Self-Care, Staff Wellbeing, and Role Modeling
Climate change effects on mental health are not limited to youth – adults experience similar direct and indirect impacts. Working with distressed youth may trigger our own anxious feelings about our future. We may feel overwhelmed, guilty, ashamed, out of our depth, and only just coming to terms with our feelings. Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout are also common experiences. Teachers, caregivers, and other role models play a key role in supporting youth, but to do so we must "put on our own oxygen mask first" by taking steps to acknowledge and develop coping strategies to address our own emotions related to climate change (see "Social, emotional, self-regulation, and coping skills"). Youth look to adult role models to follow their lead in adopting positive coping mechanisms – and actions speak louder than words.
