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Insights & Solutions

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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Project Brief

Innovative Design Consolidates Diverse Behavioral Health Programs into One Comprehensive Center
February 2018 ∘ Project Brief ∘
Learn about how a county directive to relocate different behavioral health programs into one location led to a unique design for serving low to high-risk populations in an integrated facility, and how collaboration among the architect, interior designer, landscape architect, owner, staff, and clients played an integral role in shaping the programming and design.
Executive Summary

Design for Behavioral and Mental Health: More Than Just Safety
February 2018 ∘ Executive Summary ∘
Behavioral and mental health (BMH) conditions affect one in five adults in the United States each year, and are even more common among patients receiving care for medical conditions. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the spectrum of BMH conditions includes anxiety, attention deficit disorders, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and suicide, among others. Up to 45% of patients admitted to the hospital for a medical condition or presenting to the emergency department with a minor injury also have a concurrent BMH condition. These BMH comorbidities increase the risk of psychological harm associated with care.
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Interview

Understanding the Unique Design Needs of Behavioral Health Facilities
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, which types of safety measures and products should be incorporated into behavioral health units.
Issue Brief

Design for Behavioral and Mental Health: More Than Just Safety
February 2018 ∘ Issue Brief ∘
As part of the Behavioral & Mental Health toolbox, in this issue brief you will learn about the prevalence of behavioral and mental health conditions as comorbidities; design strategies for promoting psychological wellness; and a systematic benefit analysis approach to meet the psychological needs of all.
Tool

Design for Behavioral and Mental Health: A Universal Approach & Benefit Analysis
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.  
Interview

Understanding the Unique Design Needs of Behavioral Health Facilities, an interview with James Hunt, AIA, NCARB
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.
Interview

Using the Design Process to Create Safe and Comfortable Behavioral Health Environments, an interview with Francis Murdock Pitts
February 2018 ∘ Interview ∘
Inside you will learn about: why relationships are at the heart of successful psychiatric treatment strategies; how effective designs can facilitate positive interactions between clinicians and patients; and the benefits of using a community treatment model that allows patients to access services in carefully designed “neighborhood treatment malls.”
Interview

Exploring the Relationship Between the Built Environment and Behavioral Health, an interview with Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, M.Arch, D.Arch, EDAC
February 2018 ∘ Interview ∘

Inside you will learn about: the challenges in identifying best practices in the built environment for behavioral healthcare; where architects and designers can start when working on projects for behavioral health facilities; and the differences between behavioral health and medical settings.
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Webinar

ART+Science
January 2018 ∘ Webinar ∘
Art and Science.  In their finest expressions, they are one and the same. We face complex problems and no single approach can provide all the answers.  One cannot be a socially responsible designer or scientist without using both intuition and research. This presentation will cite historical and contemporary examples of individuals who support their simultaneous use to achieve creativity. The presentation will include a discussion of the definitions of art and science and the nature of the human mind.
EDAC Advocate Firm Project

HKS Architects and Hasenstab Architects Akron Children's Hospital Akron, Ohio
January 2018 ∘ EDAC Advocate Firm Project ∘
The goal of this project was to implement all-private patient room units (with the exception of enlarged rooms for twins/multiples); provide clear visibility and direct line of sight to all patients; increase privacy and offer greater support for mothers to nurse and have “kangaroo care” time with their newborns; improve family and nurse / physician communication; and reduce overall noise levels on the units.