{"id":1597,"date":"2025-05-07T21:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T01:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/?page_id=1597"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:12:06","slug":"geography-of-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/geography-of-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Handbook of Geography in Mental Health Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Handbook of Geography in Mental Health Research\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Tomoko McGaughey & Paul Peters, Editors<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Gruyter Brill, 2027<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where people live, work, and move through daily life shapes their physical and mental health. Health geography examines how health outcomes, health systems, and the factors driving them are spatially patterned \u2014 and how that patterning can be measured, mapped, and acted upon. Geographical patterns and relationships in mental health can be evaluated using spatial analytic tools, and geography and spatial analysis now play an important role in evaluating and planning for health and care provision. This includes geolocating healthcare facilities and resources, mapping condition prevalence, identifying environmental factors, and analysing population demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spatial analysis and visualization offer valuable insights into the causes of ill health, patterns of mental health outcomes, service resource allocation, and the identification of high-need service areas. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) empower researchers, clinicians, and policymakers to make informed decisions, improve program delivery and outcomes, and enhance the overall sustainability of publicly provided health programs. These methods are adaptable across settings, and have been applied in both high- and low-resource contexts across a range of research questions and diverse populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the fields of medical geography and spatial epidemiology have developed rapidly in the 21st century, the use of spatial analytic techniques in mental health research has lagged. Few researchers work at the intersection of geographic science and mental health, and few resources currently bridge these fields in a practical, methods-oriented way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This handbook offers a comprehensive introduction to geographic applications in mental health research, providing researchers with practical methods for integrating spatial analytic data and techniques into their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The handbook is structured into six sections, covering the background to geographic analysis, explorations of current work, and potential future research areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section one<\/strong> introduces the topic and explores the historical development of geographical applications in public health, known limitations to assessing public health using geography, and approaches to assessing mental health through a spatial lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section two<\/strong> explores the individual-level aspects of geography in mental health, including spatial analysis of individuals with specific conditions and generalised analysis for specific populations. Techniques include density mapping, hot spot analysis, and predictive modelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section three<\/strong> addresses horizontal<\/em> factors that promote or degrade mental health. These factors are broad, can influence multiple conditions, and can be ameliorated through policy. They include environmental characteristics such as green and blue space, air pollution, and neighbourhood marginalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section four<\/strong> explores the geography of mental health in relation to vertical<\/em> resources, including the examination of service types and applied models of analysis such as proximity analysis, catchment analysis, and utilization analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section five<\/strong> examines additional resources that can be introduced to analysis, including the built environment, neighbourhood characteristics, and individual characteristics, and their interaction with the people and resources addressed in earlier sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section six<\/strong> explores issues and considerations in studying mental health through geography, including spatial disclosure, confidentiality, and data selection. Each section features chapters on applied methodologies and techniques, alongside some of the most significant peer-reviewed contributions to mental health geography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers interested in contributing to the handbook or learning more about the project are welcome to contact the editors at\u00a0paul.peters@carleton.ca<\/a> and tomokomcgaughey@cmail.carleton.ca<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomoko McGaughey & Paul Peters, Editors De Gruyter Brill, 2027 Where people live, work, and move through daily life shapes their physical and mental health. Health geography examines how health outcomes, health systems, and the factors driving them are spatially patterned \u2014 and how that patterning can be measured, mapped, and acted upon. Geographical patterns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":1598,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[157],"class_list":["post-1597","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_page_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1597\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}