last May’s launch – at DIMH 2017 – of the first in what the DIMHN intends will be a series of concise but informative evidence-based guides to improving various elements of the mental healthcare environment, was followed this May by the unveiling of a second publication, focusing this time on the impact of sound on all those using such spaces.
May 2017 saw the launch – at the 2017 DIMH annual conference – of Design with People in Mind, a booklet compiled by members of the Network’s Research & Education Stream, led by Paula Reavey, Professor of Psychology at london South Bank University (lSBU), Jeff Bartle, former head of Design at St Andrew’s Healthcare (and, like the Professor, a DIMHN Board member), and Katharine Harding, an associate at Conran and Partners and doctoral researcher at lSBU. This first booklet examined how elements such as high quality personal space, control over the environment, suitable therapeutic facilities, access to nature, attractive aesthetics, and good acoustics, can significantly aid inpatient mental health recovery.
This year’s booklet, Design With People in Mind: The Sound Issue,was again compiled by Professor Reavey and Katharine Harding, and highlights how acoustic design ‘can dramatically affect the way we feel about ourselves and other people, reduce or increase stress levels, and even alter our behaviour and physiology’
The authors say they have ‘gone beyond describing acoustic design as something separate from the individuals who occupy environment,’ and instead examined ‘a range of issues specific to mental health’ – including sleep, privacy, confidentiality, aggression, stress, ‘and ultimately recovery’. Their research suggests that ‘much can be done to encourage relaxation, increase positive mood, and promote a greater sense of connection with others, through natural sounds’. The authors say: “Research indicates that the ambience and atmosphere of a unit can be transformed by small acoustic adjustments that improve not only relations between staff and patients, but also serve as non-pharmaceutical, and even therapeutic, interventions.”
Their ‘investigation of existing evidence’ on the impact of sound suggested that ‘considerations of sound in mental health were limited’; their aim has thus been ‘to ‘identify a range of vital issues relevant to general healthcare, as well as mental healthcare environments’.