BC-CfE’s COAST Study hosts Café Scientifique event on climate change and mental health

posted on January 19, 2021

Climate Impacts on the Mental Health and Wellness of British Columbians

The BC-CfE COAST team invites you to an exciting virtual Café Scientifique titled “Climate Impacts on the Mental Health and Wellness of British Columbians” on February 1st, 2021. This event represents a collaboration between the BC-CfE, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, and has been generously funded by the Pacific Institute of Climate Solutions.

The event, to be held over Zoom due to pandemic restrictions, hopes to raise awareness and facilitate community engagement on the topic of climate change and mental health and specifically discuss the pathways by which mental health and wellness and climate change influence each other. Through presentations and an interactive Q&A, we will hear from two well respected academics in the field of climate change and mental health, Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo and Dr. Maya Gislason.

Dr. Cunsolo is the founding dean of the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies at the Labrador Institute of Memorial University, a former Canada Research Chair (Tier II) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She is a leading voice nationally and internationally on climate change, mental health and ecological grief and has written numerous articles as well as contributed regularly to the media on these topics. She is a lead author on the Health Canada Climate Change Assessment reports.

Dr. Gislason is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a Michael Smith Foundation Health Research Scholar. She is a longstanding champion of ecosystem approaches to health, and as a climate change and health equity scholar she focuses primarily on addressing the impacts of climate change and intensive resource extraction on rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities in Canada. Through her work, she strives to strengthen Planetary Health and advance intergenerational climate justice and believes interventions should be defined by co-benefits to both people and the planet.

This event will begin with an Indigenous Ceremonial Opening by Elder Valerie Nicholson, a peer Indigenous Research Associate at the BC-CfE and will be moderated by the passionate youth climate activist, Abhay Sachal, co-founder and director at Break the Divide Foundation.

We invite you to share this event with your networks! Please register to join us from 4-6pm PST on Monday February 1st, 2021.

To register for the event visit: http://bit.ly/bccfe_cs.

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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BC-CfE’s COAST Study hosts Café Scientifique event on climate change and mental health

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