Insights & Solutions

The goal of this project was to embody integration and openness, to provide a safe and welcoming environment for long-term mental health patients, and to promote healing and independence for patients in their recovery journeys.

Gunn, R., Davis, M. M., Hall, J., Heintzman, J., Muench, J., Smeds, B., ... & Brown, J. (2015). Designing clinical space for the delivery of integrated behavioral health and primary care. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 28(Supplement 1), S52-S62.

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.

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. 

Shepley, M. M., Pasha, S., Ferguson, P., Huffcut, J. C., Kiyokawa, G., & Martere, J. (2013). Design research and behavioral health facilities. The Center for Health Design.