By Healthcare Facilities Today

As the industry talks more about the design ramifications for behavioral health (BH) spaces, it’s given the magazine plenty of paths to follow to explore the challenges of this particular healthcare setting and share some solutions, according to a blog by Healthcare Design magazine managing editor, Jennifer Kovacs Silvis.

"And the buzz surrounding BH facility design is likely to become even more audible, thanks to the expansion of services that’s provided under the Affordable Care Act. As the service line grows across healthcare organizations, design firms’ boards may just be filling up with new construction and renovation projects," Silvis wrote.

But when teams sit down to tackle these projects, they won't find much research, precedents or case studies, according to a new report from The Center for Health Design.

Little attention has been given to the role of the physical environment in behavioral health settings in the past 40 years, says “Design Research and Behavioral Health Facilities.”

“The amount of research and associated funding on the topic of BH environments is minimal and insufficient to inform the design process or generalized to other BH facilities. Likewise, the institutionalized guidelines for these facilities, with few exceptions, lack research evidence to support their recommendations. The authors strongly suggest that more research and more effective collaboration between researchers and the generators of guidelines be encouraged via both public and private sectors,” the report said.

While the problem has now been identified, the CHD report also recognizes the challenges of correcting it, according to the blog. However, the study did identify some design recommendations that can serve as a start,

Read the blog.