Raguram et al have valuable lessons to teach the designers of modern
mental health services in the UK. The enthusiasm for community care has
had a profound impact on inpatient services, where the very disturbed who
cannot be managed elsewhere are packed together with few thoughts for the
quality of their environment, undiluted by the more mildly disordered.
These environments are often counter-therapeutic and it is difficult to
justify admitting patients to them except where issues of risk over-ride
those of the benefit of a calming environment. This emphasis on the
community at the expense of the hospital was emphasised by the findings of
the CHI visit to North Birmingham (1). Somewhere in our system we have
lost the asylum funtion along with the word.
Rapid Response:
Soothing Lessons for Hospital Design
Raguram et al have valuable lessons to teach the designers of modern
mental health services in the UK. The enthusiasm for community care has
had a profound impact on inpatient services, where the very disturbed who
cannot be managed elsewhere are packed together with few thoughts for the
quality of their environment, undiluted by the more mildly disordered.
These environments are often counter-therapeutic and it is difficult to
justify admitting patients to them except where issues of risk over-ride
those of the benefit of a calming environment. This emphasis on the
community at the expense of the hospital was emphasised by the findings of
the CHI visit to North Birmingham (1). Somewhere in our system we have
lost the asylum funtion along with the word.
1.CHI Clinical Governance Reports August 2001 North Birmingham Mental
Health NHS Trust.
http://www.chi.nhs.uk/eng/organisations/west_mid/north_brm/index.shtml
Competing interests: No competing interests