Explore the 2027 Conference Themes

Housing, Care and Design for Better Living

Good homes are fundamental to mental wellbeing, recovery, independence and prevention. As health, housing, social care and VCSE partners support more care at home, the design of those homes has a direct impact on people’s ability to live safely, independently and with dignity in their communities. Too often, the lack of suitable housing contributes to delayed discharge, avoidable admission, out-of-area placements, crisis escalation and people remaining in settings that do not meet their needs. Many supported living schemes are also being delivered through refurbishment, conversion and adaptation of existing homes, housing stock and commercial buildings, bringing new opportunities and challenges for design, commissioning and delivery.

This year we ask: How can commissioners, local authorities, ICBs, NHS trusts, housing and care providers, VCSE organisations, developers, designers, suppliers and people with lived experience work together earlier to create supported living environments that are inclusive, therapeutic, safer, sustainable and fit for the future?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Current projects where housing, health, social care, commissioning, development and design teams are working together to create better supported living environments.
• Refurbishment, conversion and adaptation of existing buildings, and how teams are balancing constraints, cost, safety, accessibility and therapeutic outcomes.
• Inclusive and sensory design in supported living.
• Specialist design challenges, including pica, arson risk, high sensory sensitivity, and behaviours that challenge conventional housing design.
• Smart homes and safer independence, such as environmental controls, telecare, alerts and technologies that support people to live well at home
• Commissioning, operating and partnership models: what helps good design translate into sustainable, high-quality support in everyday practice?
• Homes that adapt over time: designing for changing needs, step-down, move-on, independence and long-term flexibility.

Technology – Designing for Human Connection

Technology continues to reshape how mental health care is delivered, where it begins, who can access it and who is involved in delivering it. From AI and apps to wearables, remote care and smart-building technologies, are we moving closer to environments where physical and digital care are working together? Or are we designing each in isolation? How are care environment estates, buildings and services adapting, and where are the gaps and opportunities between technological possibilities and current practice?

This year we ask: How can we design environments where people, places and technology work together? Where is technology strengthening access, care, safety and human connection and what are we learning about trust, inclusion and lived experience?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Smart building technology and adaptive environments that support safety, independence, wellbeing and personalised care
• practical lessons around implementing digital interventions in physical care environments
• Current projects where digital, spatial and care innovation are working hand-in-hand to improve outcomes, access and safety
• Built environment responses to digital-first mental health care: what is already happening, and where must we go next?
• How architecture, layout, materials and building systems are adapting to accommodate AI, voice technology, XR/VR, sensors and remote technologies
• The impact of AI and digital monitoring tools on privacy, autonomy, trust and relational care
• How digital-first care and AI are changing the way people enter and move through mental health services, and what this means for the physical environments around them
• Design strategies for digital security, cyber protection and information flow across increasingly connected environments
• Infrastructure and design principles that allow mental health environments to remain adaptable and resilient as technology continues to evolve
• Procurement, implementation and adoption: what organisations have learned from introducing new technology into existing mental health environments

Responding to Crisis through Design – Urgent, Acute and Inpatient Environments

As demand increases across emergency and crisis mental health services, and a new wave of Mental Health Emergency Departments takes shape alongside increasingly pressured inpatient, acute and secure settings, we need environments that respond to people at some of their most vulnerable moments, while also supporting those providing care.

This year we ask: What are we learning about how environments should be designed for people experiencing mental health crisis? How can design create compassionate, trauma-informed and person-centered environments that balance safety with dignity, clinical urgency with therapeutic care, and physical with mental health needs?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Designing Mental Health Emergency Departments, acute and crisis environments that improve patient experience and care outcomes
• Arrival, assessment, waiting and de-escalation spaces that reduce distress and support people in crisis
• Co-production and learning from lived experience, clinical teams and existing crisis environments to shape future designs
• Spatial planning and design strategies to support psychiatric liaison, RAID and co-located services within acute settings
• Built environment adaptations that facilitate effective acute medical care for people with mental health needs
• Creating trauma-informed and neuroinclusive environments through thoughtful spatial design and material choices
• Design and environmental considerations in therapeutic spaces for custodial settings, courts, and secure schools
• Contributions of the built environment to fulfilling NHS Culture of Care programme standards, including sensory and safety adaptations
• Embedding sensory, biophilic, and empowering design elements within acute and secure care environments to promote wellbeing and recovery
• Innovations in products, fixtures and spatial layouts that support relational safety, dignity, autonomy and staff wellbeing

Designing for Better Mental Health in the Community

As community mental health centres expand and neighbourhood models take shape, the challenge is not simply to move services out of hospital. We need places, partnerships and infrastructure that make support easier to reach, available earlier, more joined up and more responsive to local need. At their best, community environments help people feel recognised, supported and connected, while creating the conditions for continuity, belonging and recovery.

This year we ask

What kinds of community environments are supporting prevention, early intervention and integrated mental health care closer to home? How can place-based design connect clinical, social and practical support, while strengthening access, equity, belonging and recovery?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Models of care and design: how are changing models of community mental health care shaping environments and infrastructure?
• Co-production in the community: what are we learning about involving people and communities in shaping places for mental health care?
• Integration beyond co-location: how can environments connect physical and mental healthcare with social care, peer support, housing, employment and community services?
• Access, arrival and welcome: how do location, transport, entrances, thresholds, wayfinding and physical and digital routes into care shape people’s experience?
• Flexible, welcoming and non-institutional environments: how can spaces balance clinical care, privacy, safety, social connection, staff needs and changing uses?
• Repurposing and adapting community buildings: what are the design, operational and coordination challenges of adapting existing spaces for local care?
• Different places, different solutions: how do urban, rural, coastal and underserved communities shape access, inclusion, infrastructure, workforce and service design?
• Public, social and natural infrastructure: what role can housing, transport, outdoor space, green and blue spaces and community assets play in prevention, wellbeing, belonging and recovery?
• Operational and estates learning: what are we learning about shared use, utilisation, maintenance, security, digital infrastructure, partnership working and long-term adaptability?

