For many years, legal precedents have spoken to the need for quality environments for behavioral health patients. Behavioral health facilities span a wide range of care environments including psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric neuropsychiatric nursing units of general hospitals, facilities for the psychiatric medically infirm, neuropsychiatric units, alcohol and drug addiction retreatment facilities, mental health clinics, day hospitals, and day treatment centers. The wide variety of setting and diagnosis is one of the major impediments to creating evidence based design guidelines for behavioral health facilities.

The webinar provides an overview of the research findings and existing trends, with the interest of determining the state of knowledge regarding design of behavioral health facilities. Available facility evaluation tools, design guidelines, and need for future research will be discussed.