Lauro Miranda Demenech

Lauro Miranda Demenech is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Brazil, where he serves as Head of the Graduate Program in Psychology. His research focuses on the social determinants of mental health, with particular attention to how social, economic, and institutional contexts shape university students’ mental health. He coordinates the research consortium Health and Wellness of Undergraduate Students (SABES-Grad), one of the largest and longest-running studies on student mental health in Brazil.

At DRCLAS, Demenech’s project seeks to address the mental health crisis in higher education in Brazil. His work focuses on developing innovative strategies to overcome resource constraints in mental health care delivery and reduce the growing burden of mental health problems among university students. In collaboration with the Mental Health for All Lab at Harvard Medical School, Demenech aims to design, implement, and evaluate an intervention based on task-sharing models of care delivered by non-specialist community resources.

Demenech holds a BA in Psychology, an MSc in Public Health, and a PhD in Health Sciences. He is a member of the Brazilian National Mental Health Network (RENASAM). In his recent article, “Student mental health is in crisis—here’s how to help” (Nature, 2026), he highlights the global mental health crisis in universities and calls for coordinated action from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. His work is driven by a commitment to understanding and addressing mental health inequalities in higher education.