Adolescent inpatient facilities
‘Home-from-home’ design for adolescent patients
David Rodgers, a project manager for St Andrew’s Healthcare, a leading UK charity that provides specialist mental healthcare, discusses the design and construction of FitzRoy House – a new £45 million inpatient building for young people at the organisation’s Northampton site, discussing the project, the brief, and the numerous benefits anticipated for the service- users who, from early next year, will be accommodated within Europe’s largest mental healthcare facility yet built for young people.
It’s a sad reality that mental health issues affect around one in 10 young people today. Some children may go on to develop mental disorders with challenging behaviours that mean it is no longer safe for them to live at home in their community. This is where St Andrew’s Healthcare comes in – to play an important role in these young people’s lives and those of their families. St Andrew’s is a unique organisation in the UK. A charity with more than 175 years’ history in supporting those with mental illness, today it employs more than 4,000 people, and cares for around 850 patients across the lifespan with some of the most complex conditions in the country. A significant number of those patients are aged 13-18. Their conditions might include severe mental disorders including psychotic illness, severe emotional disturbance, and affective disorders associated with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours (sometimes to others, including offending behaviours, but often harm that is directed towards themselves).
The Adolescent Pathway at St Andrew’s delivers evidence-based treatment tailored to this patient group. Highly specialised multidisciplinary teams work within predominantly secure inpatient wards. The pathway currently occupies two separate buildings at the charity’s large estate in Northampton.
NEW ‘STATE-OF-THE-ART’ BUILDING From January 2017, up to 110 young people will be cared for in a new, state-of-the-art building, FitzRoy House. Paul Bentham, service director for the Adolescent Pathway at St Andrew’s, explains why the charity decided to make a £45 million investment in the new building. “St Andrew’s vision is to transform people’s lives by delivering world-class mental healthcare,” he says. “We’re making this investment to give our young patients the best
support possible, and to lead the way in caring for those that need specialist, secure services. “Part of this is about ensuring that we apply the latest innovations, both from a design and a therapy perspective. We’ve involved our young people at every step of the process – in helping to design the layout of the new building, naming the wards, and making sure that the
environment is as peaceful and welcoming as possible.
“Not only will the new building help us deliver the best possible care to young people in a single facility, but it will also extend our provision from 92 places to 110.”
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
The design for the new building was led by P+HS Architects, a major design practice with a significant track record in the mental healthcare arena. Cath Lake, director at P+HS, said: “The design of FitzRoy House was an interesting challenge. There were three elements that needed careful consideration. First, the new building needed to fit with the heritage of the Northampton site, which plays host to a very impressive main building and chapel. Second, it must deliver the safety and security needed: the patients and staff need to be kept safe at all times, and individual wards will require differing levels of security. Thirdly, and most importantly of all, the environment needed to be warm and welcoming, reassuring, and to deliver the ideal conditions to help young people accept and recover from the challenges that have affected their lives.”
FitzRoy House certainly delivers against the
criteria. From first glance, it delivers a classical style of architecture that echoes and emulates the other historic buildings within the site. Because the building is designed for young
An aerial photograph of the new building in construction; considerable emphasis has been put on provision of outside space.
An axonometric drawing of the new inpatient building, FitzRoy House. THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2016 15
All images: ©St Andrew’s Healthcare
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