FURNITURE
Safety ‘the number one focus’ at Manannan Court
Safety is the number one focus at a new 26-bedded, £7.2 m mental health adult psychiatric inpatient facility on the Noble’s Hospital Estate in the Isle of Man, Manannan Court, which ‘provides high standard accommodation to promote healing and recuperation, in a safe environment, for both staff and service-users’.
Designed with local architect, Niall McGarrigle, and Chorley architects, Gilling Dod, to Department of Health standards, the new unit increases local capacity to care for acute mental health patients. It has been equipped with Teal’s specialist furniture throughout, designed to the latest safety standards. Sofas and armchairs, for example, feature ‘extreme use’ boarded plywood panels. The client, The Isle of Man Government, specified all upholstery with Teal’s ‘unique’ ‘Plus+’ complete upholstery, which features sewn-in sealed seams to prevent concealment, and for ease of cleaning. Products supplied included:
l Roku tub chairs. l Astra Quantum+ security chairs. l Flex de-escalation soft foam seating. l Kasumi bedroom chairs. l Fuerza security dining chairs. l Oliver reception sofas. l Ikon stacking café chairs. l Meridian ‘extreme use’ sofas with sealed seats. l Portobello ‘X-specification’ coffee and dining tables. l S-Frame security dining tables. l Galloway armchairs and two-seat sofas with sealed seats. l Pimlico wing armchairs, and sealed seats. l Christie armchairs. l Kurva stacking dining chairs.
From the ‘basics’ to ‘the standout’ Moving to focus specifically on Teal LifeCare, Vicky Taylor said: “Having started with the key products for this sector – the essentials – soft seating, dining furniture, heavy duty beds, and bedroom furniture – we are now looking to broaden the LifeCare offering in an innovative way – i.e. not simply introducing a wide range of generic, robust furniture, but rather identifying what is missing, and addressing the gaps with some really imaginative, standout furniture designs. Within the Teal LifeCare brochure,” she continued, “there is a lot of furniture that would suit multi- purpose environments, but our current focus is on developing furniture for specific mental health environments. In CAMHS facilities, for example, we are seeing considerable interest in our newly launched Jem and Asuka sofa ranges. The angular lines and dynamic styling of these ranges add interest and a contemporary feel to any day space.”
Vicky Taylor said that while in the past, with a shortage of appropriate inpatient beds, young people had often been placed outside their locality, Teal LifeCare had seen the results of the recent drive to provide inpatient services more locally. She said: “In my 18 months here we have supplied three CAMHS projects. When you’re providing furniture for younger people, they don’t want standard, domestic-looking designs; they’d rather have something more interesting and
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contemporary, which enhances their internal environment. We have a young product development team, which really has its collective finger on the pulse of contemporary design. Our team is always looking at new angles on mental health furniture.”
Collaboration with prominent designers
Nigel Davis added: “We also work with some well-established external designers. For instance, the Roku tub chairs, launched in 2016 in vibrant colours, and designed both as a versatile multi-environment chair for dining, bedroom, lounge, and reception areas, and for outdoor use, were designed by Ben Grafton, a London-based product designer. Roku has proven extremely popular, and Ben has more recently also designed the new Roku Keata for Teal.” Created from polyethylene, and with a choice of 30, 50, and 70 kg base weights for use in challenging environments, the original Roku is a rotationally moulded tub chair which was launched alongside a co- ordinating coffee table. Both items are also available fully upholstered, with the latter doubling as a generous bench seat. The one-piece moulded chair’s incorporation of a UV stabiliser enables its use in outdoor spaces, while its ‘flowing design’ and rounded corners both add to its distinctive styling, and make it difficult to grasp. Vicky Taylor added: “The ability to upholster the original Roku tub chair with a wide range of
fabrics – vinyl being best for cleanability and infection control – enables our customers to tailor the chair’s design and upholstery to their specific requirements. Many opt to upholster the Roku in multiple fabrics, ensuring that these chairs sit as real feature pieces within ward areas.”
Building on Roku’s ‘legacy’ ‘Building on the legacy’ of the original Roku concept – ‘a chair which is difficult to manoeuvre, with a ligature-free design and no protruding corners or areas for concealment’, the new Roku Keata has a soft, sculpted form, and is designed for bedroom, dining, reception, and outdoor areas. Sufficiently strong and robust for use in facilities subject to challenging behaviours, it is available with a 20, 40, or a 60 kg weighting. Other options include a seat pad/seat pad and back support for additional comfort. The Keata can be supplied ‘plain’, or partially or fully upholstered.
In contrast to the original Roku, while also rotationally moulded, the Keata has no arms, a mid-back, and a more compact footprint, enabling it to slide under a table or desk for dining room or bedroom use. In tandem with its launch, Teal LifeCare introduced a new colour palette for both Roku and Roku Keata, with six new more ‘calming’ core colours – Heather, Azure, Saffron, Ocean, Sunset, and Fern, and three non-stock colours – Granite, Pebble, and Boat Blue. These replaced the considerably
OCTOBER 2019 | THE NETWORK
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