Postgraduate Course: Mental Health, Trauma and Resilience in the Anthropocene (Online) (EFIE11521)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will explore how global environmental changes (e.g., climate change, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, rising levels of industrialisation and urbanisation) affect human mental health and change patterns of health conditions. Phenomena such as displacement and migration due to climate change will be investigated in the light of their impact on human mental health.
Focus will also be placed on the challenges for physical health (e.g., inadequate access to nutritious food, over-nutrition, altered infectious disease patterns) and how they may inadvertently affect mental health. Other key themes will introduce students to the psychology of individual and societal adversity, common coping mechanisms and aspects of individual and societal resilience in the context of global environmental changes in the Anthropocene era.
Resource planning and management decisions aimed at mitigating the impact of environmental changes on mental health will be discussed in the context of relevant policies, service provision and/or initiatives. |
| Course description |
The course will explore the impact of global environmental changes (e.g., climate change, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, rising levels of industrialisation and urbanisation) on changing patterns of human mental health. This course will introduce students to selected key concepts such as solastalgia, climate anxiety, eco-anxiety, adversity, trauma and resilience at the intersection of health and environment, including experiences of natural disasters, climate-related displacement and migration and their negative effects on mental health. The primary aim of the course is to explore the key effects of human disruptions to Earth's natural systems on human mental health and apply this knowledge to the evaluation of existing policy/service provision responses aimed at tackling mental health concerns.
The course explores how global environmental changes in the Anthropocene era intersect with mental health, introducing key concepts such as determinants of health, disease burden, trauma, adversity, and resilience. It examines emerging mental health phenomena like climate anxiety, Eco-anxiety, solastalgia, and Eco-grief, alongside the mental health impacts of climate-related migration, rising levels of industrialisation, urbanisation, and environmental degradation. The course also engages with diverse theoretical frameworks of trauma and resilience and their application in research, policy, and practice within Planetary Health. Finally, the course emphasises trauma-informed care, compassionate professional practices, and policy approaches that support well-being among both affected populations and practitioners working at the intersection of mental health and environmental challenges. The course is delivered over 5 weeks in 5 weekly 4-hour blocks.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details). There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, a physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Case Study Critique (100%)
Individual assessment, which involves presenting a case study of a chosen mental health challenge/crisis/problem caused by environmental factors and providing a critique of an initiative/campaign/service/policy, etc., introduced as a response to this challenge/crisis/problem. This assessment will also ask students to reflect on how the chosen policy/service provision context might need to be shaped further to enhance personal/community resilience and prevent secondary risk accruing from future trauma.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Prior to the submission of the summative assessment, a single page of the critique should be submitted for formative feedback to the Course Organisers. This may be delivered as a first page draft or a one-page plan of the content/structure of the critique.
Feedback will be provided throughout the teaching sessions through lecture discussions, group activities and discussions. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate awareness and knowledge of key concepts and debates surrounding impacts of deteriorating planetary health on human mental health.
- Critically examine existing models and definitions of trauma and resilience, using a wide range of sources associated with the subject.
- Apply this awareness and knowledge to a critical evaluation of the design and implementation of a chosen policy/service provision response to a public mental health concern/challenge related to environmental changes or degradation in a chosen context.
- Consider how this chosen policy/service provision context might need to be shaped further to enhance personal/community resilience and prevent secondary risk accruing from future trauma.
