The “Virtual Reality for Exposure Therapy” (VRET) initiative at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) represents a nursing innovation designed to enhance anxiety treatment. Originating from a ward-floor idea by Staff Nurse Aine Whyte—winner of the 2022 St Patricks Nursing Innovative Project Award—the concept was developed by a dedicated Nursing Quality Initiative working group in… Read more »
Type: Presentation.
Beyond Compliance: An Evidence-Based Ligature Risk-Reduction Strategy
This project examines the local implementation of the HSE Mental Health Services: Guideline on the Implementation and Use of the National Ligature Risk Reduction Audit Tool for Approved Centres (2024) within the Department of Psychiatry, Unit 5B, University Hospital Limerick. The initiative was led through a strengthened Ligature Reduction Strategy Group, bringing together the complementary… Read more »
Choosing Windows for Mental Health Environments
The design of mental health environments requires careful consideration of safety, wellbeing, operational performance and regulatory compliance. Drawing on a comprehensive whitepaper combining industry surveys, in-depth interviews and over 20 years of specialist experience, this presentation explores the critical role that windows play in supporting both service user safety and therapeutic outcomes. The research identified… Read more »
Designing In, Not Out: Neuro-affirmative Healthcare Environments for Staff Wellbeing
Healthcare staff are among the most exposed workforce groups to high-demand, sensory-intensive environments. Long working hours, open-plan workplaces, unpredictable noise, harsh lighting, and limited restorative spaces compound occupational stress. For neurodivergent staff, these conditions can be profoundly disabling. Everyday sensory inputs: sound, light, colour, and pattern can be overwhelming, leading to discomfort, anxiety, and distress…. Read more »
Regulation by Design: Creating Healthcare Environments that Support People, Not Just Patients
Healthcare environments influence far more than clinical outcomes. Long before a person meets a healthcare professional, their nervous system has already begun responding to the environment around them. Lighting, noise, wayfinding, waiting areas, privacy and predictability can either support regulation or contribute to stress, overwhelm and disengagement. Drawing on my work as a psychologist, psychotherapist,… Read more »
Rethinking Lighting in Mental Healthcare and Supporting Wellbeing with Circadian Rhythms
Lighting plays a critical role in mental healthcare environments, influencing both wellbeing and rehabilitation outcomes. In this presentation, Lee will explore how thoughtfully designed lighting can support circadian rhythms. By linking the latest scientific research with practical design strategies, the session will provide attendees with an in-depth understanding of how light affects human biology and… Read more »
Connect Cafe for Travellers in Mental Health
The Regional Communications group in HSE West Northwest identified the need to develop a project group to address the mental health literacy challenges faced within the Traveller community. This project group aimed to co-produce an initiative to empower the Traveller community to improve their mental health literacy thereby strengthening their ability to navigate and engage… Read more »
Sensory Differences and Environmental Design: A Case Study of Home Improvement Using the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)
Home should be our safe place, but for many people with sensory differences as a result of neurodiversity, this is not the case. Environmental modification as part of Occupational Therapy intervention provides an improved fit between the person, their environment and the occupations the person wants or needs to participate in within that environment. Drawing… Read more »
Mossley Hill – Mersey Care’s Latest Innovative Mental Health Hospital
Mossley Hill is a new-built, 80-bed in-patient adult acute mental health hospital, located in south Liverpool. The building comprises 4 wards, a S136 suite, an assessment unit, and share therapies provision across. It replaces dated dormitory wards; 3 from an 1980s building which had timetabled garden access, and one from a Victorian Terraced House, both… Read more »
Environment as Enabler of Trauma-informed Practice
Trauma exposure is a universally recognized significant and consequential public health issue, with estimates that two-thirds of the general population have encountered at least one trauma, and that those exposed are disproportionately over-represented among recipients of health and social services. There is compelling evidence of the negative neurological, biological, psychological and social impacts of trauma… Read more »
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