FEATURE ARTICLES

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

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’.

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

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.

Ireland’s new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital exploits the therapeutic value of nature ‘in a discreetly secure setting which promotes the recovery of patients’

The DiMHN’s first ever CEO is a former service-user who has worked with mental healthcare providers, and has delivered both peer worker support and co-production training – Hannah Chamberlain recently spoke to The Network’s editor

The DiMHN’s 2022 AGM, held ‘virtually’ in November, saw reports on the previous 12 months, including a highly successful conference and exhibition, a new Lived Experience Advisory Panel, and the DiMHN’s first full-time salaried employee, a new Chief Executive.

The award-winning redevelopment of an unused site in Wesham has created a modern new rehabilitation facility for Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

Andrea Harman, Concept developer for Healthcare for Saint-Gobain Ecophon, discusses some of the key considerations and steps to create a quieter, more calming, recovery environment for service-users in mental healthcare settings, and some of the things to avoid

Highly experienced architect, and founder of IBI TH!NK, Richard Mazuch, argues that architects, designers, and planners, need to tailor their thinking on the optimal living and care environments to the needs and wants of the so-called ‘Baby Boomer’ generation.

David Bradley, CEO of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, explains the design principles behind the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, which is set to open in London in 2023.

In a joint DiMH 2022 Conference address in June, two leading academics – from London South Bank University, and Nottingham Trent University – discussed a study examining the impact of the environment on service-users during de-escalation and seclusion.

Service-users’ lived experience in mental healthcare facilities can provide valuable insights. At June’s DiMH conference, Nick Smith, who spent a lengthy period as an inpatient at Bradford’s Lynfield Mount Hospital, reflected on some of his most challenging times.

The first evening of June’s Design in Mental Health 2022 event in Coventry saw 12 Design in Mental Health 2022 Awards presented – recognising excellence in categories ranging from Outside Space of the Year and Concept Product Innovation to Service-User Engagement and Estates and Facilities Team of the Year.

Giving a first day keynote presentation at June’s Design in Mental Health 2022 conference, Sarah Hughes, CEO of the Centre for Mental Health, discussed what she argued were some of the key priorities for designing a mental health system that offered equality of access to all, and some of the major barriers that need overcoming to achieve this.

Allan Aikman, Product (Design) manager at Pinpoint, a specialist provider of staff personal alarm systems, describes how the company provided ‘a 100 per cent reliable, easy-to-use’ such system for St George’s Hospital, the main treatment centre for acute mental health issues in South Staffordshire.