The geography of mental health.

Abstract

This Editorial takes a social science perspective of the geography of mental health, drawing upon the work of professional geographers with an interest in mental health and mental health care service provision. The academic discipline of Geography is broadly defined as “the study of the earth’s surface as the space within which the human population lives” (Haggett, 1990). This all-inclusive definition, which basically includes everything that occurs both in the natural and human world, often results in the allegation that professional geographers are basically ‘jack of all trades, and master of none!’ However, in this Editorial I aim to demonstrate that geographers actually have much to offer to mental health research, both in terms of their social science research expertise and their particular ‘geographical’ view of the world. I hope to illustrate the benefits of including a geographical perspective in mental health services research to assist us in studying both the spatial patterns of mental illhealth, and the geographical distribution of mental health services and facilities at different spatial scales (local, regional, national, global). Geographers (myself included) believe that ‘Geography matters’ when we ask research questions such as ‘Why is there a concentration of people with mental health problems living in this district of City A’? or ‘Why does Client A living in City A have access to services X, Y and Z, but Client B living in City B only has access to service Z’? Rather than simply observing spatial patterns, geographers seek to explore and interrelate the epidemiological, demographic, social, economic, political and spatial relationships which underpin phenomenon such as changing patterns of psychiatric service use or the variations in service provision in different places. This skill is derived from our ‘jack of all trades’ quality we have been trained in all the above mentioned spheres, and thus can think very broadly about complex and interrelated factors when we focus upon a particular topic such as mental health. Firstly I will briefly outline the development of mental health geography. I will then focus upon the research area of the geography of mental health care provision, using the findings of a doctoral research study (Jones, 1999) to demonstrate the huge potential of studying mental health service provision through a ‘geographical lens’.