Part of the Climate Crisis Teach-In 2025
This presentation explores the growing mental health impacts of climate change, with a focus on community-level strategies that promote resilience, hope, and collective agency. Drawing on emerging research and best practices, it highlights how climate anxiety and ecological grief—particularly among Gen Z—are shaped by systemic inequities, uncertainty, and disruption. The session emphasizes the importance of intergenerational dialogue, mutual aid, and relational care in fostering emotional support and wellbeing. Participants will be introduced to tools, resources, and evidence-informed approaches for creating communities of care where climate-related emotions are validated and shared. Together, we will envision how interdisciplinary groups and diverse professionals can build climate-responsive mental health systems grounded in justice, connection, and collective action.
Rachel Forbes, MSW (’11M), is the community outreach and engagement specialist at the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University. Forbes’s current research and teaching examines the impacts of climate change on mental health and protective factors at the community level. Her work has been published in environmental justice and human rights journals, and has been funded by the CSWE Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work and the Hispanic Access Foundation. She is editor of the award winning book “Ecosocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy” (NASW Press 2023).
