Seven years have elapsed since members of the Design In Mental Health Network first discussed designing and building a ‘mock-up’ mental healthcare inpatient bedroom to enable evaluation of the latest products and technologies targeted at such environments in a realistic setting. Here, DIMHN chair, Jenny Gill, looks back at the considerable progress in developing the Better Bedroom, and explains the latest plans to now focus on other inpatient environments where improvements are due.
In 2009 a discussion took place at a Design In Mental Health Network meeting upon hearing that yet another mock-up bedroom was about to be built by an NHS Trust to enable it to test the robustness and resilience of items such as furniture, windows, and doors. We acknowledged that while these could be invaluable, they did draw on resources that could otherwise be spent elsewhere on the scheme.
The discussion then took a flight of fancy – ‘what if we could build a bedroom?’ We could then feature the latest technologies, products, and thinking, within a realistic environment. It could be a valuable resource through which professionals involved in planning, designing, constructing, and operating from, mental healthcare buildings could make informed decisions. We could invite feedback and update and advance product development to improve the therapeutic environment of the bedroom, which is, after all, the single most important room in the building for a service-user. Additionally, it could help to reduce the number of mock-ups being built, goods being tested, and money spent, by giving NHS Trusts somewhere to go where all these things were available to look at and discuss.
In 2011 our flight of fancy began to grow wings; the more we discussed it the more excited we became, but what did we need to make it a reality?
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