From Salon?..
Remember all that buzz about how the length of your commute affects your happiness? ?A person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office,? wrote Jonah Lehrer, God rest his soul, in 2010. (Can probably assume that wasn?t a Bob Dylan quote!) Turns out going to work not only stinks, it leaves psychological scars.
The studies were treated as a revelation, but why? We?re all well aware that our surroundings ? maniacal bosses, dreary weather, cable news ? mess with our heads. And yet, we haven?t historically made mental well-being a lodestar when it comes to urban design. ?We?re at the point where we?re just getting people to think about the mental health implications of the urban environment,? says Lynn Todman.
Todman, an urban planner, is the principal investigator behind a new report that establishes a Mental Health Impact Assessment for her field. To be presented at a conference in Chicago next month called ?The Social Determinants of Urban Mental Health,? the MHIA will codify ways that cities can build for happier, mentally healthier residents.
For years, cities have conducted Health Impact Assessments (minus the ?Mental?) to make sure developments and infrastructure decisions don?t harm residents? physical health. ?But almost never something like depression or ADHD,? says Todman. Which is odd, when you think about how much energy is expended correcting mental health problems, and how those problems come back to haunt cities.
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