New spaces of inpatient care for people with mental illness: a complex "rebirth" of the clinic?

Curtis, S.; Gesler, W.; Priebe, S.; Francis, S.

Abstract

This paper examines the implications for design of inpatient settings of community-based models of care and treatment of mental illness. The study draws on ideas from relational geographies and expands interpretations based on Foucault's writing. We analyse material from a case study which explored the views of patients, consultants, and other staff from a new Psychiatric Inpatient Unit in a deprived area of East London, UK. We discuss in particular: the tension between providing a caring and supportive institutional environment and ensuring that patients are returned to the community when they are ready; the links between an acute inpatient facility and its local community; the potential significance of the psychiatric hospital as a relatively stable feature in the otherwise insecure and unpredictable geographical experience of people with long-term mental illnesses. We discuss the relevance of these issues for design of new psychiatric inpatient facilities.

Citation

Curtis, S., Gesler, W., Priebe, S., & Francis, S. (2009). New spaces of inpatient care for people with mental illness: a complex "rebirth" of the clinic?. Health & Place, 15(1), 340-348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.06.007

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2010
• Journal: Health & Place
• Print ISSN: 1353-8292
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 340-348
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.06.007
• Keywords: Psychiatric hospitals, Relational geography, Stigma, Risk, Hospital design.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1522928