Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in light of the new cultural geography

223

168

Recent research suggests coastal environments may promote human health and wellbeing. This article explores the diverse coastal experiences sought out by residents of two towns in south west England to promote and preserve their personal wellbeing in the context of their everyday lives. It draws on the findings of an in-depth interpretive study conducted from May to November 2013 that examined the relative contribution of varied green and blue space experiences to individual wellbeing through the life course. Personalised activity maps produced using accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data were used to guide in-depth geo-narrative interviews with a purposive sample of 33 participants. This was combined with a subset of nine case study go-along interviews in places deemed therapeutic by the participants themselves, offering deeper insight into the lived experiences and relationships playing out within such places. Situated in a novel adaptation of the therapeutic landscapes framework, this article explores how symbolic, achievement-oriented, immersive and social experiences contributed to participants' sense of wellbeing in their local coastal areas.Participants expressed particularly strong and often enduring connections to the local coastline, with different coastal stretches perceived to cater for varied therapeutic needs and interests, at multiple scales and intensities. The findings suggest the need for greater acknowledgement of people's emotional, deeply embodied and often shared connections to the coast within coastal management policy and practice, both nationally and internationally. Importantly, such efforts should recognise the fluid, dynamic nature of this land-sea boundary, and the valued therapeutic experiences linked to this fluidity.

Section: Symbolic Therapeutic Experiences At the Coastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking everyday wellbeing: The coast as a therapeutic landscape

Bell

Phoenix

Lovell

et al. 2015

223

168

“…Our use of the term 'therapeutic landscape' diverges from Gesler's (1992) original formulation, to mean health-inducing places, and instead draws on Leach et al's (2008Leach et al's ( :2158 definition: 'the field of available forms of health provision as experienced, understood and constructed through practice by the population that live with them' (see also Madge, 1998). We extend the concept to include virtual, as well as physical, landscapes.…”

Section: Shifting Therapeutic Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of the reach of children? Young people’s health-seeking practices and agency in Africa’s newly-emerging therapeutic landscapes

Hampshire¹,

Porter²,

Owusu³

et al. 2011

Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Social science medicine. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in Social science medicine, 73/5, 2011, 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.035 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN? YOUNG PEOPLE'S HEALTH-SEEKING AGENCY IN AFRICA'S NEWLY-EMERGING THERAPEUTIC LANDSCAPES AbstractDespite a dominant view within Western biomedicine that children and medicines should be kept apart, a growing literature suggests that children and adolescents (in both Western and developing-country contexts) often take active roles in healthseeking. Here, we consider young people's health-seeking practices in Ghana: a country with a rapidly changing therapeutic landscape, characterised by the recent introduction of health insurance, mass advertising of medicines, and increased use of mobile phones. Qualitative and quantitative data are presented from eight field-sites in urban and rural Ghana, including 131 individual interviews, focus groups, plus a questionnaire survey of 1005 9-to-17-year-olds. We show that many young people take active responsibility for their own (and others') healthcare. However, there is substantial variation in healthseeking practices and associated agency; these processes are shaped by (and also shape) resources available, including economic, social, cultural, psychological, informational and locational forms of capital. Dynamic interactions between resources and healthseeking agency operate within a wider, rapidly-changing therapeutic landscape, which has opened access to a greater range of healthcare possibilities. We conclude by considering implications for health and wellbeing, and suggest possible interventions for facilitating young people to seek healthcare safely and effectively.

“…The most prominent contributor to this research direction is Wilbert Gelser, who developed the notion of`therapeutic landscape' (Gesler, 1992) and subsequently analysed settings which, for environmental, individual and societal reasons, are considered to have restorative qualities (Gesler, 1993(Gesler, , 1996(Gesler, , 1998. His analysis of`landscapes associated with treatment or healing ' (1992, pp.…”

Section: Therapeutic Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing on the cultural ecology tradition, Gesler (1992) observes that mineral springs, for example, have been ascribed restorative powers since at least the times of the Ancient Greeks. Further, those springs which have been developed into spas have typically been situated in naturally beautiful settings such as Bath, England (Gesler, 1998) or in small towns promoted as unpolluted and free from the pressures of urban life such as Hot Springs, South Dakota (Geores, 1998).…”

Section: Therapeutic Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Zealand children’s health camps: therapeutic landscapes meet the contract state

Kearns

Collins

2000

This paper surveys the history and current status of children's health camps in New Zealand, and places these sites within the theoretical context of therapeutic landscapes. The ®rst health camp was established in 1919, and the seven current camps provide respite, education and health care for approximately 4000 children each year. We analyse the health-place relations inherent in the health camp concept and suggest that the`therapeutic landscape' idea developed by Gesler provides a useful framework to explain the development of camps as sites for enhancing child and family welfare. Speci®cally, we contend that changing understandings of health and children have been closely linked with changing perceptions of what is therapeutic about the camps. Survey data demonstrate that contemporary restructuring of the welfare state has recast the role of health camps and placed them in a precarious position in terms of both ®nancial viability and public acceptability. We conclude that the current status of health camps is ambiguous given the pressures of deinstitutionalisation philosophies and the regulatory environment of formal contracts between funders and providers. 7