FEATURE ARTICLES

Two US architects explain how, having both experienced mental health challenges, they were ‘drawn to sketching as a designer’s preferred medium for defining problems and driving solutions with pen and paper’.

Mark Stefan, director of landscape architecture and planning practice, Design with Nature, outlines the principal characteristics of the Contemplative Landscape Model which forms the core of the book, Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces

Nationwide Children’s has built the US’s largest freestanding, full-service psychiatric facility on its children’s hospital campus in Columbus, Ohio.

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

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

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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

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’.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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