itiesRISE and Diplomatic Courier are pleased to announce the launch of a new channel, “Mental Health, Reframed: Seeking Collective Wellbeing.” The channel will feature regularly published articles on mental health and wellbeing, with a focus on providing a dynamic space for sharing ideas and inspiring positive change in how we think about and act on mental health and wellbeing.
This is aligned with citiesRISE’ vision to foster greater collaborative action and to advocate for a more holistic and integrated approach to mental health and wellbeing, especially in young people. It is also aligned with Diplomatic Courier’s institutional values, given that Diplomatic Courier’s future-focused think tank World in 2050’s five megatrends tracks individual and societal wellbeing.
citiesRISE is choosing to launch this channel now given the depth of research and best practice learnings from real world initiatives that we have compiled in collaboration with many partners since 2017. There is also a sense that mental health and wellbeing are at an inflection point in our world. Global challenges in recent years have taken their toll on global publics, and generalized anxiety about what the future holds—geopolitical tension, urbanization, climate change, the proliferation of AI, and a general fragmenting of our social fabrics—mean that mental health and wellbeing challenges are more daunting than ever. At the same time, as a global community we are coming to more readily recognize the importance of confronting these challenges so there is a will—and experts have accumulated impressive insights into how the human mind works.
There are also bright spots of innovative and transformative work in communities around the world, often driven by young people and communities themselves, that are helping us rethink our understanding of mental health and seeing it as foundational to our collective wellbeing. It is our hope that by providing this space for sharing ideas and thinking about how to bring more holistic approaches will inspire wider dialogue among readers and, more broadly, mental health and wellbeing advocates globally. We also hope to bring greater attention to non-traditional partnerships, innovations, and initiatives that are linking research and science to communities’ own wisdom and insights.
Finally, we need to take a much more holistic approach to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We have to urgently focus attention on the intersecting and interacting dimensions of life journeys of young people, which includes aspects such as meaning, hopefulness, belonging, connection to others and relationship to nature. By 2030, it is estimated that more than half of urban populations will be under the age of 18. Cities exemplify the ways that determinants over multiple levels (inner, social, and environmental) can shape mental health and wellbeing of young people, and can therefore be the places where multi-level interventions are incubated to support new ways of being and relating. We hope this channel will inspire stakeholders in cities and communities the world over —be they young leaders, policymakers, innovators, researchers, mental health professionals, funders, businesses or other interested parties—to join forces through Centered Cities, a global movement fostering inner development for collective wellbeing.
a global affairs media network
Announcing New Channel: Mental Health, Reframed
Image by Alejandro Piñero Amerio from Pixabay
October 9, 2023
citiesRISE and Diplomatic Courier are pleased to launch a new channel: "Mental Health, Reframed." In this introduction, Moitreyee Sinha explains how this channel will be dynamic space for sharing ideas and inspiring positive change in how we think about and act on mental health and wellbeing.
c
itiesRISE and Diplomatic Courier are pleased to announce the launch of a new channel, “Mental Health, Reframed: Seeking Collective Wellbeing.” The channel will feature regularly published articles on mental health and wellbeing, with a focus on providing a dynamic space for sharing ideas and inspiring positive change in how we think about and act on mental health and wellbeing.
This is aligned with citiesRISE’ vision to foster greater collaborative action and to advocate for a more holistic and integrated approach to mental health and wellbeing, especially in young people. It is also aligned with Diplomatic Courier’s institutional values, given that Diplomatic Courier’s future-focused think tank World in 2050’s five megatrends tracks individual and societal wellbeing.
citiesRISE is choosing to launch this channel now given the depth of research and best practice learnings from real world initiatives that we have compiled in collaboration with many partners since 2017. There is also a sense that mental health and wellbeing are at an inflection point in our world. Global challenges in recent years have taken their toll on global publics, and generalized anxiety about what the future holds—geopolitical tension, urbanization, climate change, the proliferation of AI, and a general fragmenting of our social fabrics—mean that mental health and wellbeing challenges are more daunting than ever. At the same time, as a global community we are coming to more readily recognize the importance of confronting these challenges so there is a will—and experts have accumulated impressive insights into how the human mind works.
There are also bright spots of innovative and transformative work in communities around the world, often driven by young people and communities themselves, that are helping us rethink our understanding of mental health and seeing it as foundational to our collective wellbeing. It is our hope that by providing this space for sharing ideas and thinking about how to bring more holistic approaches will inspire wider dialogue among readers and, more broadly, mental health and wellbeing advocates globally. We also hope to bring greater attention to non-traditional partnerships, innovations, and initiatives that are linking research and science to communities’ own wisdom and insights.
Finally, we need to take a much more holistic approach to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We have to urgently focus attention on the intersecting and interacting dimensions of life journeys of young people, which includes aspects such as meaning, hopefulness, belonging, connection to others and relationship to nature. By 2030, it is estimated that more than half of urban populations will be under the age of 18. Cities exemplify the ways that determinants over multiple levels (inner, social, and environmental) can shape mental health and wellbeing of young people, and can therefore be the places where multi-level interventions are incubated to support new ways of being and relating. We hope this channel will inspire stakeholders in cities and communities the world over —be they young leaders, policymakers, innovators, researchers, mental health professionals, funders, businesses or other interested parties—to join forces through Centered Cities, a global movement fostering inner development for collective wellbeing.
