4th June 2025 Seminars

Safewards (www.safewards.net),  a model and set of interventions shown to decrease incidents of harm on inpatient mental health wards. Safewards has been embraced by services across the world with the Safewards website translated into 10 languages, including German, Spanish and Chinese.

Embedded in Safewards is a consideration of the lived environment and how it influences safety. We will be looking at what the research behind Safewards tells us, the conflicting objectives of the lived environment in terms of “care” and “containment”. The talk will also give thoughts for the future as we address the ongoing challenges of these difficult spaces.

In this session, Philip Ross (DIMH Chair / CEO and Co-Founder at Safehinge Primera) will share his observations from over 15years designing products for use in mental health hospitals around the world. He’svisited +100 hospitals and listened to hundreds of patients, people with lived experience, and staff from these settings as part of his ongoing learning.

One question that continually comes up is the approach to managing risks in mental health settings, and the differing approaches by different countries. When a clinical director in Texas made the statement “Whose anxiety are we treating?”, referring to the fear of risk by staff and organisations, it stuck with him, capturing the blind designers often face between creating therapeutic and caring spaces for patients, and risk management. The latter often wins, with a detrimental impact on the person receiving care, and the caregiver.

Together with a key co-design partner, Philip will also explore the potential role of technology as a different and less intrusive means of risk management.

Summary of the workshop:
The workshop will show which design components are necessary to create a healthy and healing environment that has a positive impact on the behaviour and well-being of people with mental health problems and/or complex disabilities.
In addition, the workshop will show what processes and steps are necessary to create a healthy environment in collaboration between users and designers.
Using a concrete example, the participants will practice the ‘real’ case, from user analysis to the design of the living environment of people with mental and behavioural problems.

Structure of the workshop:
- Introduction to the topic
- Short lecture with practical implications and examples
- Introduction to group assignment
- Self-guided exercise
- Explanation of final assignment
- Concrete example: the participants will practice the ‘real’ case, from user analysis to the design of the living environment of people with mental and behavioural problems
- Short presentation of final assignment
- Group reflection and active participation

Lorna is a registered Architect with 20 years of experience. She leads and manages the Architectural Design Team in Kier Designs’ multi-disciplinary practice in Lincoln. Lorna’s professional background is in the development and delivery of educational projects, including support to Sleaford Secure Children’s Home and Lincolnshire County Council’s £100 million SEND schools transformation programme.

This has allowed her to bring clear insight, knowledge, and passion into supporting the D of E and the Lincolnshire Secure Home Team research and develop this pathfinding scheme to provide access to inclusive health and educational support most needed by the Young People.

Emergency psychiatry, as a building type or environmental setting existed as a quiet backwater (or afterthought) within Hospital-based Emergency Departments in North America (akin to A&E services in the UK) until about 12 years ago when service users and clinicians began to explore alternative models of care that improved the efficiency of Emergency Departments by creating alternative care settings for persons experiencing a mental health emergency. With the encouragement of federal and state governments, a diversity new care models have been co-produced, constructed, and brought into operation in over 100 new settings. These new care models and their associated settings are targeted to improve care, reduce time in crisis care, reduce in-patient admissions, while simultaneously increasing the efficiencies of traditional A&E/ED settings. Using illustrations of newer facilities, Mr. Pitts will moderate a conversation with two pioneering clinicians from the United States an Scotland that will explore the underlying drivers for this movement, illustrate some of the advantages and challenges inherent in theses settings and discuss the implications for service users in terms of targeted and effective care.

It may be said that someone in a bad mood, “woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” There is some truth behind this saying as research shows there is a close relationship between sleep and mental health. Sleep is closely connected to mental and emotional health and has demonstrated links to depression, SAD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, paranoia and other conditions all of which may mean people have problems with their day to day lives.
Bad sleep can be the first indication that something is wrong in a person’s life and if corrected can improve their outcomes for both physical and mental health.
Sleep hygiene can be improved by cultivating good habits and providing bedroom settings that create dynamic environments where individuals can self-regulate depending on their specific needs however providing these dynamic bespoke spaces is difficult in settings outside of the home.
Students living in halls or rental properties find there are limits on what elements can be changed, travellers staying in luxury hotels may discover their room has difficult to control heating with noise and light pollution resulting in a bad night’s sleep. Ultimately these people can make the decision to leave and find somewhere better. In mental health and secure accommodation the user cannot leave and is reliant upon the building and staff to provide a good sleeping environment. Choice and control over the environment is said to be given to users but there are key elements of the standard mental health bedroom which do not give sufficient choice and control to create an optimal sleep environment.
This talk will explore new approaches to bedroom design which will enhance the sleep outcome experience of users through innovations in room layouts and components to help get people waking up on the right side of the bed.

