Joondalup Health Campus Mental Health Unit – Silver Thomas Hanley

Nominee Information

Complex Mental Health Design on a constrained site which combines very diverse cohorts into a single facility across two levels.

The new Mental Health Unit at the Joondalup Health Campus is a purpose-built facility collocating four diverse consumer cohorts on a constrained site without compromising key mental health design drivers.

The unit accommodates 102 individual consumer bedrooms across the following cohorts:

• Psychiatric Intensive Care (16 bedrooms across 2 pods)
• Older Adults (>65) (4-bedroom secure pod, 7-bedroom open pod and 3 swing bedrooms)
• Youth (ages 16-24) (5-bedroom secure pod, 12-bedroom open pod and 3 swing bedrooms)
• Voluntary Adults (52 bedrooms across 4 pods)

The constrained site meant that the facility would be across two levels. In Western Australia, there is a strong aversion to multi-storey mental health buildings due to specific issues, including:

• Risks inherent in the vertical movement of consumers in confined spaces and lifts
• Impact on consumer privacy due to overlooking of areas such as courtyards
• Risk of consumers falling from heights
• Ensuring direct access to natural gardens/courtyards without the need to leave the unit or traverse other areas

Key design drivers were established and agreed upon at the outset:

• Promoting and facilitating passive observation across the consumer areas
• Prioritising natural light through single-sided corridors, extensive windows to consumer social spaces, and large windows to consumer bedrooms
• Respecting consumers’ privacy by providing a range of privacy levels
• Ensuring the safety of both consumers and caregivers

The facility was designed around the consumer courtyards, emphasising access to natural light and outlook.

Consumer bedrooms were designed along the building perimeter, offering privacy, outlook, and the ability to create swing beds between cohorts. Swing beds allow for the size of a cohort to flex according to demand, without compromising the integrity of a pod.

Support and staff areas were centralised to allow for efficient planning and easy access from all consumer pod areas.

Safe and secure access to each pod was a priority, including a dedicated and discreet access route to the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

The key challenge in the design process was ensuring that these varied cohorts could coexist within the same compact building without compromising their needs, privacy, or distinct therapy requirements. The outcome balances secure, private environments for each cohort with shared communal spaces that foster a sense of unity and ease of use for both consumers and staff.

Despite the spatial constraints, the design successfully accommodated the distinct needs of each cohort, providing dedicated units while ensuring the facility operated cohesively as a whole. The design achieved efficient staff movement and accessibility throughout the facility.

The single-sided corridors, open social spaces and courtyards facilitate passive observation while maintaining a strong connection to the outdoors, ensuring that consumers feel secure and comfortable without feeling confined.

The outcome is a unique mental health facility; large yet compact, diverse yet integrated, and secure yet open. The design meets the key drivers established at the outset and creates an environment where both staff and consumers feel at home.

 

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