Mental Health and Recovery in the Urban Setting: Brescia and the San Polo District

Urban settings have been historically associated with an increase ofmental illness, in contrast with more rural environments. Also the de-institutionalisation of mental healthcare has seen the coming-back to town of former psychiatric hospital inpatients, initiating other forms of seclusion associated with stigma and self-stigma and stimulating the activation of several community-based initiatives. This chapter reviews the city-mental health relationship, introducing the specific case of Brescia in Italy, and the work of a operative unity for psychiatry—UOP23—leading a transformational project in the San Polo district.