Translating spatial experiences to design recommendations : A mission impossible?

• This chapter relocates to the mid-1970s in Sweden, to a newly opened outpatient clinic for mental healthcare. The clinic, Saltsjöbaden Mental Health Centre (SMHC), was one clinic out of three created in the pilot scheme The Nacka Project 1974-1979, an influential ‘actor’ in the decentralisation and de-institutionalisation of Swedish mental healthcare. The spatial organisation and design of SMHC was encompassing the dual aims of preventing people from becoming long-term psychiatric patients and fostering a culture of co-operation among staff. However, experiences of the architecture differed; it was embraced by many for its innovative and supportive design, whereas the design was criticised by others. Some years later, when SMHC was used as a precedent in guidelines for “the new psychiatry” by The Swedish Health and Social Care Institute for Planning and Rationalisation (SPRI 1985), most of its place-specific aspects relating to care ideology, work organisation and staff experiences were not brought to the fore. Why was this so? Why, in many ways, did these newer recommendations propose quite a different mental health centre to that programmed by the management of SMHC and experienced by staff and patients? 

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

mental health care

deinsitutionalisation

spatial organization

out-patient clinic

spacing

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)