Community and educational mental health interventions
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-12)

Community and educational approaches include nature-based solutions and climate literacy initiatives. They can help people build resilience and process emotions.

CCHS navigation menu: CCHS homepage (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-centre-for-climate-health-security)Topic: health impacts (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/health-impacts) Part of: Climate change and mental health (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/climate-change-and-mental-health)

Key community and educational mental health interventions resources:

Community and educational mental health interventions

Overview of the climate change and mental health report (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/overview-of-the-climate-change-and-mental-health-report)

Climate change and mental health report (pdf) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report)

Mental health support for climate change (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mental-health-support-for-climate-change)

Community and educational support

Community interventions

Community interventions have been shown to help people process climate-related emotions, build resilience, and enable them to take action. Interventions identified by the climate change and mental health report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report) include:

climate cafés; safe spaces for people to share and process eco-distress that foster emotional connection and community support

group activities like citizen science, and nature prescribing (the recommendation to sepnd more time in the natural environment) can reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief, and improved emotional regulation

lay-led programmes; trained non-specialists delivering psychosocial support such as the SOLAR programme (https://esf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/KD_September_2021-2.pdf) in Australia, that can improve PTSD, anxiety, and depression

community cohesion; strong social networks and local support systems that protect against mental health impacts from extreme weather events like flooding

Educational interventions

The report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report) identified educational approaches that aim to build climate literacy and coping skills, especially among children and young people. Interventions include:

school-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programmes: delivered after extreme weather events, that have reduced PTSD, anxiety, and depression in children

climate literacy workshops: community-led sessions that combine emotional processing with collective action that have shown promise in reducing anxiety and increasing purpose

youth-focused initiatives like The Sustainables Academy (https://thesustainablesacademy.com/) and Force of Nature (https://www.forceofnature.xyz/) that help young people understand climate change while supporting mental wellbeing and instilling a sense of purpose

Evidence limitations

The report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report) has identified limitations in the evidence on community and educational interventions including:

limited UK-specific evidence for interventions - most studies have taken place in Australia, Canada and USA

short-term focus - there is little data on long-term outcomes (effects) or how to maintain benefits

some groups are under-represented - at risk populations such as ethnic minorities, disabled people and rural communities are rarely included or assessed

limited co-design - few interventions are produced together with communities or young people; peer-led approaches are lacking

unclear mechanisms - studies often don’t explain how or why interventions work

mixed results for educational interventions - climate literacy programmes show inconsistent impacts on wellbeing

no data on cost-effectiveness - economic evaluations are missing so cannot influence policy