HIGH SECURE FACILITIES


Norwegian high security facility’s striking setting


June Haugen Welo, of Ratio arkitekter, reports on the design of a ground-breaking and award- winning new regional high security mental healthcare facility in a striking setting in Trondheim in northern Norway, which the practice co-designed with Danish architectural practice, Karlsson Architects, and to which patients re-located from a former leprosy hospital in November 2021.


St. Olav’s High-Security Mental Hospital in Trondheim is the first regional security unit for forensic psychiatry to be purpose built in Norway. The unit provides care for 21 inpatient forensic mental health service-users – the majority of whom receive treatment under Norway’s Mental Health Act. The facility acts as a centre for rehabilitation and recovery, while providing patients, staff, and the local community, with high levels of safety and security. The new high secure facility – built between 2019 and 2021, won a pricing and design competition in 2017, patients having relocated to it in November 2021.


Background The construction of the new Sikkerhetsbygget, High-Security Mental Hospital at St. Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim was part of a nationwide initiative to upgrade the highest security level mental healthcare facilities in Norway. As the first of three facilities to be built for this purpose, it can be seen as a model of best practice for the other two. The existing high-secure facilities were all in need of modernisation to enable them to meet 21st century mental healthcare requirements. The St Olav’s mental healthcare facility unit was previously housed in a former leprosy hospital, where patients and staff had to endure sub-standard conditions. Forensic mental health patients within the country’s high-secure units cannot access the


The new mental healthcare facility is located on the outskirts of the protected mental hospital campus, with an open view over the landscape, the sea, and the forest edge to the east.


outside community, making it essential to provide an environment within the facilities in which they can live as fully as possible. The treatment of this patient group is challenging for staff and service- users alike, and many of the service-users remain in the facility for years. This hospital is not a correctional


facility; the emphasis is instead on therapy and rehabilitation. The primary purpose is


About the new facility


l Name: Sikkerhetsbygget, High Security Mental Hospital, St. Olav’s Hospital, Trondheim.


l Project type: High security mental hospital. l Gross area: 7,400 m2


.


l Client: St. Olav’s Hospital. l Client’s representative: Sykehusbygg HF. l Turnkey contractor: NCC Norway. l Project cost: Approx €44 million. l Architect: RATIO arkitekter AS, Norway, Karlsson Architects, Denmark. l Landscape architect: Schønherr, Denmark. l Adviser: COWI.


THE NETWORK | FEBRUARY 2023


to empower patients to seek treatment, motivate and promote their recovery, and ultimately help them manage their life and their illness more effectively.


Staff and treatment model The new facility is designed around St. Olav’s Hospital’s specialist competence and treatment models. The high security mental health team has led the way in secure psychiatric care for decades, despite the hospital’s formerly sub- standard facilities for care. Staff are trained in the forensic mental healthcare environment and its challenges. This includes working with highly vulnerable people, long-stays, and de-escalation techniques. Specifically, the team has developed The Brøset Violence Checklist (BVC), to evaluate the risk of violence in forensic mental health inpatients. The results are used to develop individualised, comprehensive treatment programmes that include customised therapy, medication, and environmental modifications that address the patient’s unique care requirements.


25


Photo used courtesy of m.herzog/visualis-images/


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40