Kingsway Group says it exists ‘to push limits, challenge thinking, and drive innovation to move design in mental health environments to the next level’.
It said: “As experts in anti-ligature and anti-barricade design, we’ve helped over 85% of NHS mental health Trusts improve service-user and staff safety in their facilities. Reducing risk and helping clinical staff protect the most vulnerable is at our core, but we also believe safety doesn’t have to be a barrier to good design.
“While good environmental design needs to be functional, durable, and fit for purpose, finer details such as appearance and feel also carry great importance for their ability to influence people’s emotional responses to, and perceptions of, a given environment. It’s why we place so much emphasis on ensuring that our anti-ligature and anti-barricade doorsets look and feel the way they do. Good design can encourage feelings of calmness, openness, and safety, and at the very least, good design is unlikely to stimulate negative emotional responses.
“By carefully considering these elements, we can help clinical teams deliver non-institutional, therapeutic spaces that aid service-user recovery journeys. Our new anti-ligature SHOWER Door System, for instance, achieves anti-ligature design with an elegant and fully customisable appearance. Its anti-ligature panel can be finished in a range of patterns and colours, or with bespoke imagery across its entire surface, bringing healing landscapes, calming art pieces, or subtle tones, into challenging ward settings. Gone are the days where safe, robust solutions come at the cost of daunting appearances.”
Kingsway says the new SHOWER Door ‘helps add a personalised touch to service user en-suites, while supporting clinical teams’ risk management strategies in one of the most challenging spaces in a mental health facility’. Its robust and ligature-resistant nature ‘reduces the risk of self-harm, while safely maintaining service-user privacy and dignity’.
The company stresses that this ‘approach to safety through non-institutional design’ extends across it range – including its SENTRY Full Door Edge Ligature Alarm System. It said: “Designed to prevent loss of life in challenging environments, our SENTRY system is the most versatile ligature-alarmed doorset available for mental health environments. It too features extensive customisation possibilities to help staff deliver welcoming environments for service-users. Our experienced staff will work with you to understand the service users’ specific needs before suggesting the most suitable options.”
Since Kingsway Group ‘began its mission to advance design in mental health’, it has delivered over 2,300 anti-ligature projects throughout the UK, and says its ‘appreciation for the people who experience our products day-to-day’ is one of the reasons so many facilities have trusted it to be their ‘partner in patient safety’. It explained: “Our three-step process of Define, Design, and Deliver ensures the right solutions are delivered for your facility, its staff, and the service-users within it, and with a five-year guarantee across all our doorsets as standard, our partners are safe in the knowledge that our solutions are fit-for-purpose in the most demanding settings, and that we’re on hand to offer ongoing support whenever it is needed. To learn more about how we can help you improve safety, visit www.kingswaygroupglobal.com”
