A better bedroom to aid recovery

The first Better Bedroom has now been in situ at the Warrington headquarters of specialist window and door manufacturer, Britplas, since September, attracting considerable interest. The aim is to showcase, within a ‘mock-up’ bedroom adaptable over time to incorporate emerging technologies, some of the latest thinking and features for creating mental healthcare inpatient accommodation that is not only comfortable, calming, and ‘non-institutional’, but also maximises patient and staff safety. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Jenny Gill, an experienced healthcare planner, and one of the original champions of The Better Bedroom initiative, has been a Board member of the Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN) since last year, and it was she that I first spoke with to discover more about the project’s history. It was under the auspices of the Network – an informal, but everexpanding group established to bring together all those involved in mental healthcare in the UK to share ideas, expertise, and knowledge to improve the patient environment – that the first (and only to date) Better Bedroom facility was built and installed within the showroom at Britplas in Warrington last autumn. Since the establishment of the first of what, it is hoped, will be at least two such facilities in the UK, it has seen a regular visitor stream – including architects, designers, NHS estates and facilities professionals – many involved in ongoing new build or refurbishment schemes – as well as clinicians and nursing staff.

How the project began