Tailoring design to service user needs

That is designed to help calm and restore equilibrium for patients in an anxious, distressed, and potentially aggressive state, and reduce instances of ‘seclusion’. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports on three presentations with a common theme – the significant impact that good building design and a ‘positive’ internal environment can have on patient well-being, recovery, and ‘mood’.

Held over a day and a half at the National Motorcycle Museum, the first Design in Mental Health conference and exhibition to be staged for some years was organised by Step Exhibitions, in partnership with the Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN). The Network was itself established around six years ago by staff in the Design Department at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), who had been collaborating with staff and service users to design and refurbish inpatient and low secure units. It was suggested that a network be established for designers particularly focusing on mental healthcare buildings, and UCLAN secured a two-year grant to develop it, and explore how design professionals could better understand service users’ needs. The Network’s scope has since been significantly broadened – to appeal to anyone with an interest in optimal design of mental healthcare buildings – from architects, artists, designers, and estates and facilities personnel, to nursing and clinical staff, occupational therapists, psychologists, and service users. One of the Network’s best-known achievements has been the establishment, at specialist glazing manufacturer, Britplas’s Warrington factory, of a simulated mental healthcare inpatient bedroom facility, the Better Bedroom, which showcases some of the latest innovations designed specifically for the mental healthcare sphere (HEJ – June 2013).

Impact of good building design