Professor launches first happiness studies master's program

The University of Arizona's Commitment to Underserved People (CUP) program operates 12 student-run free clinics that provide comprehensive medical, mental health, and social support services to Tucson's unhoused and uninsured residents. In 2024 they served 525 patients while simultaneously training the next generation of community-minded physicians.

Findcenter, an online platform offering free articles, podcasts, videos, and workshops focused on emotional health and self-development, launched a library of content designed to help college students who face high rates of anxiety and other mental health concerns. Students at Nigeria's Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, who have limited access to in-person therapy services, say the resource has helped them find some stability and relief.

Feeling isolated often leads to increased feelings of loneliness, but is also a reason why new meet-ups such as Tea With Strangers are becoming widely used as a solution. Based on the idea that strangers can become more like neighbors, these gatherings promote conversation and connection with the goal of reducing isolation.

People who experience trauma in their early childhood are at a higher likelihood of experiencing chronic pain in later years, which often goes untreated. However, emotional awareness and expression therapy, which combines talk therapy with cognitive behavioral therapy, has shown significant success in treating those suffering from this health issue.

We Love Reading, an organization backed by UNICEF and USAID, works with all of Jordan's Syrian refugee camps and one of Ethiopia's South Sudanese camps to use storytelling as a tool for psychological healing. It started in 2006 out of Amman, Jordan, and has since gained respect with children specialists and international aid organizations. We Love Reading works on the premise that story time boosts healthy development by giving children the courage and language to speak about what they are going through.

For many youth in India, illegal drugs are readily available, but rehab is socially stigmatized, government resources and information for narcotics are sparse, and there are few options for a user looking to get clean. A group of people in recovery in Sikkim has formed a football team as a means to recover, finding social support and exercise that is proven to aid in sustainable rehabilitation from drug use.

Across the United States, the use of administrative segregation is being rethought and reduced, as study after study shows it’s link to higher rates of violence and recidivism. At Maine State Prison, over the course of six years, the number of people in solitary went from 100 to 8, while also seeing a decline in fights, use of weapons, and emergency room transportation in the prison’s general population. The prison has instead started implementing individualized mental health programming and structured living units – opting to implement rehabilitation over punitive measures.

Mississippians who receive earned probation for crimes that do not carry a death sentence or involve deadly weapons will now have access to high-school equivalency education, alcohol and drug counseling, re-entry and employment services—and perhaps, most importantly, "Thinking for a Change," an evidence-based cognitive behavioral-therapy program.

Black communities are often left without adequate counseling services when faced with racial trauma, but clinical psychologists are working to address this. So far, solutions include opening clinics that specialize in African-American mental health and social media campaigns focused on normalizing conversations around mental health awareness in the Black community.

Police can work better with young people if they understand more about how their brains work. Young people can deal better with police if they understand more about their jobs, and the law. New training and techniques aim to improve those relationships. Some are already being used in Cleveland, and others are on the way.