Patient and Staff Lived Experience of Social Spaces

Synopsis

In collaboration with a large NHS Foundation Trust based in the North of England, this research project aims to understand the psychological dimensions of acute inpatient ward social spaces and explore the interplay of inhabitants and in both existing and newly developed acute environments. Acute wards are collective spaces of care, monitored and supported by clinical staff. Such spaces include inhabitants with individual and shared identities embracing diverse backgrounds and support needs. Social spaces on these wards constitute vital sources of social interaction offering core benefits related to recovery. However, they are complex spaces involving boredom, noise, social conflict and other challenges. There is currently a lack of research relating to experiences of social spaces, for those living and working in inpatient environments despite their importance in hospital life.

An interdisciplinary team of academics specialising in mental health and cognitive neuroscience research aim to capture emerging feelings, thoughts, and perceptions of inhabitant experiences and their bodily senses as they interact with old and new contemporary environments. Two studies will be outlined from this overall project, undertaken in acute mental health wards with staff and inpatients. The first adopts a well-established visual qualitative, photo-production methodological approach (Reavey, 2011; 2020) in a current hospital and the second uses a 3D visualisation approach using virtual reality with integrated eye-tracking to simulate a new hospital environment not yet built. The aim is to ascertain how patients and staff experience existing social spaces in acute environments in the first study and to then explore their experiences of social spaces in new (albeit virtual) ones as a means of comparison.

Through an ecological approach, a better understanding of these unique and complex spaces in acute mental health wards will be developed, furthering knowledge on the design and management of these vital social spaces.