FORENSIC MENTAL HEALTHCARE
Portrane facility reflects updated national policy
‘Heralding a new era in mental health services in Ireland’, the new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital in Portrane in County Dublin exploits the therapeutic value of nature ‘in a discreetly secure setting which promotes the recovery of patients’. Ruairi Reeves, director at Medical Architecture, and Karl Burton, an associate architect at Scott Tallon Walker Architects, the two practices that designed the impressive new facility, report.
The new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital is laid out as a series of single-storey pavilion buildings around a pedestrianised ‘village green’, with a variety of spaces for meaningful activity. The arrangement achieves intuitive wayfinding through a site-wide narrative of colour, art, and landscaping.
A holistic view of forensic mental health The new campus is a replacement for the former Central Mental Hospital, in Dublin City, built in 1850, and one of the first secure mental health hospitals in Europe. There had been little structural change to the facility since its construction, and while there had been renovation and refurbishment, many elements of the building were reflective of the Victorian era that it was built in, and were out of date for modern mental health service requirements. In the lead up to the project, the strategic approach to mental health services in Ireland was also undergoing a period of reform, culminating in an updated national policy, ‘A Vision for Change’, in 2006. This set out a comprehensive framework for mental healthcare in the country, including specific recommendations
The plant palette has been chosen to integrate the scheme with the surrounding area at its boundaries.
for forensic mental health services. Among other things, this included a necessity to meet the needs of special groups of forensic service users in a more comprehensive manner – including women, adolescents, and people with a learning disability.
Designed to support new models of care Reflecting the new national policy, the National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital has been designed to support new models of care that promote recovery through an active therapeutic programme,
To limit the need for artificial lighting, window sizes were calculated to maximise daylight, while minimising overheating and glare.
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Located in an attractive woodland setting, the hospital has been planned to promote social interaction.
FEBRUARY 2023 | THE NETWORK
All photography used courtesy of Paul Tierney
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