ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN


Top left: The mental healthcare aspects of Manchester’s Gorton Community Hub were incorporated into the overall primary care facility and adjacent community gardens. Top right: A library is among the facilities on offer at the Gorton Community Hub. Left: The high levels of glazing in the Gorton Community Hub building open up views, and enable a visual connection with the public services available on the ground floor. Right: Gorton Community Hub in Manchester, an integrated multi-service facility that is reportedly the first of its kind in the city to co-locate a range of health, wellbeing, and community services.


designing mental healthcare into primary care settings. This is an innovative and more sustainable model for healthcare delivery that feeds into the government’s COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan, which is backed by an investment of £500 m, and calls for more joined-up support between primary and secondary care, including embedding specialist mental health services into primary care. To address current and future demand,


and reflect the UK’s Live Longer Better Programme, mental health services need to integrate health and social care, offer preventative support, improve mental health provision, and thereby ease the intense pressure on the NHS. This also requires a careful design strategy to seamlessly meld various complementary services under one roof, and introduce mental health services in a way that best suits users.


The first of its kind in Manchester Arcadis designed Gorton Community Hub in Manchester, an integrated multi- service facility that is the first of its kind in the city, to co-locate a range of health, wellbeing, and community services,


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comprising NHS healthcare, a library, a JobCentre Plus, and adult education services. Gorton is in the bottom 1% on the Index of Multiple Deprivation areas in England, and with deprivation having a negative effect on mental health, this contributes to added pressures on its primary care setting. Integrating much- needed services in one hub is a forward- thinking way to not only enhance the mental health and lives of people in the community – especially with respect to the early diagnosis and treatment conditions that are prevalent in Gorton, including depression and dementia – but also to boost skills and employment, thereby actively helping break the cycle of deprivation. The mental healthcare aspects of the Hub were incorporated into the overall primary care facility and adjacent community gardens. The high levels of glazing in the building open up views, and enable a visual connection with the public services available on the ground floor. Here, people can sit in the waiting area or in the airy café, access other support services, visit the library or community gardens, or go up to the first floor for discreet counselling rooms. This sense of


flexibility and choice allows users to feel more in control of their visit.


Cardiff ‘wellbeing hub’ Similarly, the Wellbeing Hub at Park View in Cardiff will play a key role in enhancing residents’ wellness in the region, and add much-needed healthcare resources as part of a prevention-focused, integrated healthcare strategy. The design concept at the Cardiff development is geared around visitors’ comfort, convenience, and wellbeing, with a welcoming double-height atrium, custom wayfinding, and artwork, promoting a positive atmosphere, and recognising the healing power of links to nature. The Hub’s co-location with existing community centre services is a strong example of ‘social prescribing’, whereby patients are referred to non-clinical resources to support better health.


The future of mental health design There is no doubt that current regulations and safety standards present a challenge when it comes to exploring new ways of delivering mental health facilities. The sector in the UK is particularly risk-averse, with stringent rules that can make designing homely, welcoming


AUGUST 2023 | THE NETWORK


Gorton Hub images courtesy Positive Image Photography


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