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Behavioral & Mental Health

Original Artwork by @gapingvoid
Behavioral and mental health (BMH) conditions affect one of five adults in the U.S. each year, and are even more common among patients receiving care for medical conditions. 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. Providing these patients with a healing, therapeutic environment should be an important goal for health design. Design interventions aimed at improving the psychological well-being of patients with BMH comorbidities may be more cost-effective than they initially appear, because they can be leveraged to support improved well-being for other populations as well, including other patients, staff, and visitors. 

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Insights & Solutions

Design Strategies

Aging and Dementia Design Strategies

March 2020 ∘ Design Strategies
Understanding the personal abilities and unique challenges faced by aging individuals, especially those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, better equips design teams to create supportive living spaces. Devising goals that target single symptoms and objectives is not always practical, however, because changes associated with aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias tend to appear in “clusters” rather than in isolation. The design-based evidence associated with designing supportive memory care settings results in 12 programmatic design strategies.
Webinar

The Building as a Therapeutic Tool: Creating a Children’s Treatment Center

February 2020 ∘ Webinar
​This webinar highlights a case study of the ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development and explores how the design caused the building itself to become a tool for therapy, learning, and teaching.
Webinar

Adapting Existing Healthcare Spaces to Suit Behavioral Health Requirements
February 2020 ∘ Webinar
This webinar will focus on the adaptation of an existing space into a behavioral health-compliant facility and the unique approach utilized to ensure organizational success. Presenters will explore how the design process resulted in an environment that maintains the maximum safety and security that these spaces require.
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