Following a short period of inactivity, despite HeSCA being an active society for 4 years, we hope to get the society up and running again as the climate change movement continues to be at tipping point. Not only does the NHS contribute 5% to the total UK carbon emissions, the linkages between climate and health have been shown to be detrimental . The true effect is only now coming to light with new research demonstrating the potential this could have on public health trends. As such we need to slow down the effects of climate change to worsening health on a global scale and nationally in an already resource strained healthcare system. We as the healthcare providers of tomorrow need to take action towards climate justice to promote equity and raise awareness of these pressing issues.
3 key objectives of HeSCA include:
1. To engage students and staff in embedding more climate and health education in the undergraduate medical curriculum and other healthcare schools (nursing, dentistry, midwifes). This will include actively assessing current sustainability practices in an international initiative to outline possible improvements and prompt action within the school of medicine.
2. Creating a space for collective action and passion for the climate crisis through a supportive network of like minded people.
3. Community Action! Have attendees at local climate movements, marches and activities within the local community to form links beyond the University to empower people in wider action and value their green spaces.
The type of activities that HeSCA will run this academic year include:
We hope to deliver an accredited sustainability course this year together with the Carbon Literacy Project. The Carbon Literacy Project is an organisation who help deliver teaching modules on sustainability. They have had success delivering these courses to GP’s, civil servants, paramedics and the police force to name a few, certifying over 15,000 people to date. The first draft of our course is almost complete and together with the Business School at Leeds we are going to be delivering a taster course in the upcoming climate week (22nd – 26th March). In 2021, Leeds HeSCA ran the First carbon literacy course for healthcare students in the UK. We aim to run this again in 2024 following on from this pilot success.
The Planetary health report card is an international tool to assess the sustainability of medical schools. We have carried this out in both 2021 and 2022, resulting in publication that has achieved worldwide recognition and has prompted the University of Leeds medical school to act on sustainability initiatives and make it a key focus on campus. This will be repeated in 2024.
We aim to run workshops in the following areas to engage both healthcare students and beyond to equip themselves with knowledge around intersections of climate and health. An additional key focus we have as a society is to focus on Climate Anxiety as a recognised issue and how we as a student body can support our fellow students in solidarity.
Climate and mindfulness - with a key focus on climate anxiety amongst students and practical ways to manage these feelings
Climate x anthropology
Climate x health economics
Collaborative carbon literacy and planetary health teaching across all year groups”
Renew the Sustainable healthcare series- successfully implemented in 2021 during lockdown with other northern universities to deliver talks and workshops from leading experts in the field