The Culture of Care (CofC) Programme is a major landmark in UK Mental health service delivery. It was codeveloped to reimagine the model of care across NHS-funded mental health, learning disability and autism inpatient settings. This NCCMH led programme is delivered in partnership with Neurodiverse Connection, Black Thrive Global and NCISH. It is based on four key interventions that aim to support wards to provide safe, trauma informed (TI), therapeutic and equity-focused care; working organisationally both at ‘ward’ and ‘Board level’, providing leadership support and personalising the approach to risk.

A key consideration of the programme is the role of the physical environment in providing safe and therapeutic care. Effective implementation of a Trauma Informed Approach (TIA) in inpatient settings, must include embedding TI environments (i.e. environments that promote healing rather than further harm) for those accessing services, as well as for staff1 . In-patient services must also be deigned to meet the needs of neurodivergent people. This includes particular attention to sensory needs with acknowledgment of key elements of the built environment that can contribute to sensory overload or ‘sensory shut down’2. Guidance on design of mental health settings is starting to acknowledge the importance of, and opportunities to, balance elements of more mechanistic safety (e.g. infection control) in the built environment with the need to create therapeutic and psychologically safe environments (e.g. ‘soft furnishings’, and ‘acoustics’)3, 4.

Neurodiverse Connection and ‘TI’ leads for the CofC Programme are working across 10 wards to provide trauma and autism informed environment reviews. Learning will be collated and shared. Aligned with the principles of the programme, this element of work has mixed lived experience and professional experience leadership. The presentation will aim to identifying key principles of ‘best practice’ for autism and trauma informed environments and share learning from the CofC Programme. We will share good practice examples from the work to date, consider current challenges and system-wide solutions.

1. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 'SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach' Administration. SAMHSA 2014
2. Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment Guide. The British Standards Institution PAS6463 2022
3. ‘Its’ Not Rocket Science’. Considering and meeting the sensory needs of autistic children and young people in CAMHS inpatient service. National Development Team for Inclusion, 2020.
4. National Minimum Standards for Psychiatric Intensive Care in General Adult Services. NAPICU, 2014

The Brook is a new-build inpatient facility at Langdon Hospital for adults with a learning disability and/or autism. Highly Commended in the 2024 ‘Project of the Year - Future Design’ award category, the project is due to complete construction in early 2025.

The presentation will share how the design was developed to create a therapeutic, comforting, uplifting environment for recovery for people with complex sensory needs. Designing for neurodiversity was at the forefront of this project, with the added complexity of a mixed patient cohort comprising individuals who may have greatly differing environmental requirements.

Co-production and robust engagement with clinicians and Experts by Experience informed every stage of the design process; from advising on spatial zoning and flow for individuals who struggle with wayfinding, to developing interiors that avoid sensory overwhelm while using colour, lighting and acoustic solutions creatively to create calming and homely spaces.

The benefits to patients’ wellbeing of accessing outdoor space was a key design driver. Internal spaces are arranged around a series of generous gardens to create a sense of openness and ensure a view to the outside throughout.

Patient accommodation is provided in the form of 10 ‘flats’, each containing a living/dining space, bedroom, ensuite and garden. This enhanced level of private space reflects a domestic setting and supports those for whom social interaction or excessive stimulation may be overwhelming. The presentation will explore the challenges the team faced in providing patient kitchenettes and gardens while ensuring the associated risks could be suitably managed.

(Note it is hoped a second speaker will support Anita; a member of the Clinical Reference Group will be invited to provide insight into the clinical aspirations and challenges of the project. Potential second speaker details to be confirmed at a later date).

