May 26, 2013 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
The ability of patients to barricade doors to prevent or delay staff from entering a room presents very serious hazards in behavioral health facilities. This threat exists any place where a door swings into a patient accessible room and no other provisions are provided that will allow staff to gain entrance to the room in a timely manner.
March 12, 2013 Shannon Brys, Associate Editor
blog
At the 2013 NAPHS Annual Meeting, authors of the Design Guide for the Built Environment of Behavioral Health Facilities were presented with an award as their publication celebrates its 10-year anniversary.
January 21, 2013 James M. Hunt, AIA, NCARB
blog
Doors between patient rooms and corridors as well as patient bathrooms are frequently used by patients in committing suicide. There are several products available that will detect downward pressure on the top of the door and alert staff to this situation.
December 21, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA, NCARB
blog
Psychiatric inpatient suicides accounted for nearly ten times more deaths than mass killings (7,500 vs. 774) in five recent years. Yet hospitals still resist making the financial commitment to provide suicide resistant improvements that might help reduce both numbers.
December 3, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA, NCARB
article
When it comes to psychiatric facility design, sometimes staff comes to “know” certain things about design because they have heard them throughout their professional lives in the facilities in which they have worked. But using such “common knowledge” to work in designing new psychiatric facilities can be very problematic and very costly.
October 19, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
Should behavioral helath care inpatient room doors have small windows in them? Is it more important for staff to be able to see into a patient’s room from the corridor without opening the door or for patients to have privacy and the ability to shut out light from the corridor?
September 12, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
Designers, product manufacturers and health care facilities should be very careful with using absolute terms such as suicide “prevention”, tamper “proof”, “anti”-ligature and similar terms from which a reader or listener may infer that a warrantee or guarantee is being given that there is absolutely no way that a patient could use them to harm themselves.
August 12, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
Every facility that admits and treats behavioral health care patients either consciously or sub- consciously determines its level of risk tolerance for a multitude of issues pertaining to its built environment. The sub-conscious decisions may range from simply not knowing that a condition creates a potential safety risks for patients and/or staff to organizations hiding their collective head in the sand and choosing to ignore the threat.
July 16, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
Ligature attachment protection below 18 inches above the floor is necessary to resist behavioral health facility inpatient suicides
July 12, 2012 Dennis Grantham, Editor-in-Chief
article
In August, fast-growing Pima County, Arizona opened a striking new Crisis Response Center in Tucson. It's a beautiful and highly functional new hub for the region's crisis care system.
June 14, 2012 James M. Hunt, AIA
blog
If it is desirable for behavioral healthcare patients to be allowed periods of time in the open air outside the unit, then the issue becomes how do we define the space to which they are to have access and how do we protect against them leaving the area without authorization?
May 15, 2012 Dennis Grantham, Editor-in-Chief
article
Four projects in the 2012 Behavioral Healthcare Design for Health and Human Services Showcase earned special recognition from our judges. But all 12 were selected on their merits from a wider field of entries based on the scores and opinions of the judges.
