Healing Spaces: Mental Health Design Dialogue

Pineapple’s Daniel White is joined in conversation by Melissa Steach, who is not only an industrial-organizational psychologist and behavioral health design strategist, but also Pineapple’s Regional Engagement Manager.

Daniel and Melissa explore the impact of ergonomics on patient outcomes in behavioral health settings, a topic that reaches across design, safety and human wellbeing.

Thoughtful ergonomic design extends beyond comfort, by influencing mood, behavior, recovery and the overall therapeutic experience. From furniture design and placement to sensory consideration given to materials, posture support and movement patterns, these details all shape how patients and care give...

Pineapple’s Michelle Blackie explores behavioral health in rural and frontier systems in the United States, places where critical access hospitals often serve as the only point of care for miles in every direction. In these settings, a single hospital must be everything for everyone: emergency department, primary care, mental health provider, and community lifeline. That reality demands an extraordinary level of agility in service delivery, from staff who wear multiple hats to facilities that need to flex and adapt to every kind of need. Michelle is joined by Elizabeth Johnson, Assistant Professor at Montana State University, and together th...

Pineapple’s Daniel White hosts an exploration of the River Edge Behavioral Health Center: a place where architecture and empathy work hand in hand, and the built environment becomes an agent of healing within the community. 

With guests Greta O’Dell, River Edge’s Chief Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Officer, and Rachel Azar, Project Manager at Azar + Walsh Architects, Daniel explores how this new 34,000-square-foot facility in Macon, Georgia, has embraced a therapeutic approach to design, prioritizing calm, patient dignity, and safety in every detail, from spatial layout and lighting to materials and outdoor access. And you’ll hear how...

Pineapple’s Michelle Blackie hosts a discussion around how thoughtful design of therapeutic spaces can create more compassionate, effective, and healing environments.

How do we move toward a more holistic, human-centered approach to treatment spaces in behavioral health? These environments have previously been shaped primarily by risk mitigation. And while safety is crucial, we now know that the way a space feels - how it supports autonomy, comfort, connection, and dignity - can be just as important to a person’s recovery journey.

So how do we design for dignity as well as for durability?
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Pineapple’s Daniel White hosts a discussion exploring how design impacts mental health spaces, with a focus on de-escalation in creating safe, therapeutic environments.

The design of EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment Treatment & Healing) units and other behavioural health crisis units plays a pivotal role in creating a calm and supportive space for psychiatric patients in otherwise chaotic and stressful emergency departments which are usually designed to accommodate physical ill health rather than mental ill health. 

Join Daniel with guests Dr Scott Zeller and Virginia Pankey as they discuss the physical environment’s influence on pa...

Pineapple’s Lotte Bailey hosts a discussion about the influence of the lived experience on design in mental health. 

People are sharing valuable perspectives, informing the design of mental health spaces using their own experiences and recovery journeys to help designers create more effective and compassionate solutions for the built environment.

This approach ensures that interventions are thoughtful, sensitively approached and aligned with the needs and preferences of patients and care providers. Lived experience can inform the design of everything from built environments and therapeutic interventions to digital tools and service delivery models. By valuing the...

Pineapple’s Edward Larsen hosts a discussion around neurodivergence and the importance of design for support and inclusivity. 

We have an opportunity in the design world to make the built environment less of a challenge for the neurodivergent population, and focus on creating spaces that are inclusive and supportive of individuals and their diverse cognitive styles.

Building versatility into the spaces gives a sense of agency to the people within them. While we can’t really understand how everyone is going to perceive the built environment, one thing we can do is ask.

Join...

In this episode Pineapple’s Lotte Bailey hosts a discussion looking at the future of behavioral and mental health design, recognising the critical role of the built environment in recovery and wellbeing. 

But while technology is racing ahead and certainly aiding the transition from purely functional to more adaptive healing environments, there are still systemic issues we face designing suitable spaces within our communities. 

Join Lotte with guests Stephen Parker, Anosha Zanjani and Daniel White as they discuss the fascinating opportunities and challenges of our race into the future of behavioural and mental health design.
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