Click here to read the legislative language of the "Resilience for All Act of 2021"

Click here to read the detailed description of the "Resilience for All Act of 2021"

Click here to read the "Model Policy" for Use by Cities, States, and Other Nations

Why the Need for the "Resilience for All Act of 2021"?

A public health and prevention science approach is urgently needed to buildand sustain mental wellness and resilience within the entire population for the accelerating human-caused and environmentally-generated emergencies, disasters, and toxic stresses people experience today. The global climate emergency will add to these adversities because global temperatures will, in the not too distant future, rise above the 2.7 F (1.5C) temperature threshold scientists say will greatly accelerate very harmful and likely irreversible impacts.

Left unaddressed, the cascading disruptions to the ecological, social, and economic systems people rely on for food, water, shelter, jobs, incomes, health, safety, and other basic needs will be intermixed with more frequent, extreme, and prolonged disasters and produce mental health and psychosocial problems far beyond anything modern society has ever experienced.

The harmful psychological, emotional, and behavioral reactions will profoundly affect daily functioning, and threaten everyone's health, safety, and wellbeing. They are also likely to cause people to withdraw into a self-protective survival mode that makes it very difficult to do what is needed to cut emissions and reduce the climate emergency to manageable levels.

Individually-focused mental health therapy, direct human service, and disaster mental health programs will remain important. However, they assist people only after they experience symptoms of pathology. Further, they do not build the skills, strengths, resources, hope, and other protective factors that are vital to help the entire population prevent and heal mental health and psychosocial problems. This means they cannot help millions of people prevent or heal from the coming tsunami of mental health and psychosocial problems. A new vision and new approach are urgently needed to "future-proof" psychological and emotional wellbeing.

Elements of the "Resilience for All Act of 2021."

The "Resilience for All Act of 2021" makes the prevention and healing of mental health and psychosocial problems through whole-community approaches a national priority. It establishes an Office of Mental Wellness and Resilience in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to oversee and support this approach. It also establishes a grant program operated by the new CDC office to fund community-based, age and culturally-appropriate initiatives that enhance the capacity for mental wellness and resilience for a wide range of psychological and emotional distresses and traumas within the entire population.

The enabling social infrastructure of the approach is the formation of a Resilience Coordinating Council (RCC) in every community (or region in rural areas) of the nation. Its purpose is to bring together a broad and diverse set of uncommon partners to co-create, implement, and continually improve innovative age and culturally-appropriate actions that:

a) Teach everyone--all adults and youth--mental wellness and resilience information and skills and help them discover and build personal and collective skills, strengths, resources, hope, and other vital protective factors;

b) Establish and connect strong social support networks across boundaries in the community (or region);

c) Empower residents to take responsibility for mental wellness and resilience in their neighborhood;

d) Develop economic, physical/built, and natural environments in the communities that support mental wellness and resilience;

e) Establish healing circles, arts and dance programs, and other venues that allow resildents to share their trauma stories in safe and supportive environments and heal their distress;

f) Engage local organizations of all types in the adoption of principles and practices that enhance the capacity for mental wellness and resilience among their employees, customers, clients, and stakeholders;

g) Build collective efficacy by altering unsafe, unhealthy, and unjust social norms and creating a local culture that enables people to safely overcome distressing event and find meaning, purpose, and hope in the midst of ongoing adversities;

h) Identify and refer people to mental health clinicians who, after participating in community-based mental wellness and resilience building activities still cannot function or are at risk of harming themselves or others.

The approach authorized by the "Resilience for All Act of 2021" (RFA) was developed after two years of intensive research into initiatives throughout the U.S. and worldwide that built mental wellness and resilience for ongoing, cumultative adversities. The RFA will therefore help prevent and heal many types of mental health and psycho-social-spiritual problems including those generated by human-caused disasters such as school shootings, community violence, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), as well as environmentally-generated disasters like the COVID-19 Pandemic, wiildfires, heat waves, floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and more.

Go to the links above to read the "Resilience for All Act of 2021".

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Click here to read the article.

