Understanding how children are coping with climate change anxiety by exploring coping strategies and supportive interventions.

Climate change presents a significant threat to both the planet and human prosperity which impacts our physical health and mental well-being. There is an imminent requirement for significant global action. This means (a) our children have been born into unprecedented times and (b) as future adults, they will find themselves facing the major consequences of climate change. These can negatively affect their mental health and well-being. This paper reports the effect of climate anxiety on this population group through an exploration of coping strategies and supportive interventions. Empowering children to engage in climate action has been identified as a coping strategy. Whilst equipping them with knowledge and resources on climate change and providing safe spaces and experiences in nature are identified as supportive interventions. However, further empirical research evidence is needed to determine the next steps to address the extent of the impact of climate anxiety and prepare our children for the future

Teaching Sustainability to Online Healthcare Students: A Viewpoint

Sustainability is an essential component of education today, as it is regarded as a global requirement in higher education. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have witnessed a rapid increase in healthcare student numbers within the online learning department of our university. While the importance of sustainability is recognised, how to educate this to online healthcare students remains to be discussed. Accordingly, this viewpoint paper identifies challenges regarding the integration of sustainability education and reports our attempts to address these challenges. The lack of time in the curriculum, minimal sustainability knowledge from healthcare educators, understanding of clinical relevance and consistency in curriculum planning were identified as four key problems. To address this at our university sustainability content was introduced to the learning materials, academic staff increased their subject knowledge, an interdisciplinary student conference targeting sustainability was utilised, and future curriculum planning will see sustainability embedded. Informal feedback from students and staff has been positive, indicating a need for empirical investigation. Insights offered in this viewpoint can provide ideas for non-sustainability educators who wish to embed sustainability education in a feasible and time and cost-effective way