Showing up to the Crisis

Colleagues across Hamilton, Ontario—including primary care physicians, clinic staff, nurses, social workers, pediatricians, public health workers, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, community health workers, climate‑health researchers, Ontario Health Team staff, hospital leadership, medical students, faculty, and land‑ and arts‑based therapists—are invited to attend Showing Up to the Crisis: A Workshop for Healthcare Providers on Climate Distress, Healing, and Action.

Across Canada, people are experiencing emotional impacts linked to the accelerating planetary health crisis, including grief related to environmental losses, chronic stress from wildfires, floods, and extreme weather, and uncertainty about the future. These impacts are not experienced equally; climate change deepens existing inequities and disproportionately affects people with existing mental illnesses, low‑income groups, children and youth, older adults, racialized communities, and First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Healthcare providers, educators, trainees, and leaders often support individuals experiencing this distress while also navigating their own exposure to moral distress and trauma. This workshop was developed with that need in mind, and to help participants identify common patterns and pathways of climate‑related distress, strengthen their capacity to respond, and apply approaches—such as trauma‑informed, strength‑based, land‑based, arts‑based, and Active Hope‑aligned practices—within their clinical, educational, leadership, and community roles.

What the Workshop Offers

Over 3.5 hours, participants will explore evidence‑informed and trauma‑informed strategies to recognize climate‑related distress, apply strength‑based approaches, and integrate frameworks such as Active Hope into clinical care, service delivery, education, and organizational contexts. The session includes:

• Presentations on climate distress, trauma, moral injury, and Active Hope
• World Café small‑group discussions
• Introductions to land‑based and arts‑based approaches to healing
• Lived expertise from youth and community partners
• Insights from Swelen Andari (CAMH), Dr. Margaret McKinnon (Homewood Chair in Mental Health and Trauma), and practitioners in land‑ and arts‑based therapies
• MC: Dr. Lynda Lukasik, Director, Office of Climate Change Initiatives, City of Hamilton

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Climate Change Advisory Committee, City of Hamilton