Mental Health and Social Space: Towards Inclusionary Geographies? (RGS-IBG Book Series)

Through a series of case studies this book brings to the fore the voices, lives, and capacities of people with mental health problems as well as the difficulties they face. It effectively demonstrates the ways people with mental health problems are active in re-scripting versions of social recovery through their use of very different community spaces. \* Offers a 'hopeful epistemology' not typically found in mental health-related research \* Interrogates neo-liberal dogma that defines people with mental health problems as active social citizens wholly responsible for their own recoveries and acceptance \* Brings to the fore the voices of, lives, capacities and difficulties facing people with mental health problems \* Imaginatively differentiates rural, urban, interest and technological communities, disrupting familiar and conventional accounts of social inclusion and 'the local' \* Demonstrates how people with mental health problems are active in re-scripting their own social recoveries through their use and understanding of different social spacesContent: Chapter 1 Geographies of Difference: Understanding Mental (Ill) Health and Social Space (pages 1–30): Chapter 2 Placing Mental Health: Community, Inclusion and Citizenship (pages 31–56): Chapter 3 Cultural Landscapes: Rural Communities and Mental Health (pages 57–79): Chapter 4 Therapeutic Natures? Urban Gardening, Citizenship and Social Inclusion (pages 80–105): Chapter 5 Artistic Spaces: The Arts and Mental Health (pages 106–134): Chapter 6 Virtual Communities: The Internet and Online Geographies of Self?Help (pages 135–161): Chapter 7 Conclusion: Innovative Geographies of Mental Health (pages 162–184): "In the nineteenth century, 'the mad' were segregated in special asylum spaces; in the later twentieth century, these spaces were dismantled and patients discharged into the community. Now, in the twenty-first century, 'community care' is still in vogue, but what has happened to the people with mental health problems? Stories of neglect, ghettoization, homicide and reinstitutionalization regularly litter the pages of newspapers and academic journals. Is this the whole story? Are those with severe and enduring mental health problems still living on the edges of society?" "This book illuminates the complicated reality of people living with mental health problems. It focuses on their voices, relationships and achievements through case studies tracing innovative examples of community activity that are creating versions of social tolerance, social recovery and peer- and self-help for this consistently marginalized group. People with mental health problems are active in rescripting their own social recoveries, using different community spaces to create pathways to psychological and social stability."--BOOK JACKET

Through a series of case studies this book brings to the fore the voices, lives, and capacities of people with mental health problems as well as the difficulties they face. It effectively demonstrates the ways people with mental health problems are active in re-scripting versions of social recovery through their use of very different community spaces.

• Offers a 'hopeful epistemology' not typically found in mental health-related research
  
• Interrogates neo-liberal dogma that defines people with mental health problems as active social citizens wholly responsible for their own recoveries and acceptance
  
• Brings to the fore the voices of, lives, capacities and difficulties facing people with mental health problems
  
• Imaginatively differentiates rural, urban, interest and technological communities, disrupting familiar and conventional accounts of social inclusion and 'the local'
  
• Demonstrates how people with mental health problems are active in re-scripting their own social recoveries through their use and understanding of different social spaces