Contemplative practices: The body as therapeutic site linking health and place.

During times of upheaval, supporting stability, health and wellbeing on all levels is essential. While literature regarding 'therapeutic landscapes' has burgeoned over the last 30 years, to date no studies have considered the therapeutic potential of embodied contemplative practices (CP), such as yoga and meditation, within the most accessible, ordinary environment - the body at home. Equally, the field of mobilities appears to have overlooked the spiritual and political nature of these deliberately immobilising acts of resistance.

What keeps an island community COVID-19 free in a global pandemic?

The COVID pandemic has offered opportunities for islands and other relatively isolated communities to establish pandemic-protection boundaries. A July 2020 survey of Waiheke Island residents sought views on how the island had remained COVID-19 free, despite proximity to a city of 1.6 million (Auckland, NZ).

Coastal Communities, Leisure and Wellbeing: Advancing a Trans-Disciplinary Agenda for Understanding Ocean-Human Relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Commentators are advocating for research to better understand relationships between healthy coastal ecosystems and human wellbeing. Doing so requires inter- and transdisciplinary approaches across humanities, arts, social sciences, and science and technology disciplines. These approaches include culturally diverse knowledge systems, such as indigenous ones, that locate sustainable use of and relationships to marine ecosystems.

Permeable boundaries? Patient perspectives on space and time in general practice waiting rooms.

This paper considers an under-examined space in primary health care - the reception area/waiting room. This space can be challenging to negotiate, particularly for those who experience social marginalisation. We begin by situating the significance of the 'entry into the health care setting' in the patient journey in terms of time as well as space.

Placing therapeutic landscape as theoretical development in Health & Place.

This commentary reviews the development and application of therapeutic landscape ideas as they have appeared and developed within issues of Health and Place to date. This framework builds on landscape ideas drawn from humanist and structuralist influences in the 'new' cultural geography and seeks to deepen interpretation of the therapeutic reputation of certain places. These ideas have gained particular traction within health geography.

'A level playing field': Young people's experiences of wheelchair basketball as an enabling place.

Using a novel case-study of a youth wheelchair basketball team in Auckland, New Zealand, we investigate the experiences of young people with physical disabilities in recreational sports places. We consider the 'enabling places' created by this sport, which can enhance disabled young people's wellbeing and social inclusion. Semi-structured interviews with the team's players and coordinators revealed logistical and societal challenges associated with facilitating youth-oriented sports, as well as those encountered by team members personally.

Precariously placed: Home, housing and wellbeing for older renters.

Older renters may encounter a wide range of challenges and constraints in their experiences of ageing, housing and community life that influence their wellbeing. We employ a two-part conceptualisation of precarity and resilience to investigate how housing-related precarities may impact upon experiences of ageing and home during later life. We draw on narratives collected through in-depth interviews with 13 older renters living in a particularly high-pressure housing market within the greater Auckland area.

Children's Transport Built Environments: A Mixed Methods Study of Associations between Perceived and Objective Measures and Relationships with Parent Licence for Independent Mobility in Auckland, New Zealand.

Children's independent mobility is declining internationally. Parents are the gatekeepers of children's independent mobility. This mixed methods study investigates whether parent perceptions of the neighbourhood environment align with objective measures of the neighbourhood built environment, and how perceived and objective measures relate to parental licence for children's independent mobility.

New Zealand children's health stamps: Ideological artefacts linking health and place.

This paper addresses a hitherto unexamined phenomenon in the geography of health promotion: the use of postage stamps. We 'read' health stamps as featuring imagery and exhortations that reflect temporally-specific understandings of children's health and wellbeing. As a case study, we examine examples of the stamps sold annually since 1929 as a fund-raiser for New Zealand Children's Health Camps Foundation.

Enabling participation for disabled young people: study protocol.

Background: Participation in community life is vital for health and wellbeing, promoting a sense of belonging, networks of social support and opportunities for physical activity. Disabled young people have lower levels of mobility and participation in recreational activities (physical, social and cultural), education and employment, than their peers without disabilities. This has implications for their health and wellbeing and life course opportunities.

What are the associations between neighbourhood walkability and sedentary time in New Zealand adults? The URBAN cross-sectional study.

Objectives: We estimated associations between objectively determined neighbourhood 'walkability' attributes and accelerometer-derived sedentary time (ST) by sex, city or type of day.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: The URBAN (Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods) study was conducted in 48 neighbourhoods across four cities in New Zealand (August 2008 to October 2010).

Neighbourhoods for Active Kids: study protocol for a cross-sectional examination of neighbourhood features and children's physical activity, active travel, independent mobility and body size.

