Having spent 5 years working within the Health and Social Services Department in Jersey, a substantial lack of mental health support has been observed. Once discharged from hospital, individuals are given little support and often struggle to successfully reintegrate back into society, resulting in readmissions and other issues. In the UK there are many examples of establishments bridging these gaps, however, these are presently non-existent in Jersey. Stigma evidently prevails around the subject of mental disorder and perhaps explains the lacking parity of esteem and equality between mental and physical health. Nevertheless, debate is beginning to arise and the community of Jersey is calling for change. Further support for reintegration needs to be delivered in the process of recovery, which goes beyond the realm of home visits, in which arguably calming architecture plays a fundamental role.

In order to understand the current issues surrounding mental health care in Jersey, one must explore the current disparities between mental and physical health provisions to establish how significant these alleged issues are. An understanding must also be developed of the origins and nature of mental illness to wholly comprehend the issues healthcare professionals and patients are experiencing. Exploration of historic developments in architectural design, succeeding asylums, will illustrate how the significance of therapeutic environments has progressed and why these changes have already occurred. By identifying environmental conditions that assist in recovery, a better understanding will be made into the extent to which architecture impedes or facilitates rehabilitation. In-depth knowledge of ‘calming’ architecture will also inform analysis of precedents and allow for accurate exploration of the built environment on rehabilitation. Due to the sensitive nature of information and privacy issues, direct contact with patients will be limited, therefore, information gained will rely heavily upon professional expertise and observations.

 

 

IN SUMMARY: 

AIMS:

• Understand the current issues surrounding mental health care in Jersey's Healthcare Department.

• Develop an understanding of the origins and nature of mental illness. 

• Research historic developments of psychiatric architecture.

• Discover the current issues healthcare professionals and patients are experiencing.

• Determine the extent to which architecture of existing rehabilitative centres impede or facilitate recovery.

• Develop in-depth knowledge of ‘calming’ architecture and successful rehabilitative precedents.

OBJECTIVES:

• Identify environmental factors causing behavioural traits and why.

• Explore the influence the built environment has on rehabilitation, by developing in-depth knowledge of calming architecture.

LIMITATIONS:

• Due to the sensitive nature of information causing issues with primary research, I have looked more widely at therapeutic environments as a whole, instead of solely focusing on mental health design.

• For similar reasons, I was only able to interview one individual, so I have therefore relied heavily upon information gained from healthcare professionals for primary research.