Applying staff experiences and expectations of an optimum environment for psychiatric care toward a holistic design of an inpatient psychiatric facility in KZN.
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Date
2016
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Abstract
This research paper consists of three key time lines within the evolution of the inpatient
psychiatric facilities: the past (local and international), the present (within Kwa-Zulu Natal),
and a move toward an improved design model for KwaZulu Natal which considers
therapeutic milieu and the end-user needs. This approach seeks to provide valuable insight
toward the development of the built form, and how it has impacted the quality of life of the
healthcare users who are detained within these facilities, and those who provide their care
and treatment.
Throughout history, and still evident today in South Africa, the predominant style of
psychiatric institutions, is the asylum style of architecture. The historical asylum model,
used the built form as a measure to control, detain and confine the mentally ill who were
believed to be deviant individuals who, as Markus (1993:95) describes, brought “chaos into
the social order of normal society”. During the 17th and 18th centuries, various architectural
models were established, based on different beliefs and ideas of how to treat and house the
mentally ill. Based on these differing ideas, the design of psychiatric institutions “occupies
an unstable space between prison and hospital” (Markus (1993:130).
Towards the 21st century, there has been growing trends toward community based care and
therapeutic environments however inpatient facilities within KwaZulu Natal still resemble
highly institutional-like environments, which are not conducive to the care and recovery of
patients, and the working environment of the staff. The primary research therefore focuses
on creating an optimum environment for therapeutic care and patient rehabilitation, based
on an understanding of care-giver experiences and expectations of inpatient psychiatric
facilities.
Based on the theory of salutogenesis and therapeutic environment theory, core themes
including one’s functional, social, and psychological needs, have been used to assess the
evolution of the built form, and how this can be used to inform future architectural design of
Psychiatric Inpatient facilities for acutely mentally ill adult male and female patients.
Description
Master of Architecture. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.