Making cities mental health friendly for adolescents and young adults. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38383777/)

These scientists wanted to understand how living in a city can affect the mental health of young people. They knew that cities can offer many good things like access to healthcare, education, and job opportunities, but they can also have negative effects on mental health. With more and more young people living in cities, the scientists wanted to figure out how to make cities better for their mental well-being.

To do this, the scientists asked a group of researchers, practitioners, advocates, and young people from different parts of the world to answer surveys about what makes a city good for young people's mental health. They looked at different aspects like personal development, relationships with others, community spaces, job opportunities, urban planning, and social issues that can affect mental health.

The results showed that things like teaching life skills, respecting young people's ideas, providing safe places to socialize, ensuring job security, involving young people in city planning, and addressing social problems were important for creating a city that supports youth mental health. The study also looked at how the COVID-19 pandemic affected young people's mental health and suggested ways to help based on the survey results.

Overall, the study showed that cities need to make changes in different areas and involve everyone in the process to create a city that is good for young people's mental health.

Collins PY., Sinha M., Concepcion T., Patton G., Way T., McCay L., Mensa-Kwao A., Herrman H., de Leeuw E., Anand N., Atwoli L., Bardikoff N., Booysen C., Bustamante I., Chen Y., Davis K., Dua T., Foote N., Hughsam M., Juma D., Khanal S., Kumar M., Lefkowitz B., McDermott P., Moitra M., Ochieng Y., Omigbodun O., Queen E., Unutzer J., Uribe-Restrepo JM., Wolpert M., Zeitz L. Making cities mental health friendly for adolescents and young adults. Nature. 2024 Feb 21. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-07005-4.