“More broadly, I prioritise living a meaningful life where I am making a difference. Lots of self-help advice is very self-focused – such as the ‘Let Them’ theory – which flies in the face of the research that the best self-help is probably ‘other-help’ [from others]. Research shows people get joy from both altruistic activities and talking to strangers – and more enjoyment than they expect.”
Hybrid Green Spaces in psychiatric intensive care units offer a transformative approach to mental healthcare environments, addressing tensions between therapeutic intent and institutional control. Drawing on our CAMHS PICU case, we demonstrate how (co)produced biodiverse outdoor spaces can actively mediate challenges across risk management, spatial production, and power dynamics.
These spaces foster relationships between human and ecological wellbeing, promoting what we call Ecological Collective Flourishing. By supporting staff wellbeing, creating moments of shared stewardship, and expanding therapeutic possibilities such interventions show that even highly controlled clinical settings can accommodate nature-based programmes safely and meaningfully.
We argue that these hybrid spaces hold significant potential for broader application across psychiatric services, supporting patient-centred care goals, institutional resilience, and environmental sustainability. Our case challenges assumptions about what is possible in secure mental health settings, offering a replicable model for integrating nature-based approaches into psychiatric care without compromising safety protocols.
In 2023 almost 25% of American adults ate every meal alone on a given day, up from 17% in 2003; among under-30s the share has nearly doubled. That pattern probably holds across much of the rich world, says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the editors of the World Happiness Report, an annual UN-backed study.
The consequences are measurable. Around one in six people worldwide is lonely, reckons the World Health Organisation. In 22 European countries the share of people who said they were “never lonely” fell from 59% in 2018 to 51% in 2022. The latest World Happiness Report found that across countries and ages, how often people share meals predicts life satisfaction almost as strongly as relative income or employment status.
Neighbourhood variation in socioeconomic deprivation is recognised as a small but meaningful determinant of adolescent mental health, yet the mechanisms through which the effects operate remain poorly understood. This study used #BeeWell survey data collected from adolescents in Greater Manchester (England) in 2021–2023 (life satisfaction: N = 27,009; emotional difficulties: N = 26,461). Through Latent Growth Mixture Modelling, we identified four non-linear trajectories of life satisfaction (Consistently High (71.0%), Improving (8.7%), Deteriorating (6.3%), and Consistently Low (13.9%); entropy = 0.66) and three non-linear trajectories of emotional difficulties (Low/Lessening (53.7%), Sub-Clinical (38.3%), and Elevated/Worsening (8.0%); entropy = 0.61). Using a multi-level mediation framework we assessed (1) whether neighbourhood deprivation predicted trajectory class membership and (2) the extent to which effects of deprivation operate through aspects of Community Wellbeing, as measured by the Co-op Community Wellbeing Index (CWI). Greater deprivation increased the odds of following Deteriorating (OR = 1.081, [1.023, 1.12]) and Consistently Low (OR = 1.084, [1.051, 1.119]) life satisfaction trajectories and reduced the odds of following a Sub-Clinical emotional difficulties trajectory (OR = 0.975, [0.954, 0.996]). Mediation analyses revealed that the effects of deprivation on Consistently Low life satisfaction partially operate through Equality (ab = 0.016, [0.002, 0.029]) and Housing, Space, and Environment (ab = −0.026, [−0.046, −0.006]). Further indirect effects were observed for Housing, Space, and Environment, which reduced likelihood of Sub-Clinical emotional difficulties for those living in deprived neighbourhoods (ab = −0.026, [−0.045, −0.008]). The findings highlight the distinct effects of neighbourhood deprivation on affective and evaluative domains of adolescent mental health and the protective effect of housing and related environmental factors in disadvantaged contexts, advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning neighbourhood effects on dual-state adolescent mental health.
According to Dr Michael Plant, a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, “One of the most interesting lessons from happiness research is that we’re often wrong about what will make us happy, so we go after the wrong things – it’s called ‘miswanting’.” It’s why, he says, we’ve all had the experience of trying something new and being pleasantly surprised.
Investing in employee wellbeing could boost the global economy by $11.7 trillion, according to the Forum’s Thriving Workplaces report.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the spotlight on mental health and wellbeing at work, but one expert says “the pendulum is swinging back” now.
Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at Oxford University, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, spoke with Radio Davos to explain why workplace wellbeing matters.
Prof Paul Behrens (Oxford), Reapra Senior Research Fellow at the Wellbeing Research Centre, shared findings on the implications of climate change on wellbeing at the latest of the Wellbeing Research Centre’s Seminar Series.
His research includes an overview of major integrated environment–society–economy (ESE) models, and how they all fail to account for human wellbeing.
Watch the full presentation on the Centre’s YouTube channel.
Sachintha Fernando (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) presented findings on climate worries at the latest of the Wellbeing Research Centre’s Seminar Series.
Her research compares levels of worry about unemployment and climate change, and the capacity for people to care about more than one issue from their ‘finite pool of worry’.
Watch the full presentation on the Centre’s YouTube channel.
Sam Harris speaks with Michael Plant about the philosophy of happiness and effective altruism. They discuss the nature of well-being, Nozick’s “Experience Machine” thought experiment, the validity of self-reported happiness data, the conflict between the experiencing self and the remembering self, Derek Parfit’s “Repugnant Conclusion,” the disconnect between moral intentions and consequences, why treating depression is more impactful than cash, the massive disparities in charitable impact, the potential effects of AI on human flourishing, the meaning crisis in a post-work future, and other topics.
