RECENT NEWS

A ‘radically designed’ new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has opened in Edinburgh.

Creator of navigation solutions, BuzzStreets, and London’s Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have announced the launch of what they claim is a ‘unique’ indoor wayfinder ‘app’ for hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

During the recent 2021 Mental Health Awareness Week, BRE and the Design in Mental Health Network launched what they believe is a ‘world-first’ testing scheme for construction products used in mental healthcare facilities.

GRITIT Group has re-launched under a new brand as OUTCO – a name it says reflects its ‘evolution into the UK’s leading outdoor estate compliance expert’, with a ‘new and unique’ service offering.

In tandem with this year’s Dementia Action Week, which runs from 17-23 May, Dulux Trade has launched the Dulux Trade Occupant Centred Colour and Design (OCCD) hub.

Hospitals, schools, and workplaces should be subject to an annual ‘building MoT’ or health check to ensure they are properly ventilated and maintained to protect users from airborne viruses such as COVID-19.

Gradus has launched an interactive 'Dementia Design Tool' to enable designers and specifiers to create inclusive designs for their buildings, so people with dementia can use them independently and comfortably.

With the number of people with dementia in the UK continuing to rise, Forbo Flooring Systems has developed a new RIBA-certified CPD which examines flooring’s role in ‘dementia-inclusive’ buildings.

In what it dubs its ‘latest step to help specifiers and contractors mitigate fire risk in the fifth façade’, Rockwool has launched HARDROCK UB34, a non-combustible insulation solution specially designed for parapet walls and upstands on flat roofs.

Sir Simon Stevens (pictured) formally notified the NHS England Board on 29 April of his decision to stand down, ‘as planned’ at the end of July this year, after more than seven years as NHS Chief Executive.

Rockwool has enhanced its range of resources for specifiers, contractors, and building owners, with Rockwool Interactive City, ‘a 3D environment’ that facilitates visualising, specifying, and learning about its non-combustible stone wool insulation.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust says work to build a new eight-bed psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) for young people at the Warneford Hospital site in Oxford, set to open in early September 2022, is now under way.

‘Innovative’ new Custom floors and walls from Altro allow healthcare specifiers ‘to create unique spaces exactly as they want them’ – the flooring and wall cladding specialist says.

Issues with ageing timber windows at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, a 300-bed acute facility, and learning disability hospital, Lynebank Hospital in Dunfermline, have seen the operator of both sites, NHS Fife, fit replacement PVCu units from REHAU.

People with mental health difficulties ranging from severe mental illnesses, to more common mental health issues, are to benefit from expanded mental health services backed by £500 m as part of the Government’s Mental Health Recovery Action Plan.

Intastop, a manufacturer and supplier of door and wall protective products, and anti-ligature and access, seals, and acoustic products for markets including healthcare, has recently invested £200,000 in design, manufacturing, and assembly functions.

A new coalition of health and education experts – the Mental Health Action Group – met for the first time recently, to look at the pandemic’s impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people, and education staff, across England.

A pedestrian traffic control system that ‘complements automatic doors’, which the company says ‘provides both safety and security’, has been introduced by GEZE UK.

Chosen for its experience in specialist care environments, Gainsborough has provided two ‘highly advanced’ wetrooms for The Welland Centre, St Mary’s Hospital, Kettering.

Apprentice, Davina Kaur, has risen ‘from the depths of depression’ and a failed suicide attempt to being crowned The Best of British Engineering at the recent Enginuity Skills Awards.