A Room with Different Views: Mental Health Hospital Design

Synopsis

The SouthWest London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust commissioned new hospital buildings, Trinity and Shaftesbury, which opened in December 2022 and September 2023 respectively.
The Estates Modernisation Programme focused on the de-stigmatization and integration of mental healthcare within a community. New secure and acute inpatient wards were placed next to ca 900 new homes, a new 13-hectare public park, retail shops and community spaces for an emerging South London neighbourhood. The design aimed to create therapeutic surroundings for staff and service-users with courtyard gardens, ample daylight and fresh air, dignified surroundings and safe layouts.
In the one-year period since the first building was handed-over to the Trust, the initial post-occupancy data shows serious incidents are down by over 36% – an exceptional and noteworthy benefit. But the intention of this presentation is to take an unvarnished look back; using both recent incident data and feedback interviews, it will examine the nuances of what has worked and what hasn’t in the design of new mental healthcare facilities.
Designers live in a bubble partially of our own making. We believe in the therapeutic benefit of well-designed environments. But when this vision meets the reality of understaffed, under-funded and risk-averse healthcare institutions, how do these ideals stand up?
The presentation will look at how the new wards have been adapted after hand-over by the Trust to address practical concerns about control and security. It will look at what specific features of the new hospital are valued (or not) by service-users, clinical staff and management. Lastly the talk will examine the way a major healthcare project is co-produced between designers and clinicians; through a multi-year process of design and delivery, how stakeholder(s) can uphold the vision of better, safer and more therapeutic mental healthcare facilities?