Safer Care through Design – Workforce, Culture and Wellbeing

Safe and therapeutic mental health care depends on environments that support both people receiving care and the workforce delivering it. Across mental health, secure and justice settings, recent reports and investigations, including those by HSSIB, have highlighted persistent environmental risks, gaps where physical and mental healthcare meet, and the need to support staff as well as those receiving care.

This year we ask: How can design create safer, less restrictive and more therapeutic environments? How can the built environment support dignity, autonomy, relational safety, rehabilitation, physical health and staff wellbeing while meeting changing clinical, legal and operational demands?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Preventing distress and escalation through design
• Staff mental health, wellbeing and safety supported through design
• Healthy living in secure settings: supporting activity, movement, access to outdoor space and wellbeing
• Secure and justice environments: supporting mental health, rehabilitation, purposeful activity, dignity and less-restrictive care
• Balancing ligature risk in dignified and therapeutic environments
• Physical healthcare in mental health and secure settings: supporting safe, dignified assessment and treatment
• Reliable mechanical, electrical and specialist safety systems that reduce risk while supporting therapeutic care
• Materials, fixtures and finishes that meet infection control, fire and safety requirements without compromising comfort, dignity or sensory needs
• Balancing security, observation and privacy with autonomy and relational safety

Designing for Belonging

People experience and navigate environments in different ways, shaped by sensory, cognitive, physical and communication needs. When environments fail to reflect that diversity, they can create barriers, increase stress and disorientation, and contribute to exclusion and isolation. Well-designed environments can support independence, confidence, participation and belonging.

 This year we ask: How can we design environments that respond to a range of sensory, cognitive, physical and communication needs? How can inclusive, neuroinclusive and sensory-informed design support autonomy, participation and belonging across healthcare, education, supported housing and community settings?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Designing for neurodiversity: environments that support regulation, autonomy, and sensory needs across healthcare, schools, and supported housing
• Sensory-informed design: how light, sound, colour, materiality and spatial planning can reduce stress and support wellbeing
• Designing for people with learning disabilities: environments that support independence, communication, safety and participation
• Dementia-friendly environments: responding to changing cognitive, sensory and physical needs over time
• Inclusive design in schools and early years spaces: how learning and caring environments can support mental wellbeing from a young age
• Supported housing and community spaces: accessible and adaptable environments that respond to mental health, physical, sensory and cognitive needs
• Shared spaces for diverse users, families and carers: how can design balance different needs within the same environment?
• Moving beyond minimum standards: examples where inclusive design improves dignity, autonomy, participation and everyday experience

Sustainability by Design – Resilient, Adaptable and Future-Ready Mental Health Environments

Mental health environments must do more than provide a place for care. They need to actively support wellbeing and recovery, reduce environmental impact, remain affordable to operate and continue to function under changing or extreme conditions. From energy and materials to adaptability, maintenance and infrastructure resilience, design decisions made today will shape how well our environments support care long into the future.

This year we ask: How can we design mental health environments that are therapeutic, sustainable and resilient, delivering long-term value while adapting to changing care needs, climate, energy and financial pressures?

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Designing for long-term value: reducing operating costs and future-proofing estates through smarter material, system and lifecycle choices
• Net-zero and low-carbon innovation: examples of energy-efficient, circular and nature-enhancing design in mental health settings
• Adaptation and retrofit: transforming existing or underused spaces into therapeutic, efficient and future-ready environments
• Operational sustainability: layouts, materials and design decisions that reduce waste, improve maintainability and extend lifecycle performance
• Climate and energy resilience: designing environments that can remain safe, therapeutic and operational during extreme weather, energy disruption or infrastructure failure
• Whole-life value and affordability: demonstrating value over the life of a building, not only at capital stage
• Creative responses to constrained budgets: partnerships, procurement approaches and cost-benefit thinking that protect design quality
• Balancing sustainability with therapeutic and clinical need: ensuring carbon and efficiency targets do not undermine dignity, safety or quality of care
• Designing for adaptability: environments that can respond to changing models of care, technology, workforce and future demand
• Learning from practice: post-occupancy evidence showing how sustainable mental health environments perform for people, staff and estates over time.

Design & Digital Solutions

With a focus on safety, cost-effectiveness, and digital innovation, our Design & Digital Solutions Theatre showcases the latest technologies, products, and solutions making a real difference in mental health environments.

For this Theatre, we’re seeking sessions that clearly demonstrate:

• The challenge or need that the solution was designed to address
• How the solution works – including key features and functionality
• Real-world applications and use cases – specifically in mental health settings
• Measurable benefits – such as cost savings, operational efficiency, or improved safety
• Impact on service users and staff – enhancing wellbeing, experience, and outcomes
• Integration with existing systems – practical considerations for adoption
• Lessons learned – challenges, successes, and recommendations

Sessions should be informative and insight-driven, focusing on value rather than direct sales promotion.