Healthcare Design - April 2018 - 52

The

Center

HELPING HAND

The Center's new toolkit offers the industry ways
to support the much-needed delivery of behavioral
and mental health services By Debra Levin

T'S HARD to watch the news these days. Although there's more
good than bad in this world, when bad things do happen,
causing substantial loss and leaving sadness in their wake,
we might feel overwhelmed and helpless. But as healthcare
design professionals who contribute to shaping our communities and buildings, there are ways we can help prevent devastating events from occurring.
One area where we may lend our expertise is the mental
health arena. Far too frequently we've watched people of all ages go on
violent rampages that leave innocent people dead. We look for answers as
to why these tragedies happen and ways they might have been prevented.
In some cases, the person was acting out of hatred to create terror and fear. But in others, it's
THERE'S STILL LITTLE
about people hitting a breaking point-and there
RESEARCH ON THE
are opportunities along that person's path where
intervention could have made a difference.
IMPACT OF THE BUILT
The Center for Health Design believes that creENVIRONMENT ON
ating appropriate environments for those interMENTAL HEALTH.
ventions is critical. To that end, we've launched
a new toolbox with a library of behavioral health
design resources. With generous sponsorship from industry partners, this
toolbox is open and free for all to access and use.
During our year of work creating this toolbox, we found there's still
little research on the impact of the built environment on mental health
despite the great need for investment in it. Behavioral and mental health
conditions affect one in five adults in the U.S. each year and are even more
common among patients receiving care for medical conditions. Up to

APRIL 2018

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45 percent of patients admitted to the hospital for a medical condition or presenting to the
emergency department with a minor injury
also have a concurrent behavioral or mental
health condition. These comorbidities increase
the risk that psychological harm may occur
during care.
Providing these patients with a healing, therapeutic environment should be an important
goal for this industry, with design interventions
aimed at improving the psychological wellbeing of patients. These efforts may be more
cost-effective than they initially appear, too,
because they can be leveraged to support improved well-being for all building users, including staff.
More than 20 resources are available in The
Center's open-source toolbox, from a deepdive issue brief and executive summary prepared by our research team to interviews with
topic experts. There are also project briefs that
illustrate what others have done, as well as a tool
titled "Design for Behavioral and Mental
Health: A Universal Approach & Benefit Analysis," which helps project teams consider the
broader impacts of design and incorporate
them into an evidence-based design process.
Plus, there are eight webinars relating to this
topic that can be used for AIA/EDAC continuing education units.
Behavioral and mental health isn't always
an easy subject to talk about, but it's important
that we have these conversations to identify the
best ways to take care of our communities, keep
members safe, and help people thrive and be
well. The Center is deeply invested in these issues and will continue to build out this toolbox
with resources to help you be an effective advocate in your area. 
Debra Levin is president and CEO of The Center for
Health Design. She can be reached at D L E V I N @
H E A LT H D E S I G N . O R G .

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - April 2018

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