NEWS COVER STORY Safe, inclusive, supportive washrooms


In supportive care environments, such as learning disability, eating disorder, or acquired brain injury support and rehabilitation, a large part of the care objective is to promote confidence and independence, for improved mental wellbeing. Service-users are often also at risk from other health-related vulnerabilities; personal hygiene is important, but safety is paramount for their protection, especially when showering. Close attention to the performance and operation of the shower is required, but so too is enhanced user autonomy, via supportive and inclusive design. Widely in use across acute NHS, private, and residential healthcare facilities, Horne’s Care shower range ‘offers the optimum in safe, inclusive, and supportive design’.


Safe: l Pre-plumbed panel – protects the user from the high surface temperature of the hot water supply pipe.


l Flow rate limited to 8 litres/min – ‘not overwhelming, but optimal for wetting and rinsing’.


l Optional In-Line Thermal Disinfection unit (ILTDU) protects vulnerable users from retrograde pathogens.


l Integral TMV3-approved thermostatic shower valve – highly accurate and responsive, constantly delivering safe and comfortable warm water.


Inclusive: l Tonal and colour contrasts between controls and panel, riser rail, handset and hose, and sliding handset holder (for those with sight impairments).


l Controls with enhanced visible/touch/operational differences (sight impairments).


l Low torque operation (hand controls) and easy height adjustment of sliding handset holder – all with just a closed fist (limited hand mobility).


l A pull-tab (mechanism release extender) enables easy lowering of high-set handset carriage (height inclusive). l Handset attitude infinitely variable.


Additional supportive grab rails in Deep Orange or White (sliding handset carriage omitted) complete the safe, inclusive, and supportive washroom.


Horne Engineering Ltd, PO Box 7, Rankine Street Johnstone, Renfrewshire PA5 8BD T: 01505 321455; E: sales@horne.co.uk; http://b.link/CareShower


A successful Digital Week withaninternational flavour


With this year’s Design in Mental Health Conference, Exhibition and Awards Dinner postponed to due to the coronavirus outbreak (see also page 6), the Design in Mental Health Network, working with Step Exhibitions, staged a successful Digital Week from 8-12 June, comprising a series of webinars presented by key personnel from within the sector.


Topics covered ranged from how construction of new mental healthcare facilities has progressed despite the lockdown, and some of the key tools available to ensure continued engagement when stakeholders cannot meet physically, to ways to advance anti-ligature design, and the importance of stakeholder input when designing mental healthcare spaces. In a number of cases, speakers explained, ongoing schemes had had to be altered to reflect social distancing guidance. A session on ‘International Perspectives’, chaired by Alex Caruso, MD of Alessandro Architecture and Interiors, saw the chair discuss his own practice’s recent experiences designing for a range of service-users. While a project to add a two- storey extension to the Glebe House Surgery in north Yorkshire – expanding treatment and consulting room capacity – had had to be delayed, this had ‘provided a great opportunity to review the design in the light of the measures that can prevent COVID-19 from spreading’. Key design elements now include a wide main entrance canopy, to allow queuing outside the


THE NETWORK | JULY 2020


building and refuge from the elements, reception desks with glazed screens, a one-way access and exit system, a main waiting area and sub-waiting area to the consult/treatment rooms to restrict the numbers accessing ‘hot and cold’ zones, and all ironmongery upgraded with an anti-microbial coating. Alex Caruso also discussed several mental healthcare


Francis Pitts.


projects already completed by the practice, and some of the changes that had had to be considered – from moving service-users with COVID-19 needing continuous oxygen to local acute Trust facilities, while considering the future need for more oxygen cylinder storage space, to creating staff changing facilities near entrances to allow for wearing of PPE. He also noted that with increased future anxiety among patients and staff, the standard of mental healthcare environments would become ever more important.


Alex Caruso.


Other presenters in this international session included Francis Pitts, Principal at US practice, Architecture+, who noted ‘some early lessons’ from America’s ‘first brush’ with the pandemic, that had already changed how architects practice, and caregivers collaborate, with ‘some significant implications for the planning and design of mental healthcare facilities’. Andrea Brambila, an architect and PhD Candidate at the Politecnico


di Milano’s Department of Architecture, the Built Environment, and Construction Engineering, discussed the pandemic’s impact on Italian healthcare, while two architects from the Perth, Australia studio of multidisciplinary practice, Hassell, Morag Lee and Jeff Menkens, described the practice’s work to ‘carry on business as usual’ during the current restrictions, and the methodologies put in place to look after both staff and clients. DiMHN chair, Jenny Gill said: “Many people logged on during a very interesting and informative Digital Week, to hear from global experts in mental healthcare design – architects, interior designers, manufacturing and


construction personnel, estates and facilities, planning, and strategic projects staff, academics/researchers, and experts by experience.


“Much of the week naturally focused on pandemic-related changes to working practices and future requirements for services. The international presentations gave an insight into the effects, and different countries’ responses, and the way our professions have responded. What was clear and very heartening was how we have all risen to the challenges, particularly in embracing technology – which too has advanced rapidly, and that there is a desire to keep the efficiencies gained with digital meetings in particular, which allow for more stakeholder participation.


“A number of messages – such as the need for greater flexibility and space within mental healthcare units – were repeated, and I would recommend that those who were unable to attend the Digital Week visit www.designinmentalhealth.com, and access the on-demand content. This includes both the main presentations, and manufacturers presenting on innovative products.”


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