IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v230y2019icp57-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health, faith and therapeutic landscapes: Places of worship as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) public health settings in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Tomalin, Emma
  • Sadgrove, Joanna
  • Summers, Roxana

Abstract

Within the United Kingdom, there is evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations play a role in public health (PH) that has been neither properly recognised nor integrated into mainstream health systems (November, 2014). Discourses on faith and improving health outcomes have been particularly focused on 'seldom heard' groups, including 'Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic' (BAME) communities (November, 2014; Jain, 2014; Burton et al., 2017; Muhammad, 2018). In this paper we first present findings from a qualitative scoping study carried out in the UK cities of Leeds and Bradford, between 2014 and 2015, which examined Places of Worship (PWs) as BAME PH settings. We carried out 19 semi-structured interviews with purposively selected respondents, and three focus groups. Second, we develop a theory that originates from one in the sub-discipline of 'health geography' concerned with 'therapeutic landscapes', applying it to our research findings on PWs as BAME PH settings. The paper argues for the recentring of religion and faith settings back into the therapeutic landscapes literature, reflecting evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations are relevant to the pursuit of health and wellbeing. We also contend that a therapeutic landscapes framework provides a way of making the health relevance of PWs visible to both health practitioners and to members of PWs. We argue that PWs act as therapeutic places (i.e. specific transformative sacred sites) as well as therapeutic spaces (i.e. settings that provide adjuncts to formal PH promotion services), and are often part of therapeutic networks included in 'kinship groups and networks of care provided by family, friends, therapists and other agents of support' (Smyth, 2005: 490). This approach allows us to see how influences on health behaviour are not just confined to biomedical settings, but that the 'healing process works itself out in places (or situations, locales, settings and milieus)' (Gesler, 1992: 743).

Suggested Citation

  • Tomalin, Emma & Sadgrove, Joanna & Summers, Roxana, 2019. "Health, faith and therapeutic landscapes: Places of worship as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) public health settings in the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 57-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:230:y:2019:i:c:p:57-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795361930142X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams, Allison, 2010. "Spiritual therapeutic landscapes and healing: A case study of St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1633-1640, May.
    2. Lightfoot, Elizabeth & Blevins, Jennifer & Lum, Terry & Dube, Amano, 2016. "Cultural Health Assets of Somali and Oromo Refugees and Immigrants in Minnesota: Findings from a Community-Based Participatory Research Project," SocArXiv h9cex, Center for Open Science.
    3. Andrew Williams & Mark Goodwin & Paul Cloke, 2014. "Neoliberalism, Big Society, and Progressive Localism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(12), pages 2798-2815, December.
    4. Avril Maddrell & Veronica della Dora, 2013. "Crossing Surfaces in Search of the Holy: Landscape and Liminality in Contemporary Christian Pilgrimage," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(5), pages 1105-1126, May.
    5. DeHaven, M.J. & Hunter, I.B. & Wilder, L. & Walton, J.W. & Berry, J., 2004. "Health programs in faith-based organizations: Are they effective?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(6), pages 1030-1036.
    6. Gesler, Wilbert M., 1992. "Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in light of the new cultural geography," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 735-746, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Winata, Fikriyah & McLafferty, Sara L., 2023. "Therapeutic landscapes, networks, and health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study among female domestic workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    2. Taheri, Shima & Ghasemi Sichani, Maryam & Shabani, Amirhosein, 2021. "Evaluating the literature of therapeutic landscapes with an emphasis on the search for the dimensions of health: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    3. Embuldeniya, Gayathri & Gutberg, Jennifer & Wodchis, Walter P., 2021. "The reimagination of sustainable integrated care in Ontario, Canada," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 83-89.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Völker, Sebastian & Kistemann, Thomas, 2013. "Reprint of: “I'm always entirely happy when I'm here!” Urban blue enhancing human health and well-being in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 141-152.
    2. Liamputtong, Pranee & Kurban, Hala, 2018. "Health, social integration and social support: The lived experiences of young Middle-Eastern refugees living in Melbourne, Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 99-106.
    3. Taheri, Shima & Ghasemi Sichani, Maryam & Shabani, Amirhosein, 2021. "Evaluating the literature of therapeutic landscapes with an emphasis on the search for the dimensions of health: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    4. Plane, Jocelyn & Klodawsky, Fran, 2013. "Neighbourhood amenities and health: Examining the significance of a local park," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Liamputtong, Pranee & Suwankhong, Dusanee, 2015. "Therapeutic landscapes and living with breast cancer: The lived experiences of Thai women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 263-271.
    6. Buzinde, Christine N. & Yarnal, Careen, 2012. "Therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory: A theoretical approach to medical tourism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 783-787.
    7. Bell, Sarah L. & Phoenix, Cassandra & Lovell, Rebecca & Wheeler, Benedict W., 2015. "Seeking everyday wellbeing: The coast as a therapeutic landscape," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-67.
    8. Bell, Sarah L. & Foley, Ronan & Houghton, Frank & Maddrell, Avril & Williams, Allison M., 2018. "From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 123-130.
    9. Huang, Liyuan & Xu, Honggang, 2018. "Therapeutic landscapes and longevity: Wellness tourism in Bama," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 24-32.
    10. Völker, Sebastian & Kistemann, Thomas, 2013. "“I'm always entirely happy when I'm here!” Urban blue enhancing human health and well-being in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 113-124.
    11. Chuhan Chen & Syarmila Hany Haron, 2023. "The Influence of Multistakeholder Value Cognition and Risk Attitudes on Sustainable Interior Landscape Design Decisions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, February.
    12. Allison Williams & Peter Kitchen, 2012. "Sense of Place and Health in Hamilton, Ontario: A Case Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(2), pages 257-276, September.
    13. Shuping Huang & Jinda Qi & Wei Li & Jianwen Dong & Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch, 2021. "The Contribution to Stress Recovery and Attention Restoration Potential of Exposure to Urban Green Spaces in Low-Density Residential Areas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-20, August.
    14. Leach, Melissa A. & Fairhead, James R. & Millimouno, Dominique & Diallo, Alpha Ahmadou, 2008. "New therapeutic landscapes in Africa: Parental categories and practices in seeking infant health in the Republic of Guinea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 2157-2167, May.
    15. Tim Lomas & Kate Hefferon & Itai Ivtzan, 2015. "The LIFE Model: A Meta-Theoretical Conceptual Map for Applied Positive Psychology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 1347-1364, October.
    16. Fan Yang & Zhi Yi Bao & Zhu Jun Zhu, 2011. "An Assessment of Psychological Noise Reduction by Landscape Plants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-17, April.
    17. Małgorzata Sztubecka & Alicja Maciejko & Marta Skiba, 2022. "The Landscape of the Spa Parks Creation through Components Influencing Environmental Perception Using Multi-Criteria Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, May.
    18. April K. Wilhelm & Michele L. Allen & Rebekah J. Pratt, 2022. "Belonging to Three Worlds: Somali Adolescent–Parent Relationships in the United States and Implications for Tobacco Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    19. Nonnemaker, James & McNeely, Clea A & Blum, Robert Wm, 2006. "Public and private domains of religiosity and adolescent smoking transitions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 3084-3095, June.
    20. Scott, Darius, 2022. "Uncaring landscapes and HIV peer support in the rural Southern United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:230:y:2019:i:c:p:57-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.