REVIEW


Is fear standing in the way of good design?


The annual Design In Mental Health Conference, Exhibition and Awards was recently held at its new venue in Coventry. Here we look at some of the highlights from the event


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urrent approaches to patient safety and security within mental health units ‘risk doing more


harm than good’, creating ‘suffocating’ environments that are not conducive to recovery.


This was the stark warning from


psychiatric patient, Katherine Lazenby, to delegates at the 2019 Design in Mental Health Conference, held in Coventry last month. A campaigner and ‘expert by


mhdf magazine


experience’; Lazenby has been a patient in mental health units for most of her adult life and now works with the Peabody Housing Association to co- design and facilitate recovery-focused mental health training for staff. She told delegates of the negative impact poor environments can have on patients. In a hard-hitting speech, she said:


“A stagnant, hopeless space just reinforces the misery you feel inside


and I worry about the consequences for a service user who finds themselves trying to recover in an environment that is not conducive to recovery. “The majority of time I have spent as an inpatient has been traumatic and design does not reflect what we know supports healing and recovery.”


THE TRUE COST


In particular, she highlighted the risk- averse nature of mental health design,


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