ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a public mental health perspective to address the question of how mental health might be improved at the population level. Particular consideration is given to the significance for public mental health of the geographies of mental health reviewed in this book.
The following discussion concentrates especially on strategies aiming to: prioritise good mental health and wellbeing of the whole population as an aim for sustainable societies; enhance social and territorial equity in the availability of services for treatment of psychiatric disorders to make them responsive to the needs of individuals in different geographical contexts; increase sensitivity to the relationships between population mental health and the material, social and symbolic complexity of environments, including closer attention to the mental health impacts of policies and interventions outside the medical sector.
The book concludes with some comments about the current and future agenda for geographical research into the complex processes relating to population mental health.
