In pediatrics, we frame conversations with kids and their families about climate concerns in a way that is clear we’re concerned about their well-being, not preaching at them.
Cheryl E. Anderson, MDA Dartmouth Health Children’s pediatrician, along with a group of her colleagues, is a finalist for a national award for the Climate Informed Pediatric Care (CIPC) program. Cheryl E. Anderson, MD, working with colleagues from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and NH Healthy Climate, is among the top 10 contenders for ecoAmerica’s 2025 American Climate Leadership Awards.
CIPC addresses the growing health impacts of climate change on children, who are particularly vulnerable to its effects. Launched in 2024, this initiative builds on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ early leadership in recognizing climate change as a critical health issue. The project’s goal is to establish climate-informed care as a standard practice within pediatric clinics.
“Though it is a very real thing with very real, and potentially devastating, health impacts, climate change has become a sensitive and even political subject for many, even in the context of a healthcare provider advising their patient,” Anderson said. “In pediatrics, we frame conversations with kids and their families about climate concerns in a way that is clear we’re concerned about their well-being, not preaching at them. For example, we now have much hotter summers in New Hampshire than ever before, so we advise patients to avoid playing outside on the hottest days, or to be mindful of air quality alerts for kids with asthma and allergies.”
The CIPC team piloted an innovative intervention in seven pediatric clinics across New Hampshire. Key activities included developing and implementing a Climate Informed Care Toolkit, which provides clinicians with actionable resources to integrate climate-related health discussions into routine care, focusing on heat, extreme weather, mosquitos/ticks, air quality, and mental health. The team also created clinic-specific materials, such as posters and children’s activity workbooks, to facilitate these conversations with families.
“The CIPC project addresses the growing health impacts of climate change on children, who are particularly vulnerable to its effects and builds on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ early leadership in recognizing climate change as a critical health issue,” said Carl Cooley, MD, a member of the board of directors for NH Healthy Climate.
Learn more at nhclimatehealth.org.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children’s is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region with the first integrative medicine children’s hospital in the country. Fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored for more than 30 years by Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD) in Lebanon, NH, Dartmouth Health Children’s promotes health, advances knowledge, and delivers the best patient- and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents across New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth Health Children’s conducts groundbreaking research and educates the next generations of health professionals as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Highly skilled, inclusive, and collaborative children’s health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. A unique partnership between DH and the state of New Hampshire provides the only inpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents in the state at Hampstead Hospital. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at more than 20 locations, including all Dartmouth Health member locations, throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.