RECENT NEWS

Fire door manufacturer, Firedoors, says its recent collaboration with alarm management specialist, Drax Technology, has resulted in the development of ‘the world’s first smart fire door’.

Safehinge Primera has opened a new ‘Design & and Innovation Studio’ at its Blackpool office.

At May’s Design in Mental Health 2018 exhibition, Sutton-headquartered Designplan lighting showed its Basilica Tuneable White luminaire – designed to mimic circadian rhythm, and thus to help speed recovery, particularly in inpatient settings.

Apollo Fire Detectors has launched a new, ‘unique’ low-profile fire detector – Soteria Dimension, which uses new optical sensing technology ‘in the form of a virtual sensing chamber’ that operates on the light-scatter principle.

A survey by the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP) which found that, on specific doors, ‘there were high risks associated with the attachment of ligatures, primarily over door tops’, has seen the Trust opt for what supplier, Intastop, says is ‘a recognised and highly acclaimed solution’.

The COBS personal security range of products is now available from Atus Systems, strengthening its range of both personal and staff security solutions.

Current mental health spending would likely need to double to take the number of people with mental health problems receiving NHS treatment from 40 per cent to 70 per cent, according to a new funding report.

People with dementia and a supporter were able to work together with design experts to learn the skills needed to become more involved in the process of designing dementia inclusive environments at what is claimed to have been the world’s first design school for people with dementia, held at Birmingham’s Crowne Plaza Hotel last month.

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki are collaborating with industrial partners to investigate opportunities to extend integration of visually attractive solar modules into the architecture of building façades.

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) launched on 1 April a new Construction Consultancy Services Framework, which it says is expected to save the public sector some £16 million over the next four years.

Tovertafel (meaning ‘Magic Table’ in Dutch), a system that projects interactive light animations onto any table to create games for people with moderate to severe dementia and adults with severe learning disabilities, ‘to encourage them to instinctively participate to stimulate both physical and social activity’, is now available in the UK.

With terrorist threats ever-present and increasing, the JLC Group has developed its own-design and manufactured ‘blast enhanced’ sliding door systems, which it says ‘are 30% larger than other comparable systems, for higher traffic levels’.

Healthcare furniture specialist, Teal, has welcomed Vicky Taylor to its LifeCare Team as Interior Solutions manager for the Northern Region, as it looks to strengthen its focus not only on challenging environments, but also on consultative design.

Cygnet Hospital Harrogate is a long-established mental health hospital that provides support and treatment for both NHS and privatelyfunded patients.

Mental Health lead at architectural and design practice, IBI Group, Wendy de Silva, has questioned why Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POEs) are not more commonplace, and called for the mental health sector ‘to join the dots’ and develop a forum in which the results of POEs can be shared.

Despite over a third (34 per cent) having direct experience with bipolar disorder, 50 per cent of the British public couldn’t correctly identify the condition in Rethink Mental Illness research undertaken in the run-up to this year’s World Bipolar Day on 31 March.

Vulnerable patients with mental health conditions are being ‘badly let down by the NHS’, causing them and their families ‘needless suffering and distress’, a Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, Maintaining momentum; driving improvements in mental healthcare, published in March, suggests.

‘Safety is the number one focus’ at a new £7.2 m, 26-bedded acute adult inpatient mental health unit, Manannan Court, recently completed on the Isle of Man, says Teal Furniture, which has supplied the facility with a range of specialist furniture – including chairs, tables, and sofas.

The Department of Health says the £15 m fund it launched late last year to better support people at risk of experiencing a mental health crisis – the ‘Beyond Places of Safety’ scheme – will improve support services for those needing urgent and emergency mental healthcare, including for conditions such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders that could cause people to be a risk to themselves or others.

South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) has selected a preferred bidder to work alongside it to progress its Estate Modernisation Programme (EMP).