Introduction: New Zealand children's physical activity, including independent mobility and active travel, has declined markedly over recent decades. The Neighbourhoods for Active Kids (NfAK) study examines how neighbourhood built environments are associated with the independent mobility, active travel, physical activity and neighbourhood experiences of children aged 9-12 years in primary and intermediate schools across Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

Methods And Analysis: Child-specific indices of walkability, destination accessibility and traffic exposure will be constructed to measure the built environment in 8 neighbourhoods in Auckland.

The care work of general practice receptionists.

INTRODUCTION The care work of general practice receptionists has received limited research attention, despite receptionists position at the beginning of patients' journeys in many health care systems. We examine receptionists' perceptions of their work and the opportunities and constraints they experience in caring for patients while providing administrative support to practices. METHODS Data were collected in focus group interviews with 32 receptionists from urban and rural general practices in the Auckland and Northland regions of New Zealand.

Associations between the neighbourhood built environment and out of school physical activity and active travel: An examination from the Kids in the City study.

This study's aim was to examine selected objectively-measured and child specific built environment attributes in relation to proportion of out-of-school time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (%MVPA) and active travel in a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse children (n=236) living in Auckland, New Zealand. Street connectivity and distance to school were related to the proportion of trips made by active modes. Ratio of high speed to low speed roads and improved streetscape for active travel were related to %MVPA on weekdays only.

Neighbourhood built environment associations with body size in adults: mediating effects of activity and sedentariness in a cross-sectional study of New Zealand adults.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the associations between body size and built environment walkability variables, as well as the mediating role of physical activity and sedentary behaviours with body size.

Methods: Objective environment, body size (body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC)), and sedentary time and physical activity data were collected from a random selection of 2033 adults aged 20-65 years living in 48 neighbourhoods across four New Zealand cities. Multilevel regression models were calculated for each comparison between body size outcome and built environment exposure.

Reprint of: A healthy island blue space: From space of detention to site of sanctuary.

Island blue spaces are associated with restorative potential, but few studies examine this proposition when an island's use has changed over time. We examine Rotoroa Island (near Auckland, New Zealand) where, for almost a century, the Salvation Army ran an alcohol treatment facility. The island's relative isolation was central to its mixed therapeutic and carceral roles.

Urban inclusion as wellbeing: Exploring children's accounts of confronting diversity on inner city streets.

The diversity of people living in a city is often most visible on inner city streets. These streets are also the neighbourhood environment of children who live in the central city. In the past, the wellbeing and sensibilities of children have been marginalised in planning practices in western cities but this is beginning to change with child-friendly and inclusive city discourses now more common.

'The medical' and 'health' in a critical medical humanities.

As befits an emerging field of enquiry, there is on-going discussion about the scope, role and future of the medical humanities. One relatively recent contribution to this debate proposes a differentiation of the field into two distinct terrains, 'medical humanities' and 'health humanities,' and calls for a supersession of the former by the latter. In this paper, we revisit the conceptual underpinnings for a distinction between 'the medical' and 'health' by looking at the history of an analogous debate between 'medical geography' and 'the geographies of health' that has, over the last few years, witnessed a re-blurring of the distinction.

The role of bluespaces in experiencing place, aging and wellbeing: Insights from Waiheke Island, New Zealand.

This paper examines how bluespaces inform experiences of place, being aged, and wellbeing among seniors on Waiheke, an island within the greater Auckland area in northern New Zealand. We draw on photo-elicitation interviews with seniors aged 65-94 to argue that bluespaces shape metaphors of 'islandness' that, in turn, help maintain wellbeing. We conclude that, although island settings pose unique challenges for seniors, (e.

The place of receptionists in access to primary care: Challenges in the space between community and consultation.

At the point of entry to the health care system sit general practice receptionists (GPRs), a seldom studied employment group. The place of the receptionist involves both a location within the internal geography of the clinic and a position within the primary care team. Receptionists literally 'receive' those who phone or enter the clinic, and are a critical influence in their transformation from a 'person' to a 'patient'.

Distance to School is Associated with Sedentary Time in Children: Findings from the URBAN Study.

Sedentary behavior is associated with overweight and obesity in children, and distance to school has been negatively associated with active commuting to school. It is not known how distance to school relates to sedentary behavior in children. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between distance to school and children's sedentary behavior during weekdays at times where children interact with the neighborhood environment.

A healthy island blue space: from space of detention to site of sanctuary.

Island blue spaces are associated with restorative potential, but few studies examine this proposition when an island׳s use has changed over time. We examine Rotoroa Island (near Auckland, New Zealand) where, for almost a century, the Salvation Army ran an alcohol treatment facility. The island׳s relative isolation was central to its mixed therapeutic and carceral roles.