Join us as we explore the critical link between lighting and mental health in this educational session on circadian-responsive lighting. As awareness increases of the impact of light on human biology and physiology, we have an opportunity to improve environments in mental healthcare settings by synchronising lighting design with natural circadian rhythms.

Decades of research show that exposure to light, particularly blue wavelengths, affects more than just our vision – it influences alertness, mood, and the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep. Increased levels of blue-enriched light during the day can benefit cognitive function and mood, while reducing blue light into dusk and as the evening approaches promotes better sleep quality, supporting the well-being of both service users and staff.

We will look at the science behind non-visual light responses and their practical applications in mental healthcare environments. Attendees will learn how dynamic lighting systems that adapt throughout the day can help reduce fatigue and improve quality of sleep while creating safer, more rehabilitative surroundings.

The discussion will include recent case studies, highlighting real-world examples of circadian lighting solutions implemented in mental healthcare and dementia care environments. These studies reveal very promising results, including a reduction in falls of over 40% over two years within an aged care facility – the majority of the reduction in falls being during the night.

Lee will touch on the practical and procedural challenges of delivering human-centric lighting in secure environments, where safety and durability must be balanced with creating supportive, non-institutional spaces. We will look at how modern lighting technologies such as the Melagen system can meet these challenges by delivering targeted blue-enriched and blue-depleted light cycles that work with the natural rhythms of both service users and staff.

This session will offer guidance and insights into creating healthier, human-centric environments for both rehabilitation and ongoing residential care.

Specifying purpose-designed furniture is critical in Mental Health environments. Our CPD covers a range of topics from compliance & regulations to destruction testing and our BIM/VR capabilities.

Did you know that around a quarter of the UK population has a disability?

That’s 16 million people with 80% of those having what is classed as a hidden disability.

This CPD will provide an outline of what inclusivity and diversity mean. Demonstrating the importance of designing spaces with consideration for the needs of the widest range of people, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, to stop them being
overlooked or marginalised in the design process.

The CPD will:

• set the scene for diversity and inclusivity in the UK
• outline current guidance and legislation
• provide an awareness of the 9 protected characteristics
• get advice from interviews with a team of inclusive design champions from across the UK
• discuss design considerations and best practice
• explore illustrative case studies

Brain science has made many exciting advances in the last decade. Understanding of this complex area is improving and so are options for people with severe mental illness. This presentation will discuss current and emerging psychiatric treatments, their procedures, side effects, regulations and outcomes for modalities such as Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Esketamine Therapy, Psychedelics and more. Close to 80% of people who receive electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) for their mental illness improve greatly, with very few suffering setbacks as a result. It is often the first time they experience real results since diagnosis. However, this effective treatment modality has a complicated history with intense stigma and little consistent regulations. In addition to ECT, there are several other emerging interventional modalities proving successful in treating acute mental illness. This presentation will look at the physical environment required for these treatment modalities and how flexibility plays a key role in evolution of care. Discussions around clinical and licensing considerations will provide a holistic view on these emerging treatments and their powerful outcomes. It will also share project examples of neuromodulating suites, including different design solutions and approaches to flexibility.

This presentation will also share an in-person clinical perspective from Dr. Karen Lommel, who is currently the Jolley Endowed Chair for the Department of Psychiatry and the Medical Director for the Marshall I Pickens Psychiatric Hospital at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina. Dr. Lommel has experience with many of these treatment modalities, how patients respond, space needs and more.

This panel discussion will focus on work that is taking place in Liverpool to improve health using a ‘health in all policies’ approach with a focus on equity and economic development.
Strategic leads from across Liverpool City Council including planning, housing, city development and public health together with a community leader, will describe and discuss the integrated approach the city is actually taking to improving health and health equity as a foundation for economic and social development.
It will be a practical presentation of the past twelve months delivery, based on collaboration across all policies and decisions designed to improve the physical, mental , social and economic wellbeing of the population of Liverpool. The heart of this is community and individual engagement and collaboration .

Background
East London Mental Health Foundation Trust (ELFT) is reconfiguring its existing inpatient mental services to provide care closer to the population it serves. A new inpatient facility is proposed in Bedford that relocates several services in Luton. With affordability challenges, the schedule of accommodation required careful development, to optimize every square metre. ELFT has involved former service users throughout the design process, from the selection of the design team, to building the brief and assessing design proposals.

