Evaluating the effectiveness of innovative design for a community mental health center

The effectiveness of the design of the inpatient and day patient areas of a community mental health center was evaluated in 1969, soon after the center was opened, and again in 1974. The focal area is a large, irregularly shaped communal space; it opens onto a wide, encircling corridor ringed with bedrooms, multiuse rooms, and offices. The center was designed to encourage different behaviors and varied uses of space, to promote interaction, and to stimulate and challenge patients. In 1974 the evaluators found the design still worked well for the unit that still operated the same kind of program the center was designed for, a therapeutic community, even though the unit admitted sicker patients than planned. The design did not work as well for the second unit, which had become a crisis intervention program for patients who were often highly agitated, suicidal, or determined to escape; security and surveillance were major problems.