MEnu-cancel
Close Menu Open Menu

Planning Research Matters

Award winner: Mental health and the built environment: delivering mentally healthy places

Lead researcher and institution:

Samantha Yates (née Simmons), University of Westminster *

* RTPI-accredited planning school

This research project was a Student Award winner at the RTPI Awards for Research Excellence 2022. This award is for students who are working towards or have recently completed a non-research university degree. It highlights the methodological rigour of the research, as well as the ability to link research and practice. 

Each year the RTPI Awards for Research Excellence recognise and celebrate leading spatial planning research from RTPI-accredited planning schools and RTPI members. 

Key takeaways:

  • This research explored the extent to which planning practice considers and implements theories on how the built environment can be shaped to support mental health.
  • It used the GAPS (Green, Active, Pro-Social and Safe Places) framework to assess planning policy and to discuss these questions with planning professionals.
  • The study found that mental health concerns were not explicitly considered in planning practice and that planning practitioners did not feel an explicit policy on mental health was needed, yet implicit benefits to mental health were occurring in practice.
  • It found that public sector practitioners felt able to positively influence the delivery of mentally healthy places in their decision-making role, despite a lack of explicit policy.
  • However public sector practitioners felt constrained in their influence, especially on design and delivery stages of the planning process, and felt reliant on private planning practice.
  • The study identified a prevailing silo mentality within planning practice, chiming with findings reported in health and planning literature.

Samantha Yates (née Simmons) explores whether planning practice
considers and implements theories on the shaping of built environments to support mental health.

It's an honour to receive this award and incredibly rewarding to know that my research is having a positive impact beyond my studies at Westminster. For fellow students undertaking their theses now, I hope you feel inspired that we can have a meaningful impact with our research, and that the time and effort spent can be valuable - not just to our academic lives, but to the planning profession as a whole, and to our ongoing careers in the profession.

What our judges thought:

"This entry was a clear winner. The paper helps identify a key gap currently in the building environment industry. Not only is it about policy planning and current issues, it also takes a new approach. The methodology was clear and very robust. It’s good to see some real consideration being given by our future planners to this area, which we should encourage young planners to think more about."

Full reference

Simmons, S. (2021). Mental Health and the Built Environment: exploring the role of planning practice in delivering mentally healthy places. Dissertation undertaken as part of the Urban and Regional Planning MA at the University of Westminster.

Link to report

Mental health and the built environment: delivering mentally healthy places

 

NOTE:  Findings and recommendations reflect the views of the researchers at the time of writing and are not necessarily the views of the RTPI