The articlecan be found here:https://undark.org/2021/06/24/climate-emergency-calls-for-new-approach-to-mental-health/

Click here to read "Pandemic and Climate Solutions Will Fail Without A Major Focus on Mental Health"

Click Here for Slides From: Introduction to Transfomtional Resilience for Climate Traumas, Toxic Stresses and other Emergencies

Here for Slides From: The Resilient GrowthModel^TM for Building Transformational Resilience for Climate Traumas, Toxic Stresses, and Other Emergencies

Click Here for Slides From: Building a Culture of Transformational Resilience Within Communities forClimate Traumas, Toxic Stresses, and Other Emergencies

The recomendations begin with utilizing established networks, or organizing a new "Resilience Coordinating Council" (RCC), in every community/region to collaboratively plan and implement interventions to prevent and heal pandemic-generated mental health and psychosocial problems.

The goals of the RCC include:

o Develop ongoing communications and decision-making among multiple organizational and individual stakeholders focused on building psychological wellness and resilience.

o Continually assess mental health and psychosocial conditions, develop needs assessments, and identify gaps in support services.

o Use the analysis to develop an action plan that closes the gaps and builds population-wide psychological wellness and resilience, with a special emphasis on high-risk groups.

o Establish protocols to ensure fairness and social equity and community-owned and managed engagement in all interventions.

o Implement interventions including disseminating both Presencing and Purposing information to the public, psychological wellness and resilience skill-training for first-responders local leaders, neighborhood and block-level social networking, and more.

o Regularly evaluate progress, improve interventions, and advocate for local needs.

After the pandemic ends, integrate the approach into local culture, programs, and policies.

Click here to see the complete recommendations.

Issues Call to Action for all mental health, public health, education, social justice, climate, faith and other leaders to rapidly build psychological and psycho-social-spiritual--or transformational--resilience.

To read the 1 page summary of theCall to Action click here

To read the complete Call to Action click here

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In response to the personal and collective traumas caused by Hurricane Dorian, and as a follow up to the U.S. Call to Action in Climate, Health, and Equity priority 9 to build resilient communities, the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC)* today called on mental health, public health, ACEs, education, social justice, climate, emergency response, faith and other leaders to rapidly build psychological and psycho-social-spiritual--or Transformational Resilience--to prevent climate traumas.

The ITRC said that swiftly slashing greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning to a clean renewable energy economy, protecting and restoring forests and other ecosystems that sequester carbon, adapting physical infrastructure, and strengthening disaster mental health programs must be top priorities.

With the disasters and toxic stresses generating by the climate crisis accelerating, however, it is equally important and urgent now to help all individuals, groups, and communities learn Transformational Resilience information and skills to build their capacity to constructively cope with climate adversities and use them as powerful catalysts to increase personal, social, and ecological wellbeing.

"The horrific destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian is yet another example of how climate disasters are producing widespread childhood, adult, cultural, and intergenerational traumas," said Bob Doppelt, ITRC Coordinator. "Even if emissions are rapidly reduced, the number of individuals and groups traumatized by climate disasters and toxic stresses will accelerate for decades to come.

"Prevention is the only viable solution given the scope and intensity of the mental health and psycho-social-spiritual impacts that lie ahead. We must quickly make preventative Transformational Resilience education and skills-training available to all adults and youth.

"We ask individuals and organizations to endorse our Call to Action, get informed, and become involved in building universal capacity for Transformational Resilience," concluded Doppelt.

On November 9, 2019, ITRC coordinator Bob Doppelt ran a webinar for the ACEs Connection Network on how to integrate Transformational Resilience into efforts to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Click here to see and listen to the webinar.

Coalition Report Says People on the West Coast MustBe Prepared for the Rising Psychological and Psycho-Social-Spiritual Impacts of Climate Change

Click here to see the January 8, 2019 media release for the report with quotes from ITRC members

Click here to see the Executive Summary and full report

Click here to see examples of human resilience building programs underway on the west coast

ITRC Coordinator Bob Doppelt Interviewed by Awakening Joy Founder James Baraz

James Baraz has taught mindfulness meditation since 1978 and is co-founder of the world-reknowned Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. He is co-author of two booksAwakening Joy: 10 Steps to Happiness andAwakening Joyfor Kids. James has taught theAwakening Joycourse to over 15,000 people. James and Bob Doppelt have known each other for over 30 years and lead retreats together at Spirit Rock. James Interviewed Bob as part of his "Conversations with the Wise" series. The interview can be found here:https://awakeningjoy.info/conversationsDoppelt.php