Importance of community-led action in building resilience to the mental health impacts of climate change and extreme weather-related events.

Climate anxiety and the mental health and well-being impacts of extreme weatherrelated events are of growing concern globally. In Australia, rural communities in particular continue to deal with unprecedented drought, fires and floods. The mental health and wellbeing impacts of such climate change induced events are numerous. However, little is known about what promotes the resilience of rural communities.

Rural researchers from the University of Sydney School of Rural Health (Dubbo/Orange), the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health and the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore conducted a study that explored the importance of community-led action, what participants perceived to be effective at building resilience and what are the necessary components of success.

This study engaged participants from three highly impacted communities in rural New

South Wales. These participants prioritised the need for three types of community action that bring people together to build resilience. These are categorised as (1) general communityled support, (2) community-focused and (3) politically-focused climate change action. General community-led support includes a broad range of activities that support mental health and wellbeing and focus on bringing people together. These activities include creative arts-based activities; naturebased programs such as Landcare Australia; community events; group activities that foster secure and lasting connections such as men’s sheds; and emergency services and organisational interventions such as preparing for extreme weather-related events as a community.

Community-focused climate change action are practical mitigation and adaptation activities that have local impact and influence. This action includes long-lived local community-based climate change mitigation groups with a focus on caring for the land; adaptation action such as community monitoring (and reducing) water usage during drought; ‘buying from the bush’ campaigns that empower communities to support each other through local suppliers; getting together to support firefighters during the bushfire season; and working in a team to build sheds for people rendered homeless following bushfires.

Politically-focused climate change action involves challenging specific climate policies and political inaction. This includes activities such as raising funds and awareness; educational advocacy; topic-specific political protests such as advocating for river conservation or responding to the threat of a new dam; and local/national/international activism, for example being involved in Extinction Rebellion actions, the School Strike for Climate movement or the Knitting Nannas Against Gas actions.

A common theme from the participant forums was that community-led action increased engagement, participation and ownership, giving people a sense of belonging and connectedness. This In turn this helps address the mental health and well-being impacts, while simultaneously supporting communities to prepare for those impacts. Research participants described how the uniqueness of each community meant that local community knowledge and understanding was key to identify needs, enablers, relevance and what might work best for that community.

The study results illustrate that the design of strategies to lessen the mental health and well-being risks from climate change may benefit from community-led and collective activities that build community networks.