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Reading List
Essential reading:
Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events? The American Psychologist, 59(1), 20-28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.20
Callaghan, A., McCombe, G., Harrold, A., McMeel, C., Mills, G., Moore-Cherry, N., & Cullen, W. (2021). The impact of green spaces on mental health in urban settings: a scoping review. Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), 30(2), 179-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2020.1755027
Charlson, F., Ali, S., Augustinavicius, J., Benmarhnia, T., Birch, S., Clayton, S., Fielding, K., Jones, L., Juma, D., Snider, L., Ugo, V., Zeitz, L., Jayawardana, D., La Nauze, A., & Massazza, A. (2022). Global priorities for climate change and mental health research. Environment International, 158, 106984. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106984
Cianconi, P., Betro, S., & Janiri, L. (2020). The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health: A Systematic Descriptive Review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 74. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00074
Gerber, M. R. (ed.). (2019). Trauma-Informed Healthcare Approaches: A Guide for Primary Care. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04342-1
Hughes, K. e. al. (2017). The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 2(8), e356-e366. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30118-4
Hwong, A. R., Wang, M., Khan, H., Chagwedera, D. N., Grzenda, A., Doty, B., Benton, T., Alpert, J., Clarke, D., & Compton, W. M. (2022). Climate change and mental health research methods, gaps, and priorities: a scoping review. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 6(3), e281-e291. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00012-2
Lawrance, E. L., Thompson, R., Newberry Le Vay, J., Page, L., & Jennings, N. (2022). The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence, and its Implications. International Review of Psychiatry, 34(5), 443-498. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2022.2128725
Lund, C., Brooke-Sumner, C., Baingana, F., Baron, E. C., Breuer, E., Chandra, P., Haushofer, J., Herrman, H., Jordans, M., Kieling, C., Medina-Mora, M. E., Morgan, E., Omigbodun, O., Tol, W., Patel, V., & Saxena, S. (2018). Social determinants of mental disorders and the Sustainable Development Goals: a systematic review of reviews. The Lancet. Psychiatry, 5(4), 357-369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30060-9
Métais, C., Burel, N., Gillham, J. E., Tarquinio, C., & Martin-Krumm, C. (2022). Integrative Review of the Recent Literature on Human Resilience: From Concepts, Theories, and Discussions Towards a Complex Understanding. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 18(1), 98-119. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.2251
Moore, T. H. M., Kesten, J. M., López-López, J. A., Ijaz, S., McAleenan, A., Richards, A., Gray, S., Savovi, J., & Audrey, S. (2018). The effects of changes to the built environment on the mental health and well-being of adults: Systematic review. Health & Place, 53, 237-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.07.012
Oral, R. e. al. (2016). Adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed care: The future of health care. Pediatric Research, 79(1-2), 227-233. https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2015.197
Safir, M. P. (2015). Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7522-5
Recommended reading:
Abrams, E. M. a. o. (2020). Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet (British Edition), 396(10258), 1204-1222. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9
Bryant, R. A. (2019). Post traumatic stress disorder: a state-of-the-art review of evidence and challenges. World Psychiatry, 18(3), 259-269. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20656
El Baba, R. a. C. (2018). Post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, and anxiety in unaccompanied refugee minors exposed to war-related trauma: a systematic review. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 11(2), 194-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/17542863.2017.1355929
Elderton, A. (2017). A Systematic Review of Posttraumatic Growth in Survivors of Interpersonal Violence in Adulthood. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 18(2), 223-236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838015611672
Geary, R. S., Thompson, D., Mizen, A., Akbari, A., Garrett, J. K., Rowney, F. M., Watkins, A., Lyons, R. A., Stratton, G., Lovell, R., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Parker, S. C., Song, J., Tsimpida, D., White, J., White, M. P., Williams, S., Wheeler, B. W., Fry, R., & Rodgers, S. E. (2023). Ambient greenness, access to local green spaces, and subsequent mental health: a 10-year longitudinal dynamic panel study of 2·3 million adults in Wales. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 7(10), e809-e818. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00212-7
Infurna, F. J., & Luthar, S. S. (2018). Re-evaluating the notion that resilience is commonplace: A review and distillation of directions for future research, practice, and policy. Clinical Psychology Review, 65, 43-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.07.003
Jang, S., Ekyalongo, Y., & Kim, H. (2021). Systematic Review of Displacement and Health Impact From Natural Disasters in Southeast Asia. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 15(1), 105-114. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2019.125
Mahdiani, H., & Ungar, M. (2021). The Dark Side of Resilience. Adversity and Resilience Science, 2(3), 147-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-021-00031-z
McFarlane, A. C. (2010). The long term costs of traumatic stress: intertwined physical and psychological consequences. World Psychiatry, 9(1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00254.x
