Urban public spaces as a mobile, democratic and dynamic clinic to support recovery from early psychosis

Singleton, Aled and Batterham, Mark 2025. Urban public spaces as a mobile, democratic and dynamic clinic to support recovery from early psychosis. Cities & Health 10.1080/23748834.2025.2531668

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Abstract

This paper studies urban public space as part of NHS mental health interventions supporting individuals to recover from early psychosis. Whilst the published literature notes the benefits of group walking to address difficulties such as social isolation, there is limited research focused on the specific qualities of city spaces themselves. This writing explores this issue through a three-year interdisciplinary collaboration that brings intuitive, innovative and evolving practice to the surface. The project involves a human geographer working as a Researcher in Residence alongside an established mental health nurse within the context and scope of quality improvement rather than clinical research. This paper builds on six evaluation interviews to analyse and reflect on two group walks in different cities. These interventions question if and how Kevin Lynch’s five elements of imageability help design therapeutic walks through urban space and, in turn, reveal settings that support mental health recovery. We offer and discuss three main findings. First, mobile perspectives render vistas rather than pinpointing specific landmarks. Second, feathered edges offer gentle surprises and enhance opportunities for interaction. Finally, nodes in cities can complicate the efforts of guiding but also offer opportunities for individuals to compose their own future walks.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	2374-8834
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 July 2025
Date of Acceptance:	6 July 2025
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2025 09:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180169

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