Ecopsychosocial environments for health and mental health

Abstract

Abstract Theories of architectural morphology and society contributed to understanding the interconnections and synergies between society and space. Lack of knowledge of how space influences communities can foster social issues (Hillier & Hanson, 1984). This complements links between health and society identified by epidemiolohists (Marmot, 2015). Thus, theories connecting health and the environment unite all three disciplines by connecting health to the built environment. We characterise this holistic interconectedness of space, health and society as ecopsychosocial (Chrysikou, 2019) and we will use it as the underlying theory of the workshop. Spatial interventions could support prevention or disease-fighting mechanisms. We briefly mention anthropocentric examples related to space and vulnerability from the field of therapeutic architecture. The aim is to utilise those spatial features that could affect vulnerable people's physiology and perception. This approach does not replace medical intervention or treatment. Contrary, it aims to support healthcare professionals, carers and patients optimizing the healthcare delivery and recovery processes and subsequently reduce efforts required to overcome stressful situations through restaurative environment. This ecopsychosocial system would is more helpful for of low diagnostic and interventional accuracy such as mental illness (Christensen et al., 2009). References Christensen, CM., Grossman, JH. and Hwang, J. (2009) The innovator's prescription. New York USA: McGraw-Hill Chrysikou, E. (2019) Psychiatric institutions and the physical environment: combining medical architecture methodologies and architectural morphology to increase our understanding. Journal of Healthcare Engineering, vol. 2019, Article ID 4076259, 16 pages Hillier, B. & Hanson, J. (1984) The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Marmot, M. (2015) The health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world. Bloomsbury Publishing, London