​At times like these, making time for self care, and connecting with resilient peers, will be among the most effective ways to re-empower yourself to continue striving for the just and enlightened society you aim to help bring about.

Self care planning is a proven and empowering wellbeing tool used by many people with lived experience of mental health issues.  It's a tool that helps you work out what you can do to help yourself when you're struggling, and where to access the right support.  It's also a tool to help you have constructive wellbeing conversations with people you know are struggling.

This particular self care planning tool was developed by people with lived experience of severe mental health issues and the Paisley based organisation ACUMEN (part of the charity Recovery Across Mental Health [RAMH]) during the Covid 19 Lockdown in 2020.  There are many other more detailed self care planning tools you could use and one of the best known is WRAP. 

The high hopes once again rapidly dimmed to a glimmer behind thick layers of broken political and corporate promises, greenwashing, apathy and hellish statistics about species extinction, pollution and concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.

​While politicians urged environmental activists at COP26 to keep challenging the status quo, they ignored the mental and physical wellbeing toll of campaigning. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the laws on protesting in the UK were being tightened to ensure the continuation of that status quo.
 
In response, Surefoot and environmental campaigner, Audrey Baird joined forces to devise and secure funding for EAR Peer Support. Surefoot’s Managing Director, Pamela Candea shared her views on the need for EAR Peer Support,
“I’ve been doing what I can to help tackle global warming for 15 years and sometimes the emotional side of that gets lost because of the sheer scale of the emergency and the intense pressure to take action to adapt and mitigate. People get exhausted and burn out because the odds seem stacked against them. What I like about this project is that it’s about using the structure of self care planning and bringing people together in forums, in a book, training and podcasts to share their anxieties as well as their resilience, to help them move back into action.”
 
Audrey Baird, who is Peer Supporter for the project, added,
“The problem is bad news about global warming and biodiversity loss has been relentless for decades and it can often seem like ecosystem and societal collapse is inevitable and imminent. People who are emotionally or physically affected by the nature and climate emergencies understand our species is taking too much from Earth and our insatiable greed is fed by exploiting the powerless and the poor. Change must come and working out what we can each do to help builds personal resilience and self respect.”

Inspired by the spirit of Glasgow’s 2021 Climate Justice protest and with a £10k grant from The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland - Together for Our Planet programme, EAR Peer Support is funded until March 2023.

Nearly half of global youth surveyed (45%) say climate anxiety and distress is affecting their daily lives and functioning - according to results from the largest scientific study into climate anxiety in children and young people, according to new research.

The inaugural study, based on surveys with 10,000 children and young people (16-25) across 10 countries, found 75% of young respondents believe ‘the future is frightening’ - jumping to 81% of youth surveyed in Portugal and 92% in the Philippines. It found, for the first time, that climate distress and anxiety is significantly related to perceived government inaction and associated feelings of betrayal. 58% of children and young people surveyed said governments were “betraying me and/or future generations,” while 64% said their governments are not doing enough to avoid a climate catastrophe.

The study found widespread psychological distress among children and young people globally and warns 'such high levels of distress, functional impact and feelings of betrayal will negatively affect the mental health of children and young people.' Experts warn that because continued government inaction on climate change is psychologically damaging, it potentially amounts to a violation of international human rights law.​

Extract from University of Bath Communications
Access to full study
Image credit: AdobeStock.

Audrey was a local newspaper reporter and features writer before moving into public relations and a role at the BBC Bristol (home of the Natural History Unit), where she had occasional opportunities to work with high profile nature campaigners and communicators like Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham.

She was offered a newly created role as a broadcast campaigns project manager for the BBC2 series 'Restoration' - in 2002 this was a brand new type of audience voting led programming about local communities fighting to save their historic buildings at risk.  Audrey supported around 70 community groups across the UK who were battling to save everything from a vast Victorian swimming baths in Manchester to a tiny wool mill at Knockando, near Aberdeen, and gained some insights into what motivated the people involved and why some campaigns were successful and others failed. 

Inspired by the dedication and determination she witnessed in those Restoration communities, she took on community development role for a rural local authority and then laterly worked for a mental health charity that aims to help empower inspirational people who are managing their severe mental health issues using self care planning techniques.

Audrey has campaigned on a range of animal welfare and environmental issues since she was a teenager and has been very grateful for the help to manage strong emotions that she's received from a peer support programme for the friends and family of alcoholics.  She's also a long time sailor who's equally grateful for the untamed wilderness of the sea.  
 
Peer, Eco Anxious Resilient Peer Support (Scotland)
Recognising eco anxiety as a source of empowerment and purpose to develop personal resilience and defend Earth.
Eco Anxious Resilient Peer Support (Scotland) is funded in 2022-23 by a Big Lottery (Together for Our Planet) award.