Since its inception in the summer of 2021, NH Healthcare Workers for Climate Action has been working to grow a grassroots and interdisciplinary climate and health movement across the state of New Hampshire. Our mailing list has since grown to unite a coalition of 2,845 healthcare professionals and others across NH and beyond. Our volunteers compose working groups focusing on the topics of behavioral health, children’s health, climate justice, communications and education, and policy and advocacy.
Some of our key accomplishments and initiatives include:
- Hosted 45 webinars with local and national experts on climate and health, totaling about 1,500 attendees, with over 120 people receiving continuing education credits.
- Conducted 80 Speakers Bureau presentations given to a variety of audiences totaling over 1,800 attendees, using the trusted voice of healthcare workers to raise awareness of the impacts of climate on health.
- Distributed several hundred children’s climate and health posters to pediatric offices, schools, libraries and more across the state and beyond, with a QR code to climate and health resources for families on our website.
- Completed two Project ECHOs: Climate and Health Towards Climate Informed Care & Advocacy, and Connecting Mental Health, Climate Justice, and Nature.
- Published, “Case study: The rapid growth of an interdisciplinary statewide climate and health movement” in The Journal of Climate Change and Health.
- Launched the Climate Informed Pediatric Care project in collaboration with Dartmouth Health, creating a toolkit to incorporate climate messaging into pediatric visits.
- Launched the Climate and Health Initiative for Children in Kearsarge and Sunapee project after receiving a grant from Dartmouth’s Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity.
- Presented “Building Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Planetary Health, Equity, and Climate Justice” at the National Association of Social Workers NH Chapter 2022 Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Conference.
- Worked to align climate and health curriculum with the new AACN essentials and the 2023 NCLEX standards, and presented a climate and health presentation to various nursing schools around the state of NH.
- Created and distributed, “A Brief Guide to Individual Therapy for Climate-Related Mental Distress”
- Proposed the following bill: An Act relative to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) protection of the health of NH citizens by monitoring and responding to current and emerging health threats due to the changing environment
- Sponsored 2 press conferences, urging NH elected officials to act on climate andhealth solutions, as well as calling for support of passing the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Published about 60 Op-Eds and LTEs in media outlets around the state.
As NH HWCA is entering the third year of operations, the group is hoping to increase the scope of our work by expanding the reach of our messaging, and diversifying our volunteer base by engaging more healthcare workers across all disciplines, backgrounds and generations in climate and health work. Engaging with more students and early career professionals will be crucial in increasing the intergenerational approach of our projects, and ensuring the sustainability of our organization. Over the several years, NH HWCA will continue to aim to accomplish five things: 1) to assist key groups in New Hampshire that are disproportionately affected by climate change; 2) address the behavioral health impacts of climate change on Granite Staters, 3) connect the dots between pediatricians, families and children on the impacts of climate on children’s health, 4) provide healthcare workers with the tools to educate themselves and their patients, and 5) continue to advocate for legislation that will address climate and health solutions.