Jenny Van Bekkum
Contribution to WP 3,
Research Fellow, Investigating the impact of urban nature on mental health and wellbeing
Jenny van Bekkum is a Daphne Jackson Trust Research Fellow, funded by Medical Research Scotland, based within the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on exploring the relationship between nature and human wellbeing, with a particular emphasis on how nature-rich environments can support and enhance mental health across diverse populations.
Jenny is leading a metasynthesis review to identify the causal factors in the nature-wellbeing relationship alongside developing guidelines for green social prescribing and therapeutic nature programmes, which will be developed using co-production methods. She is also supporting the evaluation of a green social prescribing scheme for individuals experiencing homelessness, and a population-level case study to assess the wellbeing effects of urban park improvements. Prior to her current post Jenny completed a PhD in health psychology at the University of Edinburgh, which focussed on developing and trialling a behaviour change intervention. She went on to take an MRC Career Development Fellowship within the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at Glasgow University, researching the role of public participation in medical research
