Teach to Reach 11: Local action to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis on health

Bridging the gap in climate and health How do you ensure patients receive care when floods wash away roads? What happens when a heatwave threatens local water supplies? Official guidelines tell you what to do about climate-related health issues. However, they rarely capture the daily reality of caring for your community during extreme weather. The global health system has often treated local health workers merely as data collectors or passive recipients of protocols. A new way to value frontline knowledge In July 2023, The Geneva Learning Foundation first responded to frightening observations of the impacts of cliamte change on health, shared by health workers in its global network. This new compilation builds on that ongoing work. This collection embraces a different understanding of knowledge. The most vital, practical knowledge is created in action at the local level. This resource honors the practitioner as a legitimate creator of evidence. The experiences shared here were distilled from the voluntary contributions of thousands of your peers. They wanted to help their colleagues by sharing their own struggles and the ideas they tried on the ground. This collection is an offering to the community. It is not meant to replace official protocols or provide universal answers. Instead, these experiences offer inspiration and new perspectives that you can critically adapt to fit the unique circumstances of your own community. Every context is different. Your role is to use these insights to spark your own thinking about what might work in your setting. Inside this collection of thematic summaries The compilation is organized into thematic summaries that group together the collective wisdom of practitioners. Here are just a few examples of the themes and stories you will find inside: You will read how your fellow health workers have mobilized local resources to maintain care during severe floods and infrastructure collapse. One health worker shared: “When the water destroyed our clinic, we did not wait for help that might never come. We moved the essential medicines to higher ground and set up a temporary post in the school.” Teams describe their approaches to working with community leaders to prevent infectious disease outbreaks following extreme weather events. Peers share their strategies for tracking vulnerable patients when the climate shifts local disease patterns. A local nurse noted: “The heat is bringing malaria to villages that never had it before. We are teaching mothers how to identify the signs early because the official protocols do not reflect our new reality yet.” Health workers explain their efforts to help communities secure safe drinking water and manage food shortages during prolonged droughts. A call by and for health workers to reflect and adapt These stories come from health workers who experience the realities you face because they live and work in similar conditions. They know what it means to balance limited resources with the growing health threats caused by climate change. Use these experiences to reflect on your own challenges and consider new approaches for your important work. Let these insights from your peers inspire fresh thinking about how you might protect and strengthen your own community.