Moutet, L., Bernard, P., Green, R., Milner, J., Haines, A., Slama, R., Temime, L., & Jean, K. (2025). The public health co-benefits of strategies consistent with net-zero emissions: a systematic review. Planetary Health, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(24)00330-9
Munro, A., Kovats, R. S., Rubin, G. J., Waite, T. D., Bone, A., Armstrong, B., Waite, T. D., Beck, C. R., Bone, A., Amlôt, R., Kovats, R. S., Armstrong, B., Leonardi, G., Rubin, G. J., & Oliver, I. (2017). Effect of evacuation and displacement on the association between flooding and mental health outcomes: a cross-sectional analysis of UK survey data. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 1(4), e134-e141. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30047-5
Nguyen, P.-Y., Astell-Burt, T., Rahimi-Ardabili, H., & Feng, X. (2023). Effect of nature prescriptions on cardiometabolic and mental health, and physical activity: a systematic review. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 7(4), e313-e328. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00025-6
Ninomiya, M. E. M., Burns, N., Pollock, N. J., Green, N. T. G., Martin, J., Linton, J., Rand, J. R., Brubacher, L. J., Keeling, A., & Latta, A. (2023). Indigenous communities and the mental health impacts of land dispossession related to industrial resource development: a systematic review. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 7(6), e501-e517. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00079-7
Owoaje, E., Uchendu, O., Ajayi, T., & Cadmus, E. (2016). A review of the health problems of the internally displaced persons in Africa. The Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal, 23(4), 161-171. https://doi.org/10.4103/1117-1936.196242
Schwartz, R. M., Liu, B., Lieberman-Cribbin, W., & Taioli, E. (2017). Displacement and mental health after natural disasters. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 1(8), e314-e314. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30138-9
Thompson, R., Lawrance, E. L., Roberts, L. F., Grailey, K., Ashrafian, H., Maheswaran, H., Toledano, M. B., & Darzi, A. (2023). Ambient temperature and mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 7(7), e580-e589. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00104-3
van Daalen, K. R., Kallesøe, S. S., Davey, F., Dada, S., Jung, L., Singh, L., Issa, R., Emilian, C. A., Kuhn, I., Keygnaert, I., & Nilsson, M. (2022). Extreme events and gender-based violence: a mixed-methods systematic review. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 6(6), e504-e523. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00088-2
Further reading:
Ang Li, P., Mathew Toll, B. H., & Rebecca Bentley, P. (2023). Mapping social vulnerability indicators to understand the health impacts of climate change: a scoping review. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 7(11), e925-e937.
Butler, C. D. (2016). Sounding the alarm: Health in the Anthropocene. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(7), 665. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070665
Engelbrecht, A. a. J. (2016). Exploring trauma associated appraisals in trauma survivors from collectivistic cultures. SpringerPlus, 5(1), 1565. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-3043-2
Lewandowski, R. E., Clayton, S. D., Olbrich, L., Sakshaug, J. W., Wray, B., Schwartz, S. E. O., Augustinavicius, J., Howe, P. D., Parnes, M., Wright, S., Carpenter, C., Winiowski, A., Ruiz, D. P., & Van Susteren, L. (2024). Climate emotions, thoughts, and plans among US adolescents and young adults: a cross-sectional descriptive survey and analysis by political party identification and self-reported exposure to severe weather events. The Lancet. Planetary Health, 8(11), e879-e893. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00229-8
Luthar, S. S., & Eisenberg, N. (2017). Resilient Adaptation Among At-Risk Children: Harnessing Science Toward Maximizing Salutary Environments. Child Development, 88(2), 337-349. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12737
Masiero, M. e. al. (2020). From Individual To Social Trauma: Sources Of Everyday Trauma In Italy, The US And UK During The Covid-19 Pandemic. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 21(5), 513-519. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2020.1787296
Masten, A. S., & Narayan, A. J. (2012). Child development in the context of disaster, war, and terrorism: Pathways of risk and resilience. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 227-257. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100356
Patel, V., Xiao, S., Chen, H., Hanna, F., Jotheeswaran, A. T., Luo, D., Parikh, R., Sharma, E., Usmani, S., Yu, Y., Druss, B. G., & Saxena, S. (2016). The magnitude of and health system responses to the mental health treatment gap in adults in India and China. The Lancet (British Edition), 388(10063), 3074-3084. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00160-4
Pitman, R. K. (2013). A Brief Nosological History of PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress Disorders & Treatment, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.4172/2324-8947.1000101
Sweetland, A. C., Jaramillo, E., Wainberg, M. L., Chowdhary, N., Oquendo, M. A., Medina-Marino, A., & Dua, T. (2018). Tuberculosis: an opportunity to integrate mental health services in primary care in low-resource settings. The Lancet. Psychiatry, 5(12), 952-954. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30347-X
White, R. G. (2020). Mental wellbeing in the Anthropocene: Socio-ecological approaches to capability enhancement. Transcultural Psychiatry, 57(1), 44-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461518786559 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Mental health,environment,Anthropocene,trauma,resilience |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ewelina Rydzewska
Tel:
Email: ewelina.rydzewska@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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