The behavioral health environment: Designing the future

This week’s missive is going to be brief. With everything going on in the world in terms of  project funding—not just in healthcare, but pretty much any and every environment—I recognize that remaining optimistic can seem to be something of a fool’s errand, but for the folks responsible for ensuring the safest possible environment for at-risk patient populations, one has to operate under the notion that believing in better is still actionable. Challenging, for sure, but something for which we can make positive in-roads.

To that end, I would invite you to check out a recent blog from Whitehall Manufacturing highlighting the work of Brian Giebink, an architect who is working towards a future state therapeutic environment that may challenge some tradition assumptions regarding what is possible. I think we can all agree that there are opportunities for transforming the environments in which we care for behavioral health patients. Giebink’s take on things is worthy of consideration as we move past the traditional considerations (which tend towards the institutional form) and embrace the healing potential of the build environment. Lots of good ideas and I hope you think so, too.