New Zealand children’s health camps: therapeutic landscapes meet the contract state

This paper surveys the history and current status of children’s health camps in New Zealand, and places these sites within the theoretical context of therapeutic landscapes. The first health camp was established in 1919, and the seven current camps provide respite, education and health care for appr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) 2000-10, Vol.51 (7), p.1047-1059
Main Authors: Kearns, Robin A, Collins, Damian C.A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Camps
Child
Child care
Child Health Services - organization & administration
Child welfare
Children
Children & youth
Deinstitutionalization
Family
Financial Support
General aspects
Health
Health camps
Health camps Therapeutic landscapes New Zealand Children
Health Resorts
Health systems. Social services
Humans
Interinstitutional Relations
Medical sciences
New Zealand
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Social history
Therapeutic landscapes
Therapy
Tropical medicine
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Summary:This paper surveys the history and current status of children’s health camps in New Zealand, and places these sites within the theoretical context of therapeutic landscapes. The first health camp was established in 1919, and the seven current camps provide respite, education and health care for approximately 4000 children each year. We analyse the health-place relations inherent in the health camp concept and suggest that the ‘therapeutic landscape’ idea developed by Gesler provides a useful framework to explain the development of camps as sites for enhancing child and family welfare. Specifically, we contend that changing understandings of health and children have been closely linked with changing perceptions of what is therapeutic about the camps. Survey data demonstrate that contemporary restructuring of the welfare state has recast the role of health camps and placed them in a precarious position in terms of both financial viability and public acceptability. We conclude that the current status of health camps is ambiguous given the pressures of deinstitutionalisation philosophies and the regulatory environment of formal contracts between funders and providers.
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00020-4