A commission to develop a road map towards carbon NZ mental health practice

Mental health activities contribute 6% of total NHS greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, actions on mental health will have significant impact on reaching the NHS net zero targets. There is a large workforce working in mental health - for example, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has 20,000 members - and thus there is a large opportunity to gather evidence and insights into how to best deliver high quality, low carbon mental health care.

We are seeking to ensure that the 20,000 members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the 20,000 psychologists, the 40,000 mental health nurses, and all other staff involved in delivering mental health care have access to clear resources and support to enable them to understand and deliver net zero mental health care. We anticipate that to deliver this a commission, literature review and gathering of insights from mental health professionals will be required to support the delivery of high quality resources. We anticipate that such a commission would be made up of a range of stakeholders that reflect the broad scope of mental health care, including mental health clinicians, providers, commissioners and patient and carer representatives. Furthermore, this could be supported by the creation of a net zero mental health learning community who would meet virtually and in person and share innovation, learning and best practice. The end output would be an evidence-based report or guide on how to deliver greener or net zero mental health care across different mental health care settings.