The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health (UD/MH) is an international think tank focused on answering one question: how can we design better mental health into our cities?

Mental illness accounts for 14 per cent of the global burden of disease, and one in four people will experience mental health problems in their lifetime. Good population mental health is essential for a thriving, resilient, sustainable city. Yet urban living is not only associated with stress and loneliness but also with substantially elevated rates of depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. Planners and designers are only just starting to understand their huge potential opportunities for impact and value in designing for good mental health.

UD/MH launched in 2015 in response to the need for increasing global knowledge at the nexus of urban design and mental health. With fellows and associates around the world, UD/MH brings together diverse evidence, promotes strategic research, catalyses conversations, and develops practical guidelines to inspire and empower policymakers, planners and designers to systematically integrate public mental health into their work.

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