How can we help people thrive in an urban environment and reduce the burden of mental disorders like depression, addiction and anxiety?

At the Centre for Urban Mental Health, researchers from different fields use the tools of complexity science to identify new pathways to improve mental health in the city. For example, we investigate the relationship between early life stress, the gut microbiome and mental wellbeing or the dynamics of ageism, loneliness and mental wellbeing for urban elderly.

Our mission is to find new pathways that can be targeted with interventions to improve urban mental health that take into account the complexity and dynamics of mental health problems and mental health disorders in an urban environment. 

Art by Reinout Wiers

A reflection on and interpretation of the poem by Rolf Jacobsen.

film social connection kopie.mov

A film on Social Connection in Young

This video accompanies a 2022 paper by Josefien Breedvelt and Claudi Bockting (UMH) together with a number of reputable international colleagues: The effects of neighbourhood social cohesion on preventing depression and anxiety among adolescents and young adults: rapid review.

This video and the research were funded by the Wellcome Trust's Mental Health Priority Area as part of their Active Ingredients Commission. The video was made by Wellcome Trust in collaboration with the Centre for Urban Mental Health, and is owned by Wellcome Trust.