Each day, healthcare professionals help patients whose lives are impacted by climate change because of poor air quality, nutrition and food insecurity, food-, water-, and vector-borne diseases, mental health issues, and much more. These issues disproportionately affect low-income individuals, some communities of color, and those with higher vulnerability to disease and chronic health conditions.

And it’s only going to get worse unless something’s done, and quickly.

Health practitioners can discover ways to leverage their influence and expertise to support the transition to climate-smart healthcare through advocacy, education, research, and clinical practice on April 6 at “Reducing the Impact of Climate Change on Health: The Role of Health Care Professionals,” a day-long symposium held on the campus of MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston.

Gina McCarthy, former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator from 2013-2017 in the Obama Administration and currently the director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is the event’s keynote speaker. Her talk will be followed by several healthcare experts who will lead the audience in robust discussions leading to tangible steps to improve the lives of patients. These discussions will include identifying the risks of health climate change, advocating for climate/environmental justice, and mitigating the impact of climate change on health and well-being.

The symposium is presented by the MGH Institute of Health Professions Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health - the first-of-its-kind, nurse-led initiative created to address ways all healthcare professionals can respond to the impact of climate change. The Center’s eleven faculty members have published books and articles on climate change and presented at national and international conferences.