Climate Change & Mental Health Resilience
Course Type: MOOC (100% Online, self-paced)
Duration: 25 hours (total workload)
Credits: 1 ECTS credit and a certificate of attendance
With the impacts of climate change set to increase, there is a growing need to understand its psychological implications on vulnerable population groups, specifically older persons, to support their resilience as well as health and social care professionals’ own resilience. By taking this MOOC, students will learn about the challenges of climate resilience especially for older people and how to support their psychological strength in response to acute climate-related shocks and long-term, chronic stress. They will also learn effective strategies to support their own resilience.
Lead and Host Institution: Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria (Andrea Stitzel)
Partner Institutions: Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC), Latvia — Elizabete Palasiosa; Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI), Germany — Stefanie Wrobel; UFV, Madrid — Marc-Antoine Dupuis; MUG, Poland — Aniela Brzezinska
This 100% online MOOC is conceptualized as a self-learn course. It has a workload of 25 hours (1 ECTS) and is structured in 4 main topics:
- Mental Resilience
- Factors influencing Climate Resilience
- Behavioural Change to foster resilience
- Nature Connectedness as source of resilience
During the course students participate in reflective corners which also allow interaction with other students through reading and giving feedback on their posts. At the end of the course, students will hand in a final assignment. The MOOC is assessed as pass/fail — both posts in the interactive corners and the final assignment are mandatory to pass.
- Define mental resilience in the context of climate change from the point of view of the older person.
- Provide examples of direct and indirect effects of climate change on mental health and wellbeing.
- Describe the main factors contributing to resilience related to climate change in older people.
- Explain how change can be promoted at the individual and community level based on the main theories of behavioural change.
- Identify opportunities to promote resilience and mental wellbeing based on nature contact and connectedness for older persons and Health and Social Care professionals.
This course may be suitable for students from ACE²-EU partner universities enrolled in undergraduate or postgraduate programmes (not only health and social care!).
This course may be suitable for those who have an interest in: Mental Health · Mental Resilience · Impact of Climate Change on Health · Nature-based Solutions to strengthen Resilience.
Recommended Language Level: Preferred intermediate level of English (B2–C1), as the working language will be English.
Interested applicants should apply here: https://forms.gle/QUiLZMawNAp596w2A
For any further information or queries related to the course, please contact: a.stitzel@fh-kaernten.at