Climate-sensitive health counselling for Planetary Health: Adapting a conceptual framework to local healthcare conditions in Accra, Ghana

Healthcare professionals are in a unique societal position that enables them to act as change agents in the required transformation towards climate change mitigation and adaptation, through climate-sensitive health counselling (CSHC). As most studies on the topic come from high-income countries, we conducted a stakeholder workshop in Accra, Ghana, to adapt a framework to the local context.The climate crisis poses significant threats to human and planetary health, leading to increased demands for health services due to both direct and indirect impacts on health outcomes. This work explores the role of primary healthcare providers in addressing climate-sensitive health challenges in urban Ghana, beginning with a scoping review of the existing literature to identify the role of healthcare providers as responders and change agents. Following preexisting frameworks, we propose an adapted framework for climate-sensitive health counselling, which was complemented through stakeholder consultations. The framework fulfils two functions: first, it outlines primary healthcare consultation needs regarding climate-sensitive health challenges and healthcare resource demands in Accra. And second, it supports healthcare providers and educators in conceptualising approaches and interventions to respond to intensifying climate injustice on various systemic levels and support planetary health understanding.