Climate Change and Mental Health
Published: August 2025
Description
Climate change is an urgent global health crisis, and mental health and primary care providers are increasingly on the frontlines. This interactive, case-based course equips practitioners with the skills and frameworks needed to recognize, treat, and respond to the growing mental health impacts of climate change. Over four 90-minute live sessions, participants will work through problem-based clinical cases focused on biological, psychological, and advocacy-based challenges in care delivery.
Led by Yale faculty, each session includes a short lecture and small group breakout discussions facilitated by instructors. Case topics include the effects of environmental stressors like heat and air pollution on mental health, trauma, and climate-related grief following natural disasters, and how providers can build resilience and advocate for sustainable change within their communities and clinical practices.
Questions? Contact us at ccmh@yale.edu or visit the website for program or registration help.
Program Takeaways
- How climate change affects mental health and influences treatment decisions
- Therapeutic approaches for addressing emotional impacts of climate-related trauma and distress
- The role of providers in supporting climate resilience and engaging in advocacy
Meet the Instructors
Dr. Benoit, a French and Brazilian child and adolescent psychiatrist, joined the Yale Child Study Center in 2021 as a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar. She researches the impact of climate change on the mental health of children and adolescents in the US, Brazil, and France. Dr. Benoit employs citizen research involving adolescents, parents, professionals, and family support groups. She teaches at Yale University, Universidade de São Paolo, and University of Paris, focusing on qualitative research methods and skills to support children's health and reduce healthcare inequities.
Dr. Wortzel completed his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Brown University and now serves young adults in an intensive outpatient program. He chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Climate Change and Mental Health and co-chairs the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Committee on Climate Change. He is also a fellow of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry think tank’s Climate and Mental Health Committee, part of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance steering committee, and a 2024-25 National Institute of Mental Health Climate and Health Scholar. His research focuses on the effects of heat on affective disorders and suicide in young people, and the mental health impact of climate change distress.
