FEATURE ARTICLES

Almost 300 guests attended a special ceremony held in The Gallery at Manchester Central on the evening of the first day of June’s Design in Mental Health 2025 event to witness the presentation to the winners of DiMH awards for 2025, as well as a number of Highly Commendeds. The awards recognised excellence in everything from the design of new buildings to the best outside space, plus innovative and imaginative product design, as The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Jason Brown, director of Design & Development at manufacturer of ‘design-led’ contract furniture, Knightsbridge Furniture, considers some of the priorities and goals when designing and producing furniture for mental healthcare settings – including a robust construction, ease of cleaning and stringent hygiene control, good material and colour choice, and user safety.

‘We live in a world where light dictates much of our biological function, so the ability to harness its power for human benefit is an extraordinary advancement,’ says director of Lighting at Light Years Ahead, Lee McCarthy. As he explains here, the lighting company works in partnership with Versalux – an Australian lighting business that has developed what is described as ‘cutting-edge’ Melagen technology, which ‘fine-tunes’ how light interacts with our circadian rhythms.

The Brook is a new-build inpatient facility at Langdon Hospital, Dawlish, in Devon, for adults with a learning disability and/or autism. Highly Commended in the ‘Project of the Year – Future Design’ category at the 2024 DiMH Awards, it is due to become operational this summer. Anita White, Associate Architect at Grainge Architects, says the building is designed to provide a therapeutic, comforting, uplifting environment for recovery for people with complex sensory needs.

At June’s Design in Mental Health 2025 conference, Yvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology at the University of Bath, and an expert on prison design, will speak on ‘Trauma-Informed Design – An Aid to Recovery or Mere Window Dressing?’ In this article, ‘with the prison system in crisis’, she discusses her new book, and some of her experience giving input to prison designers on creating more humane custodial settings, with The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie.

Lynn Lindley, Associate Principal and senior Interior designer at Arcadis, with input from other members of the Silverwood design team at the firm, explains how extensive engagement with staff, service-users, and the local community, shaped the design of the new 64-bedded inpatient unit in Chertsey in Surrey, where a variety of imaginative and colourful art is a standout feature.

The Design in Mental Health Network’s flagship annual event, Design in Mental Health 2025, returns to Manchester in June. Co-organised by Step Exhibitions, this unique event connects those responsible for designing, building, maintaining, and operating, mental healthcare environments with the latest information, ideas, and solutions, for safe and cost-effective delivery.

Richard Barton, who enjoyed an interesting career in the military and the police force, but later realised he had neglected his physical and mental health, recounts his ‘mixed’ experience of inpatient mental healthcare. This drove a desire to help others suffering from mental ill health. He will speak at next month’s DiMH 2025 conference on ‘what it is actually like to be an Expert by Experience’, and discuss getting the best from this ‘amazing resource’.

The Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN) has announced the appointment of Charlotte Burrows as its new CEO. She officially took up the role on 1 April. The Network reports.

Stuart Smith, Commercial director at Zehnder Group UK, takes a detailed look at some of the key steps to optimise indoor air quality in mental healthcare settings, and the positive impact and benefits that getting this right this can have for all users.

Kabir Sangha, UK and Ireland Sales manager for Biometrics at CDVI, discusses the advantages and in-use benefits of biometric access control systems in keeping all users of mental healthcare facilities safe, ensuring security and protecting property, and preventing access to all but authorised users. ‘Once reserved for futuristic Hollywood blockbusters’, he says biometric solutions are now ‘widespread and affordable’, and have the potential ‘to make a meaningful difference’ to people living and working in such settings.

HLM Architects’ Neil Orpwood reflects on insights from the DiMH 2024 Conference, and a session exploring the balance between local and specialist services.

Dr Shelley James, a lighting design consultant, TEDx and keynote speaker, author, and elected member of the WELL Light Advisory Team, discusses the significant positive impact that today’s advanced lighting technologies can have both on patient and service-user recovery, state of mind, and mood, and staff’s wellbeing and ability to deliver the optimal and most efficient care, no matter where the healthcare setting

News of the successful re-location to Manchester of the Network’s 2024 conference and exhibition featured among topics discussed at the organisation’s ‘online’ 2024 AGM.

Isabel Ferreira, Global head of Products at Pineapple Contracts, which manufactures and supplies ‘mindfully designed furniture for transforming challenging environments’, discusses the positive impact of good product design in assisting de-escalation, minimising feelings of anxiety, and helping to create a calmer, more therapeutic environment and return some autonomy to service-users in a variety of mental healthcare settings.

Tony Huggins, MD of David Bailey Furniture, discusses its expertise manufacturing and supplying specialist furniture and fittings for mental healthcare settings, and some of the key features required – an excellent example being its recent supply of furniture for the new Kimmeridge Court eating disorders unit at St Ann’s Hospital in Poole (The Network – August 2023).

An increase in cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the UK has prompted research into toilet cisterns as a potential source of infection. Eve Wellard, Marketing and Communications manager at Delabie, looks at some of the innovative alternatives to cistern-flush WCs in mental healthcare facilities, to prevent the problems associated with stagnant water.

Maria Assirelli director and Mental Health & Social Value lead at Floyd Slaski Architects, and her colleague, Associate, Stefana Gradinariu, say ‘inclusive design’ is about ‘crafting spaces that cater to the diverse needs of all individuals, ensuring they can reach their full potential’. Here they set out the fundamentals in reaching this goal on healthcare projects, discussing a recent project at Ashford Hospital in Middlesex that involved converting a former bariatric ward into a ‘vibrant, neurodiversity-friendly’ outpatient setting for children and young people.

Andrew Arnold, an award-winning architect, and director at Gilling Dod Architects, explains how – as he puts it – designing ‘productive and appropriate environments’ for service-users with learning disabilities and/or Autism ASD, ‘requires a bit of a reset in terms of design approach’. He illustrates some of the key features and elements he believes are key when designing such spaces optimally with a look at the practice’s recent design of two modern inpatient LD facilities, one complete and the other under construction.

Alice Green, Associate Principal, Architecture and Urbanism, Mental Health, at Arcadis, argues that not enough thought has been given to the design and feel of what are known as ‘Places of Safety’ to date, with some patients starting what could be a lengthy inpatient stay in dreary, intimidating, and institutional admission and assessment spaces. She considers how an ‘ideal’ such environment might look through Arcadis’s own Halcyon ‘concept’ Place of Safety.