Everyday objects as therapeutic elements in psychiatric wards: a theoretical design framework to strengthen patients’ valorization and control

Abstract

Concerning inpatient mental healthcare, the fields of design and architecture face enormous challenges. While focussing on meeting high safety and anti-ligature standards, many psychiatric facilities are designed as highly institutionalized settings. This institutionalization neglects essential psychosocially supportive elements, which promote health, wellbeing, as well as social interaction of patients and staff. With the aim of changing such institutional structures on a small scale and in an easily implementable manner, a new framework on how everyday objects could decrease institutionalization in psychiatric facilities is proposed. This framework includes two separate mechanisms: (1) design-induced priming of the concept of valorization and (2) increasing patients’ sense of control through everyday objects. As psychiatric environments affect patients as well as staff, we advocate using participatory approaches to determine the selection of product categories and styles of such objects.