Inclusive Design and Mental Health: Policy and Legislation Challenges from the Perspective of Social Inclusion

Abstract

Mental illness incorporates a spectrum of diseases affecting a globally increasing population. Yet, society is still accepting the institutional concept of allocating the risk associated with mental illness to closed institutions. The allocation of closed institutions as the places of treating and caring for mental illness, prevents architecture as well as the rest of the design community of seeing mental health issues as part of a community integrated design concept. On the contrary, design for mental health could form part of a more active dialogue of incorporating the needs of mentally ill people in the broader discussion of accessibility and its implications. As this is a very big and complex topic, this paper will focus on one aspect of the architectural specifications: the buildings use, and how change of legislation towards more flexibility could affect the whole deinstitutionalization prospects of a context. It also includes a case study of the Hellenic mental health facilities planning legislation and how alterations on the change of use legislation for psychiatric facilities could affect their integration outcome.