ACOUSTICS


Making sound choices for the benefit of all users


Andrea Harman, Concept developer for Healthcare for Saint-Gobain Ecophon, discusses some of the key considerations and steps to create a quieter, more calming, recovery environment for service-users in mental healthcare settings, and some of the things to avoid.


When a space feels comfortable and safe it helps our physical and emotional security, enabling us to relax and feel calm. When entering and using a building our feelings of comfort are based on a variety of sensory inputs, and sound is a key part of this. When we are happy with the sound in a space we don’t usually consider it, but when it has a negative impact it is often a cause of complaint. Interpretation of sound has evolved


through human history, but is also affected by personal memories, experience, social and cultural conditioning, bias, and context. So, our response to sound can be individual; the same sound source can lead to a different response in different people, or in the same person when they are in a different mood, or undertaking a different task.


Drawbacks of alarm sounds long- term


One of the audible occurrences that commonly heightens our senses is hearing an alarm, putting us physiologically and psychologically onto high alert, triggering a ‘fight or flight’ response, and releasing adrenalin and stress hormones. This can be beneficial in situations when we need to react, but is not healthy when long-term, or when there is no threat. Many people with mental health


conditions have a magnified response to sound. Causes are wide-ranging, and include hypersensitivity to everyday noises, painful sensitivity to sound, a dislike of certain sounds, and auditory hallucinations. Often the response will appear to others to be disproportionate to the original stimulus. Achieving a calm sound environment is thus an important aspect in reducing the likelihood and impact of noise, helping people to feel


Direct fix impact-resistant sound absorption was affixed to the ceiling in the St Andrew’s Healthcare inpatient mental healthcare facility.


comfortable and safe. The need for a good room acoustic


environment, and the role of design in enabling that within mental health settings, are generally well recognised. HBN 03-01: Adult mental health units: planning and design, states that ‘The environment should be designed to minimise noise and promote a sense of calm and safety’. Unfortunately, we find high noise levels in many mental health spaces, and the level of noise is often exacerbated by the design of the space, and the finishes used. In a room, sound moves away from its source until it comes into contact with the floor, ceiling, walls, or furniture. In a mental health setting – where tough, smooth,


Many people with mental health conditions have a magnified response to sound. Causes are wide-ranging, and include hypersensitivity to everyday noises, painful sensitivity to sound, a dislike of certain sounds, and auditory hallucinations


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hard-wearing room finishes are usually used – sound is often then reflected back into the room, which allows sound waves to overlap, and raises the background noise level. This makes the comprehension of speech more difficult, particularly for people with hearing loss.


Hard, reflective finishes Rooms are often square or rectangular, with parallel walls, and these hard, sound- reflective finishes increase reverberation, and sometimes cause ‘flutter echo’, a series of distinct echoes which we find troubling. In long thinner spaces, such as corridors, sound can also propagate along the length of the space, so that it is clearly heard over a long distance, disturbing other users.


St Andrew’s Healthcare approach Ecophon was recently approached by St Andrew’s Healthcare – a charity that provides specialist mental healthcare for what it says are patients with some of the most complex and challenging mental


NOVEMBER 2022 | THE NETWORK


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