Innovations in Architecture for Mental Health
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 30475
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Suicide; Mental Health; suicidology and suicide prevention; mental health psychiatric facilities
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Architecture and building design can play a critical role in the care of people with acute mental illnesses, although little has been published in this area. Acute mental health care is delivered in a number of settings, most of which involve containment of those who are mentally unwell. Examples include adult acute mental health wards, adolescent psychiatric facilities, forensic mental health facilities, and geriatric mental health facilities. The needs of those who find themselves in these settings are complex: some have acute mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, and suicidal ideation; some have complex histories as victims and/or perpetrators of violence; others are dealing with psychosis, or are struggling with addictions and a host of other social problems.
Attention to architecture and building design in these places can either set the stage for the quality of mental health care provided and for recovery, creating an environment in which patients, staff, and visitors feel that they share a space that gives dignity to their condition, or it can contribute to delayed recovery and stigmatisation. The continuum of recovery, from entering a containment facility to departure back into the community, and the timing of this transition, raises challenges for philosophies of care and architectural design.
Increasingly, architects are turning their focus to new models for care environments—Maggie’s Centres for cancer recovery are one such example. If recovery is our purpose for these facilities, how are we faring, what might alternative visions look like, what are the new innovations, and what is the evidence base for successful delivery of mental health care in buildings designed to fit that purpose? And then, there are the broader questions of new philosophies of care that warrant greater consideration.
This Special Issue calls for commentary or research papers that identify, document or address features of building design and underlying philosophies of care relevant to acute mental health care architecture. Such research is likely to come from architecture and design, public, environmental, or occupational health, nursing, medicine, and health and social sciences. Papers that address social models for mental health care in the community are also welcomed.
Dr. Gabrielle Jenkin
Ms. Jacqueline McIntosh
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- architecture of confinement
- recovery environments
- mental health
- acute mental health
- suicide prevention
- philosophies of care
- design philosophy
- forensic
- adult
- adolescent
- older persons
- models of care
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