Get the latest trends, tools, and resources for improving healthcare environments here. Browse our many free and members-only resources, including research reports and issue briefs, interviews, case studies, design strategies, lessons learned, key point summaries, and webinars.
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December 2018∘
Webinar ∘
This webinar explores how MedStar Health is using fast-track design to help catalyze a new model of behavioral health, using the reduction of barriers, small house concepts and interior design strategies to create positive environments where patients are positively impacted.
December 2018∘
Webinar ∘
This webinar explores the impacts architects, planners and interior designers can have on the behavioral health epidemic. While, as designers, we have little control over funding and other socio-economic factors that contribute to the crisis, but what we do have is the ability to increase efficiency for the caregivers with our designs and the ability to positively enhance the patients experience.
December 2018∘
Webinar ∘
This webinar explores how STUDIO E, an ERDMAN Center of Thought Leadership & Innovation in Healthcare, is working with several behavioral health clients on the hypothesis, “Can concepts driving culture change in senior living and other aspects of healthcare – such as small household design and on-stage/off-stage planning – translate in a behavioral healthcare setting to facilitate an effective balance between safety and patient comfort, dignity, and control?”
October 2018∘
Related Resource ∘
This list of resources is made of up of policies and organizations related to behavioral and mental health. Use this list to learn more about this topic.
October 2018∘
Interview ∘
Learn about how the need for behavioral health furniture to encompass not only safety, but also comfort and beauty, why there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to behavioral health design, and how lessons learned from the hospitality field can inform designers working on behavioral health projects.
October 2018∘
Lessons Learned ∘
This list has been compiled based on research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview of behavioral and mental health (BMH).
October 2018∘
Webinar ∘
This webinar explores how out of a vision from renowned child psychiatrist and human geneticist Dr. Matthew State, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Child, Teen & Family Center and Department of Psychiatry Building will be the first-ever UCSF facility for both pediatric and adult psychiatric patients and one of the first facilities in the U.S. to integrate the neurosciences with traditional psychiatry for child, adolescent and adult patient populations.
June 2018∘
Webinar ∘
This webinar explores how the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pursued a vision to develop a new pediatric patient care unit: one that would meet the requirements and licensure of an acute care unit, but would provide a safe and supportive environment for patients with a comorbid developmental, behavioral, or psychiatric diagnosis.
April 2018∘
Webinar ∘
In this webinar learn how a design team utilized research, Lean processes, and innovation to solve the challenges of this unique patient population for the 27-bed Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit in Tacoma, Wash. Find out how design can support a seclusion- and restraint-free care model and how pushing beyond the conventions of behavioral healthcare design was achieved.
February 2018∘
Tool ∘
Design interventions to improve well-being for patients with behavioral and mental health (BMH) conditions will often have impacts on other populations, as well (e.g., staff, visitors, non-BMH patients who use the same facility). This tool will help you consider those broader impacts and incorporate them into an evidence-based process for a universal design approach.
February 2018∘
Interview ∘
Inside you will learn about: why behavioral health facilities have very different design requirements than general hospitals; how different areas of a behavioral health unit have different safety needs that influence design choices; and which types of safety measures and products should be incorporated into behavioral health units.
Pati, D., Pati, S., & Harvey Jr, T. E. (2016). Security implications of physical design attributes in the emergency department. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 9(4), 50-63.
August 2014∘
Webinar ∘
Behavioral health settings guided by strict safety design measures often result in spaces that are stark, plain, and isolated - potentially exacerbating environmental stressors and escalating already difficult patient situations. Acute care emergency settings have a particular set of challenges as EDs are predicting increased visits from behavioral health patients. Faced with the challenge of designing a behavioral health care setting in the Emergency Department at UnityPoint Health in Rock Island, IL, the project team hypothesized that the creation of a Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) with a “Living Room Concept” would provide a higher quality of care to patients while assisting in the staff’s ability to quickly consult and treat a diverse set of patients entering the ED.
