NEWS


Innovators meet the Dragons


Forty-six suppliers of innovative products for the mental healthcare sector attended a recent two-day ‘Dragons’ Den’-style event at the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s Swandean adult inpatient unit in Worthing, the location of the ‘second generation’ new Better Bedroom 2 in accommodation kindly offered by the Trust. Drawn from all over the UK, they presented


their innovations for the second Better Bedroom to a special judging panel. This followed DIMHN chair, Jenny Gill’s Call for Products for the new inpatient bedroom at October’s IHEEM Healthcare Estates 2014 conference and exhibition in Manchester. While the ‘BB2’ has been being developed, a ProCure21+ team has simultaneously been working on the development of repeatable rooms for mental healthcare facilities (see adjacent story). Jenny Gill explained: “BB2 will showcase innovation and creativity in the mental health environment, while the remit for the P21+ repeatable rooms initiative is evidence-based design arrangements coupled with standardised components to improve patient outcomes and drive down costs.” To take forward the selection of the initial


products for use in BB2, a judging panel was formed, comprising DIMHN’s Better Bedroom project director, Jenny Gill; project designer at Oxford Architects, Matthew Balaam; Virginia Bilham, Lee Richmond, and Laurence Elliott, from the Sussex Trust; David Kershaw from the P21+ Repeatable Rooms initiative, and Jeff Bartle of St Andrew’s Healthcare. Jenny Gill said: “We had made clear that we were seeking products which were imaginative,


creative, innovative, original, and aesthetically appealing, and also met anti-ligature requirements. The response was encouraging, with around 100 different products offered for consideration. We used these key criteria to score each product, first for shortlisting, and then at the ‘Dragons’ Den’ event.” In all, 46 companies, which had scored


‘over 5 out of 8’, were invited to attend the selection days, with about 60 products shown. Each had 15 minutes to present its product and convince the Dragons that the idea or product met the key criteria. Over the two days presenters came from as far afield as Holland. Jenny Gill added: “The standard of products


offered was high, with some really new and innovative products coming to the fore, and some advances on already tried and tested products. It will be exciting to see these in place later in the year when the bedroom opens.” During the course of the two days, the


Dragons (left to right: Jeff Bartle, David Kershaw, Matthew Balaam, Virginia Bilham, Lee Richardson, Laurence Elliott) visited the two rooms to be transformed. “This is the ‘before’; we are now looking forward to the ‘after’!” said Jenny Gill.


Privacy, dignity, and access control


Primera Passport anti-ligature locksets have been purpose designed for mental healthcare applications, and to satisfy growing demand for service-users to have complete control over access to, and from, their personal living space. Primera says this ‘reduces


demand on clinical staff, and eliminates the indignity of patients being forced to seek help when doors need locking or unlocking to protect their valuable personal possessions’. The company added: “In what probably feels a very alien place, such cherished personal


possessions might provide significant comfort, and recollections of home, and give hope that, one day, things might return to how they were. “Passport operates without the


need for ordinary mechanical keys, via proximity cards, key fobs, or wrist straps, to unlock the door. This


reduces opportunities for self-harm or injury


to clinical staff. Increased independence, privacy, dignity, and personal security, all help to minimise potential flashpoints, confrontation, and situations that could jeopardise peace and calm on the ward.”


A ‘real understanding of dementia’


People with dementia admitted to mental health units ‘benefit greatly from an environment specifically designed to meet their needs’. So says the Dementia Services Development


Centre (DSDC) at Stirling University, whose new book, Designing mental health units for people with dementia: features to assist patients with dementia and delirium, sets out, ‘how to create the optimum environment’.


10 THE NETWORK January 2015 The DSDC said: “Dementia-friendly design


is recognised as a powerful therapeutic intervention for people with dementia. Most of the information available to date, however, has related to domestic or care home settings. Our new guidance demonstrates how, for minimum cost, mental health units can be easily adapted to meet the complex combination of impairments experienced by many with dementia.”


Repeatable rooms for mental healthcare


Building on the success already seen in acute bedrooms and outpatient consult/exam rooms (now being adopted by three NHS Trusts), the ProCure21+ Principal Supply Chain Partners spent much of 2014 developing Repeatable Room arrangements for mental health services: a bedroom with en suite WC and shower room for functional and organic mental health conditions. The P21+ team intends to continue taking into account feedback from the Design in Mental Health Network as this work goes forward. David Kershaw, ProCure 21+ programme


director for PSCPs, explained: “Starting as before, with a research review in association with the Medical Architecture Research Unit (MARU) at London South Bank University, the development process was extended to include structured interviews with volunteer Trusts. Three different service-user groups were then consulted. The third input was an experience base convened from national and international projects. Initial proposals were presented to two expert panels, including clinicians, academics, service-users, Trusts, designers, healthcare planners, and Royal Colleges, before being subjected to operational and functional tests. “Final proposals, comprising a bedroom


with an en suite adjacent to the internal corridor for functional mental health conditions (see sketch image), and two organic mental health equivalents with the en suite ‘corridor side’ – and a nested or parallel arrangement of the en suites – were then presented to a Technical Panel. “An interesting and potentially far-


reaching supplementary benefit is the discovery that the organic mental health bedroom arrangement might also suit a forensic service. If adopted on a wide scale, Trusts would have greater ability to respond to changing acuity levels without a change in bed space numbers, while simultaneously reducing capital investment.” In parallel with this design development,


work has been undertaken to extend and supplement the existing selection of standard components for repeatable rooms to include a series of components suitable for the mental health environment. The repeatable room arrangements and standard components will be formally launched early this year.


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