health are connected. You may be well-versed and already participating in advocacy and planning to march with other concerned doctors in next week’s Global Climate strike. Climate Corner will have something for every member.