Chrysikou, Evangelia;
(2015)
Furniture and mental health: there is more to it than meets the eye.
Health Business
, 15
(2)
pp. 48-49.
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Abstract
The furniture used in institutions could be very much indicative of their regime and values. It demonstrates how a system regards the individual and gives clear hints about the expected behaviors of service users. Nowadays, which is more than sixty years from the psychiatric reform, the messages tend to be mixed. In the UK, after the innovative yet risky period of normalization, where safety was compromised in understaffed facilities, we witness a return towards more conservative approaches. This, however, does not necessarily constitutes the case in many European countries such as Netherlands, where more integrated approaches enabled to tackle dangerousness in a more systemic way. These approaches provide the potential to reduce to certain extend some anti-ligature specs in psychiatric environments. In the rest of the word, there is discussion on where mental health goes, with eminent reforms in many countries from New Zealand, to Eastern Europe or Israel to name but a few. An interesting element of this variety of approaches is that there has not been yet a linear path of progress when it comes to mental health. It is important, therefore, to have some knowledge of the past. This will enable us to be aware of what is truly innovative or what is an institutional element that finds its way back into the system. This is not only our way to avoid design being used to create new “modernized” institutions but also our way to create products that while being safe constitute true innovations that are applicable to more than the limited geographical context of the UK. In other words, true innovation can be very much welcomed across the borders. Even if mental health services present distinct differences from place to place, mental health pathology is universal and clever solutions that respond to the actual problem will be very much appreciated in several contexts.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Furniture and mental health: there is more to it than meets the eye |
| Location: | UK |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://www.healthbusinessuk.net/features/furnitur... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett Sch of Const and Proj Mgt UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett Sch of Const and Proj Mgt > Bartlett Real Estate Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10115095 |
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