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I've given multiple talks about initiatives I've started to address winter mental health. Cities play a massive role in creating spaces that support wellbeing. The burden shouldn't be put on individuals; "planning" should be left to the governments that shape our environments. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1321109692526043136
Here's one: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2017/02/03/a-bright-idea-for-beating-the-winter-blues.html
Here's another one: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/11/10/edmonton-snowball-fight_n_6135644.html
When cities choose to remove cycling infrastructure because it's winter, they're removing a lifeline for their residents. In so many ways.
Give people the spaces they need to stay well. https://robinmazumder.com/2019/02/20/how-winter-cycling-saved-my-mental-health/
Give people the spaces they need to stay well. https://robinmazumder.com/2019/02/20/how-winter-cycling-saved-my-mental-health/
Capitalism wants you to internalize your struggles so it can then sell you the solutions. My mission as an environmental neuroscientist (and former mental health clinician) is to use my expertise & lived experience to expose & understand these pernicious environmental pressures.
I want to understand how social and physical environments affect people, not to then tell people how to change, but rather to do research that helps decision makers understand what we need to change about the environments themselves to support wellbeing. So much more is possible.
You know what else is possible? Sidewalk snow clearance. Another impediment to pandemic winter wellbeing is the stress and lack of access caused by impassible sidewalks. It's an issue of human rights and disproportionately affects the vulnerable. https://robinmazumder.com/2019/03/01/sidewalk-snow-clearance-is-a-human-rights-issue/
Hopefully this thread is useful to decision makers. You can make simple, cost-effective changes that will help make your cities more supportive of the wellbeing of residents at a time when we need every ounce of joy we can scrounge up.
Your work is so important.
Your work is so important.