Research
A joint team of Staff, former Service Users and the architect visited existing facilities and exemplar buildings. We interviewed staff, reviewed the spaces and layout, and evaluated together what worked well, what did not, and how to improve.

Findings
From this, we have developed a set of guidelines which inform our Brief for the new service, these include:
• Understanding the staffing model to identify the optimum location for activity and therapy spaces, thereby avoiding underutilized activity space on ward that rely on staff supervision, and underutilized shared activity spaces that rely on staff escorting service users.
• How to address common issues with the ward’s Staff Base. How to address mounting tension between ward staff’s administration and active engagement with service users to avoid conflict.
• The concept of choice. Multiple smaller spaces that enable services users to quiet space, recreation space, spiritual space, even what to watch on TV while avoiding conflict with others.
• Creating opportunities for joined-up care, so a wider range of staff are kept informed of how a service user is doing on any particular day.

The issues identified are by no means unique to this Trust, and the resulting guidelines begin to define a new standard for mental health inpatient care in the UK.

Six case studies of room renovations of clients with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour in long-term care facilities.

People with vulnerable and mental states are particularly sensitive to their physical environment. This has a direct influence on their well-being and therefore on their behaviour. This is particularly true for people with intellectual disabilities and misunderstood behaviour. Based on this, the design of the built environment was tailored to the specific personality of clients with intensive care and support needs. It was found that this alignment between space and resident had a positive effect on their behavioural change also on the social and professional environment, such as their relatives and caregivers.

The state of Texas in the southwestern portion of the United States is one of the largest states in the union. It has a current population of 24 million and is growing compared to the 57 million in the UK. Its population is expected to surpass the UK by 2050. The state’s is about 700,000 square kilometers or 2.5 times that of the UK. If it were an independent country its GDP would rank 8th in the world just behind the UK and France.

The state has operated a public mental health system for almost 150 years. The anchor of the system is the state hospital system comprised of 11 state hospitals built at different times. Over the years, many of these hospitals have become outdated and are inefficient.

In 2014 the state government embarked on a system assessment and how to best address the needs of the day and the future needs. A strategic plan was developed with recommendations on how to rebuild the system.

State legislature accepted and implemented all the recommendations in the strategic plan and eventually provided funding to build eight new state mental health hospitals. Three of the new hospitals have been completed or are nearing completion. The other five new hospitals are currently in the design process with the expectation of being completed in 2027.

This presentation will discuss the mental health needs in Texas, the strategic planning process to fill the gaps in the needs, and its recommendations. The presentation will also explore the opportunities in creating standardized facilities within the system while still respecting the unique communities that they exist in. Finally, the presentation will depict the design of the largest of the new hospitals and its unique design features for the populations it serves.

Joining in the presentation will be Mr. Scott Schalchlin, Deputy executive Commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission who is responsible for providing mental healthcare at the state level in Texas.

The Waiting Rooms Project is a research initiative run by the Converge Evaluation and Research Team (CERT) at York St John University. CERT are a team of researchers with lived experience of mental distress and mental health systems. In 2019, CERT were asked by mental health service users to set up a research project to better understand mental health waiting rooms and how they could be improved, an area they considered to be a high research priority. In the first phase of the project, CERT ran creative writing workshops with service users, generating poems about positive and negative waiting room experiences. Through the workshops, eight factors impacting waiting room experience were identified:

1) Welcoming, kind and respectful receptionist
2) Comfortable seating
3) Useful and effective distractions (music, radio, magazines, TV)
4) Sense of privacy and dignity
5) Pleasant, bright, clean and roomy space
6) Refreshments available
7) Easy access to the building, obvious signage
8) Knowing the waiting time, being kept informed

These factors were then used as the basis for a survey, inviting people with experience of mental health services to rank the factors in order of importance, resulting in a list of priorities for further research. In phase two of the project, we are currently exploring the perspective of NHS staff on the waiting rooms in their places of work. The ultimate aim of the work is to identify clear, actionable outcomes that could be used to improve waiting room experiences for service users and staff. In this presentation, CERT will offer an overview of the current findings from the waiting rooms project, sharing lived-experience perspectives on a frequently overlooked part of service provision. The presentation will also include demonstrations of activities based on CERT’s expertise in creative research methods, allowing attendees to explore their own experiences of waiting rooms.

