Place-Making Public and Green Spaces With A SocioDemographic Focus of People With a Long-Term MentalHealth Condition
Author: Abrisham Vincent
Introduction
Research by Stavrou et al. (2016) established that women who have a long-term health
condition are significantly at risk of domestic violence compared to women who don’t.
Further research of disability and violent crime shows that those with a disability type
that is cognitive and psychosocial are most at risk for experiencing an incident of violent
crime with the characteristics of younger age, female and Aboriginal increasing the risk
(Ringland et al., 2022).
Mental health is critical for creating healthy and safe spaces, and since people who have a
long-term cognitive and psychosocial disability are most at risk to violent crime they
should be afforded special consideration during the urban design process under target
11.7 of the SDGs to ‘provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and
public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with
disabilities’.
Lismore after experiencing its largest flood on record in 2022 requires a new approach
towards planning for the future of housing that is flood free and safe from violent crime
within residential developments and public and green spaces. As part of Lismore’s future
planning the council proposed two new Medium-Density Areas (see Annex) both nearby
public green spaces. It is expected that their development will make a contribution
towards housing people who have lived on previously flood affected areas.
This study wanted to identify if individuals living in flood affected areas before the floods
would have higher rates of long-term mental health conditions than people living in the
proposed medium-density areas.
Materials and Methods
Census data from the 2021 Australian census was downloaded from the Australian Bureau
of Statistics for SA1 geographic areas; SA1 areas are designed as 200 to 800 people data
units making them suitable for urban studies. SA1 areas were selected to match over the
proposed Medium-Density housing areas in the ‘Lismore Growth and realignment
Strategy 2022’ and the February 2022 flood affected areas of South and North Lismore:
‘Medium-Density East Lismore’, ‘Medium-Density Health Precinct’, ‘South Lismore’, ‘North
Lismore’.
Data for each SA1 area was selected for the variable ‘Whether has mental health condition
(including depression or anxiety) (HMHC)’ and then aggregated and averaged for each
selected area where more than one SA1 constituted the area.
Results
Individuals who where living on the floodplains had higher rates of mental health
conditions (see Figure 1). The female population was the highest proportion with a longterm mental illness for all areas besides the ‘Medium-Density East Lismore’ area (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1: Proportions of people from the 2021 census who listed they have been told by a doctor
or nurse that they have a mental health condition (including depression and anxiety) which they
expect to last six months or more and either recurs from time to time, is controlled by medication
or is in remission.
Discussion
This study demonstrates that women living on the floodplain have higher rates of longterm mental health conditions than women living in the proposed medium-density areas.
Importantly, women who have a long-term mental health condition which is
psychological and cognitive are more likely to experience violent crime. Therefore to
improve the mental health benefits of public and green spaces nearby proposed mediumdensity areas females with a long-term mental health condition and from the floodplain
should be actively engaged during the place-making process of public and green space
design (Orstad et al., 2020).
References
Orstad, S. L., Szuhany, K., Tamura, K., Thorpe, L. E., & Jay, M. (2020). Park Proximity and Use for
Physical Activity among Urban Residents: Associations with Mental Health. International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(13), 4885.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134885
Ringland, C., Boiteux, S, & Poynton, S. (2022). The victimisation of people with disability in NSW:
Results from the National Disability Data Asset pilot. Crime and Justice Bulletin, 252.
Stavrou, E., Poynton, S., & Weatherburn, D. (2016). Intimate partner violence against women in
Australia: Related factors and help-seeking behaviours. Contemporary Issues in Crime and
Justice, 200.
Annex
Map 5: Proposed Medium Density Precinct Expansion Area.
Map 6: Potential East Lismore Medium Density area.
10 | Lismore Growth & Realignment Strategy