The imperative of planetary mental health: insights, recommendations, and a call to action.

Abstract

An alarming progression of human-centred and environmental concerns has marked the Anthropocene, including climatic changes and the inextricably linked deterioration of human mental health. Expanding on the 2015 Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, we propose that mental health be explicitly included within the planetary health approach. This inclusion acknowledges the importance of population mental health as part of planetary health and addresses the symbiotic deterioration of global mental health and environmental health. As part of this approach, we conceptualise several types of interventions, including symbiocentric and transformative mental health interventions, with the latter combining active environmentalism with the aim of simultaneously improving mental health and wellbeing. We further identify several areas of opportunity in which transformative interventions could be translated to practice and implemented across a range of settings, including workplaces, educational contexts, and organised sport. Making a call to action, we highlight the urgency of shifting from individualised to collective environmental responsibility, including collective transformative reflection, with different stakeholders coming together to scale up transformative interventions and working towards true planetary (mental) health. Finally, we give recommendations to promote symbiocentric and transformative interventions in policy and reform.