The mental health impacts of human-ecosystem-animal relationships: A systematic scoping review of Eco-, Planetary, and One Health approaches

The threats to human and animal health, biodiversity conservation, and our living planet's future are ever-present and increasingly more severe due to climate change and environmental degradation. There is an emerging discourse exploring the mental health dimensions contained within these changes. To better understand and respond to these impacts requires novel and creative methodological approaches built on conceptual frameworks that integrate perspectives from the social and natural sciences. Three of the most influential interdisciplinary frameworks at the human-animal-ecosystem interface include: One Health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health. These frameworks report mental health as an integral component within overall health-related outcomes. However, a comprehensive synthesis of the state of the literature that examines how mental health is explored within these approaches does not currently exist. A systematic scoping review was therefore conducted to obtain clear understandings of patterns, gaps, and broad themes, and to highlight future research needs and considerations. Standardized PRISMA guidelines, including explicitly defined inclusion/exclusion criteria and dual screening/extractions, were used. 13 papers were included: seven using the One Health Framework, with Planetary and EcoHealth each represented by three. Trends observed include a predominate focus on companion animals as interventions, “sense of place” used as a component of mental well-being, and non-physical health-related measurements of animal well-being as an outcome within One Health research. The lack in retrieved studies also highlight the dearth in literature on mental health as a pillar of these three well established frameworks. Compiling what is known in the evidence-base as a launching point for scientific engagement, this review describes guidance for investigators on how to conduct mental health research within these framework parameters so that future studies can elucidate mechanisms underpinning the intersections between the biosphere and human mental-health and data-driven interventions and policy recommendations that simultaneously address mental health and global change can be proposed and enacted.