Promoting Mental Health Through Inclusive and Trauma-Informed Design Strategies

Synopsis

There is plentiful overlap between inclusive design, mental health design and trauma-informed design, especially in mental health inpatient facilities, but they are often used in isolation or only for a post-crisis setting.  For the last decade, there has been a movement to include these design strategies into mental health spaces to promote healing and recovery. Designing the physical environment to support mental health healing should not just be applied to clinical spaces but to all spaces in our communities. Mental health crises don’t often happen in clinical settings.  What if designers not only incorporated thoughtful design into inpatient mental health settings, but also outpatient clinics, transitional housing, or even traditional healthcare or education settings?  Using these design strategies in tandem with one another can improve outcomes and also create a proactive environment when it comes to restoration, regulation and de-escalation.

Applying these design strategies in other areas of our communities represents a mindset shift toward regulation and prevention. While important, a physiologically informed environment just focused on inpatient/hospital settings misses opportunities to help individuals thrive in everyday community spaces. A moment of crisis could happen to a sexual assault survivor in a lobby who needs high-back seating so no one can approach unexpectedly. It could happen to a neurodiverse student who needs respite space between classes. Scenarios like this are all too common but often not addressed in the built environment. Inclusive design, mental health design and trauma-informed design can limit an environmental trigger response while also providing space for de-escalation, potentially preventing an acute mental health crisis.

This presentation will explore design strategies that enable the physical environment to be a tool in promoting individual regulation, de-escalation and mental health management in both mental health care spaces and other spaces in our communities.