Designing better mental healthcare facilities

RECENT FEATURE ARTICLES

AGM attendees hear of ‘evolutionary journey’

A well-attended online Design in Mental Health Network 2023 AGM in November saw the Network’s Workstreams report on a busy year

Trust’s proven success with media solution

A collaboration between Lincoln Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dutch company, Recornect, has resulted in a new, accessible media and communication solution for seclusion, de-escalation, and other rooms within the Trust’s medium-security units

How ‘Bedroom Evolved’ pushed the boundaries

Louis Sullivan, Principal architect at leading healthcare construction specialist, Darwin Group, explains how the firm’s ‘Bedroom Evolved’ has, as it puts it, ‘set a new bar for mental health accommodation standards’.

The postive impact of building-integrated art

Drawing on Scandinavian mental healthcare projects, Arkitema’s Stence Guldager argues that early selection and involvement of the artist, and giving the artist the maximum creative freedom, are key to ensuring that art installations have the optimal impact.

Our locks, your system, no compromise

Max Szczerkowski, Product Design engineer at Safehinge Primera, explains the background to, and thinking behind, the launch of what the company says is ‘the ultimate electronic lockset’ for mental healthcare bedrooms.

Empowering service-users can aid recovery

Teva Hesse, Design director at 4D Studio Architects, explores whether ‘designing out risk’ in inpatient mental healthcare facilities means service-users having little to do, and suggests giving them greater individual empowerment to engage in meaningful pursuits.

Some elements of care ‘still in the doldrums’

The University of Dublin’s Harry Kennedy had substantial input into the design of the country’s new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital in Portrane, and here discusses his thinking on optimal forensic mental healthcare

A patient standpoint on the PICU experience

Presenting jointly on the opening morning of June’s Design in Mental Health 2023 Conference, Dr Stephen Dye, a consultant psychiatrist, and one of his former patients, Bernard Fox – now a committed campaigner for better mental healthcare environments, discussed ‘Physical environments of PICUs from the patient perspective’.

Awards celebrate desire to ‘make things better

A heartfelt plea for support for suicide prevention charity, Maytree, and a virtuoso violinist, preceded the presentation of nine Design in Mental Health Awards during the DiMHN’s 2023 well-attended annual conference and exhibition in Coventry in June.

COVER STORY: A healing design combines aesthetics and purpose

A welcoming and aesthetically pleasing environment plays a crucial role in supporting service-user well-being.

One furniture specialist’s journey toward Net Zero

Furniture manufacturer, Pineapple Contracts, discusses the NHS’s Net Zero targets that mean suppliers will soon be required to demonstrate their carbon reduction activities.

Hot and cold drinks ‘on tap’ for service-users

New drinking taps from Hotspot Titanium are designed to give staff and service-users safe, rapid access to hot and cold filtered water, helping foster greater independence.

A ‘home from home’ for children with disabilities

Fleet Architects’ director, Jaime Bishop, and associate architect, Kai Xin Tan, explain how the practice has ‘reimagined respite care’ for young people with disabilities in Northampton, producing a unified design concept for the short breaks service at the John Greenwood Shipman Centre in Northampton on behalf of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Pre-testing a ‘valuable exercise’ for Polar NE

Polar NE discusses its recent positive experience having one of its windows ‘pre-tested’ to the BRE and DiMHN’s Informed Choices standard test criteria.

Mental health specifiers targeted by IPS specialist

BioClad, an IPS unit and hygienic and antimicrobial cladding maker, has established its first in-house IPS manufacturing unit, as its looks to move into acute mental healthcare.

Helping specifiers make more ‘informed choices’

A look by three BRE staff at the new BRE / DiMHN Informed Choices product testing standard and associated certification scheme, and what the process involves.

Service-users’ major say in Highgate East’s design

Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust’s new Highgate East inpatient facility will provide first-class, 21st century mental healthcare for adults across North Central London

Mental health lighting – an evolution in design

Whitecroft Lighting has been lighting UK mental healthcare facilities for a generation, and endeavours to stay one step ahead of a market in ‘perpetual motion’.

Norwegian high security facility’s striking setting

Ratio arkitekter reports on a ground-breaking and award-winning new high security mental healthcare facility in a striking setting in Trondheim in northern Norway

Progress in eradicating ‘dormitory’ facilities

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is co-designing its ambitious new mental health facilities with service-users and clinical staff. The team behind ‘Making Room for Dignity’ reports on the plans for new inpatient facilities, and the progress made to date.

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