Designing For Recovery
may be square or right-angled, but can we have a bit more colour please, and not just teak or oak colours; all of this can make a big difference.”
SUFFICIENT PRIVACY
It was vital too when designing a new mental healthcare facility, or indeed redeveloping an existing one, to ensure there were spaces incorporated to afford service-users privacy, for example to allow computer access, or undertake college coursework. Ian Callaghan told delegates at this stage: “Looking ahead in mental healthcare facility design is very much about thinking outside the box. Joe Forster mentioned that in perhaps 20 years’ time we will be having a different conversation, having incorporated many of the design elements into many more of the facilities that we have built. I think there is also room to ‘facilitate the digital age’ in many inpatient units; the Recornect Cowall being an excellent example.” Ian Callaghan’s experience was that service-
‘I also couldn’t believe how many doors had to be unlocked before I went onto the ward. I had no conception of what an airlock was, or that I couldn’t get a key’
users frequently struggle to know how to put artwork up in corridors, whether posters, poems, or pictures. He said: “Sometimes there simply doesn’t seem to be anywhere for it to easily go. The walls can be damaged. At home we have quite a minimalist environment, but within it a 52 inch television on the wall, and can view our photographs on it. GPs’ surgeries now often feature screens on the walls, so why not show photographs that patients have taken in a day room or ward environment?”
One of Ian Callaghan’s other key points was, as he put it, the importance of ‘involvement’ to service-users. He also encouraged audience members to ‘try out a user environment for yourself, and be a patient for at least a day’.
OTHER KEY ELEMENTS
In concluding, he emphasised a number of other key elements which he said were ‘essential’ to recovery. Service-users needed rest and recuperation, the ‘sustenance of doing something worthwhile while in a care environment’, and ‘a good view in all senses’, as well as, ‘hugely importantly, an achievable destination’.
He added: “I am really struck at this conference – the first Design in Mental Health event I have been to – by the dedication and enthusiasm for change and improvement that people are showing. I didn’t realise there were so many companies producing items specifically to improve the mental healthcare environment. “
One of the topics addressed was the difference between recovering from a physical injury, and recuperating after a spell of mental ill health.
As his presentation ended, he cited a ‘favourite quote’, from Mike Slade, Professor of Health Services Research at King’s College London, who said in 2010, in terms of ‘tips’ for those involved in mental healthcare – whether service-users, constructors, or designers: “This multiplicity of perspectives in itself has an important lesson – no one approach works, or ‘fits’, everyone. There is no right way for a person to recover.”
‘Some of the newer ones have activity facilities like motorbike maintenance areas, a graphic design department, and a bricklaying area’
a sense of security
Red Alert staff attack systems have been protecting staff in the workplace from the threat of attack and abuse for more than 15 years.
The new Curo alarm transmitter gives staff the ‘sense of security’ that help can be quickly summoned, by the press of a button or the tug of a transmitter.
Response personnel are notified of a call for assistance by interfacing with radio paging equipment and indicator panels. With the technology being based on high-powered IR transmission, functionality, reliability and simplicity of use are key attributes of the Red Alert system.
call +44 (0)191 272 2222 email
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