Call for contributions: Book on Mental Distress and Space

Mental Distress and Space: Community and Clinical Applications

 

Laura McGrath & Paula Reavey (eds)

 

The change from an institutional to community care model of mental health services can be seen as a fundamental spatial change in the lives of service users (Payne, 1999; Symonds & Kelly, 1998; Wolch & Philo, 2000). Instead of being enclosed in the total institution’ (Goffman, 1961) of the asylum, service users now instead negotiate their experiences of distress, service use and recovery across multiple and disparate community sites. Such endeavours involve a complex web of activities and practices that require ongoing negotiation and management, across everyday and clinical settings, inciting multiple affective states and meaning making practices (Tucker, 2010; McGrath, 2012; Brown & Reavey, 2015). Central to an examination of contemporary experiences of distress and service use, is thus the fundamental role of spatial settings in constituting the multiple meaning making activities that ensue (McGrath, Reavey & Brown, 2008; McGrath, 2012; McGrath & Reavey, 2013; 2015).

Work from within geography in particular has long examined the detail of spatial aspects of both institutional and community spaces which are allocated for mental distress (Philo, 2001; Davidson, 2001; Davidson, Smith & Bondi, 2005; Parr, 2008; Laws, 2009; Curtis, 2010). This work is also reflected in a tradition of psychological, sociological, service user and psychiatric research into the social, material and economic contexts of distress (Newnes et al, 1999; 2001; Smail, 2005; Orford, 2008; Rogers & Pilgrim, 2010; Kagan & Burton, 2011; Rapley, Moncrieff & Dillon, 2011; Cromby, Harper & Reavey, 2013). More recently, there has also been a move to examine the detail of the material settings of distress in detail, incorporating psychological theories that work with ideas stressing the material basis of experience more generally (Brown & Stenner, 2009; Brown & Reavey, 2015). What these perspectives share is a concern with space, as it is lived out, on the ground, with the material resources that shape and structure these distressing experiences.

 

Aim of the book

This book would aim to bring together the psychosocial work on experiences of space and mental distress, as well as make explicit the links between theoretical work and clinical and community practice. Our aim is to create a dialogue between academics, service users and practitioners, to provide potential ways of reconvening the spaces in which people experience distress.  The scope of the book is thus far reaching, with potential contributions from those involved in theorizing space, those drawing on their own experiences of distress and space, as well as practitioners working on the ground.

We are looking for work from a broad range of disciplines, either theoretical or empirical. For empirical work, we are interested in studies which utilise rich, experiential data, both visual and verbal. We also welcome work discussing clinical and community interventions which use space in innovative and creative ways.

 

Each chapter will be approximately 6-8,000 words. We are looking for contributions to three major sections: community settings; institutional settings; and applications and interventions. If you would like more information, feel free to contact us. Alternatively, please send a 200 word abstract to either Laura McGrath (l.h.mcgrath@uel.ac.uk) or Paula Reavey (reaveyp@lsbu.ac.uk) by April 28th.

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