New Design Approaches For Crisis Care
In the past, mental health resources have been severely underinvested, leaving cities and counties to respond to crises in facilities ill-equipped for such purposes. This has led to treating mental illness as a public safety issue rather than a healthcare concern, resulting in poor patient outcomes and high costs to taxpayer resources.
To address this, healthcare providers are expanding outpatient resources and developing specialized treatment programs to better respond to varying acuity levels of mental health patients. This shift in approach is reshaping the narrative surrounding mental illness and treatment facilities, replacing traditional hard-security impressions with new design approaches that provide hope and dignity to patients and their families.
With a focus on creating human-centered crisis care spaces, mental health facilities are designed to align with treatment modalities, offer spaces for physical activity and socialization, and prioritize patient dignity and autonomy.
By improving community access to mental health treatment, the Kem and Carolyn Gardner Mental Health Crisis Care Center in Salt Lake City aims to change the narrative in mental health design. The building’s design places a strong emphasis on hospitality and comfort, with a focus on welcoming and healing spaces that promote patient dignity.
The facility has a carefully planned sequencing of spaces to support the various needs of patients presenting at the 81,600-square-foot facility. It also offers holistic services, including immediate counseling, medical and dental support, legal services, and access to outdoor healing gardens.
Looking beyond patient care, the center will also be a site for training the next generations of crisis care professionals and an integrated research component to support caregivers in implementing new findings into clinical practice.
Facilities like the HMHI Crisis Care Center are demonstrating a positive step forward in expanding mental health care. By reshaping the design of crisis care spaces, we can eliminate the perception of mental illness as something to be hidden or criminalized, reduce the stigma of seeking care, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Michael Dolan, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, is a principal architect at FFKR Architects (Salt Lake City) and can be reached at mdolan@ffkr.com. Sydnie Young, SCCID, NCIDQ, EDAC, is a senior associate interior designer at FFKR Architects and can be reached at syoung@ffkr.com.
