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Old See House highly commended, Building Better Healthcare Awards 2014

By November 7, 2014June 1st, 2016No Comments
Old See House highly commended, Building Better Healthcare Awards 2014

Old See House is a new community mental health facility that provides support for patients in the North Belfast area.

A pathfinder for the modernisation of mental health care in Belfast, the facility promotes the model of decentralised community-based services as set out in the recent Transforming Your Care policy document.

Setting a precedent for the future of community mental health design, the facility houses the community mental health team and consultant outpatient clinics. There is also a day treatment facility complete with a kitchen, craft room, one-to-one ‘talking pods’, and a therapy garden; and an eight-bedroom home treatment house designed for short-stay patients.

This part of the building has a separate entrance and private garden, self-service kitchen and open-plan living area designed to feel and operate like a stand-alone ‘home-from-home’ as opposed to a traditional mental health inpatient facility.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said

While giving the service user a sense of privacy, the building was designed to be an open, naturally-lit and inviting space that helps to promote a sense of calm and wellbeing. The design team and contractors have undoubtedly delivered on this brief with bespoke private areas and an entrance and main concourse that opens out to a beautifully-landscaped main garden protected from public view by the building itself. Early indications from service users are that the building is a therapeutic space that offers a relaxing environment during what is often a stressful experience.

The judges said

This is an immediately attractive place, with well-proportioned spaces and rich materials.