Arcadis’ architectural and interior design team has worked closely with the South London & Maudsley MH Foundation Trust (SLAM) and its stakeholders to design two high quality, patient-focused facilities within a very constrained site – Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People (CYP) and Douglas Bennett House for Adults (DBH).
Designing and delivering two 10,000m2 high density, multi-storey buildings only metres apart presented a number of challenges, not least fitting the required floor area onto the congested site.
The design solution for CYP was an eight-storey building which includes research and office spaces, four floors of outpatient services, inpatient rooms and a school on the seventh floor. Large landscaped roof terraces and a school exercise terrace offer space for planting and nature. At DBH the solution was a five-storey building with 143 adult inpatient beds and a PICU. Each ward is based around a triangular light well to ensure good daylight internally along with double height balconies and outdoor rooms to offer outside space to inpatients at each level. The tiered designs and approach to evidence-based biophilic design, not only enhanced levels of natural daylight into all spaces, it helped reduce the overall impact of the schemes and contributes to achieving the London Plan urban greening factor.
This talk will showcase how these two different use buildings were designed with a shared architectural language both in their form and use of contextually integrated external materials to fit within the conservation area.
The interior design of the two buildings will also show how the same materials can be used in different ways to achieve appropriate designs for the very different user groups. It was important on CYP to use a colour scheme which was age appropriate for the young people who will use the building as the majority are teenagers.

Local authority planning departments face complex challenges when developing Local Plans that address the diverse needs of all residents, especially those who are neurodivergent or have learning disabilities. This presentation highlights a collaborative project between the Occupational Therapy Service and Newham Council's planning team that sought to tackle these challenges.

The project aimed to inform planning policy and shape guidelines for new builds that address the needs of neurodivergent residents and those with learning disabilities. The team integrated insights from occupational therapy, urban planning processes, and residents' lived experiences to achieve this goal. The project team employed a range of engagement strategies, including workshops, interviews, site visits, and a literature review, to bring together residents, health and social care practitioners, and the planning team. This comprehensive approach enabled the team to develop a thorough understanding of the housing needs of neurodiverge.

Social Hubs are a concept developed by Raf Hamaizia, Expert by Experience Lead at Cygnet Group. The concept aims to harness lived experience and co-production to transform spaces within health and social care services through a one day collaborative makeover.

As someone who has been a service user and now works in mental health services, Raf has witnessed first-hand the profound impact that the built environment can have on mental health recovery. This insight has driven his passion for developing ‘Social Hubs’ within Cygnet services.The concept of these hubs goes beyond physical spaces; it’s about fostering a sense of community, engagement, and normality for both service users and staff.

We are excited to present new findings on the transformative impact of social hubs at Cygnet. Having shared our early experiences during a previous conference, we now return with a broader range of data and richer insights. Since the last presentation, we have established additional social hubs across multiple Cygnet services, allowing us to capture even more feedback from service users, staff, and experts by experience. This expanded dataset underscores the therapeutic benefits these non-clinical spaces offer.

Our presentation will highlight the growing role of these hubs in promoting recovery by creating safe, homely environments where service users can engage in recreational and peer-support activities. These hubs have shown measurable success in improving mental health outcomes, fostering a sense of community, and reducing incidents, particularly during evenings and weekends. Service users report that these spaces provide “relaxing energy” and feel more like a home than a service, contributing to their overall sense of well-being.

Additionally, we will explore new considerations around service lines, as hubs now cater to a wider range of needs across mental health, autism, and learning disability services. We will demonstrate how co-production between staff and service users on the built environment has been integral to the success of these spaces, ensuring that each hub reflects the specific needs and preferences of those using it.

Our presenters will also be different on this occasion including service users, staff, and our experts by experience, offering diverse perspectives on how these hubs have reshaped therapeutic environments across Cygnet services. We look forward to sharing these developments and discussing future directions for expanding the initiative.

This presentation will offer valuable insights for those interested in enhancing service user experience through co-produced, non-clinical therapy.