Community-Centered Psychiatric Intervention: A Pilot Project in the 13th Arrondissement, Paris

Start making sense

“…Comprehensibility: reading the environment The importance of making sense of experience cannot be underestimated (Searles, 1960;Woodbury and Woodbury, 1969), and in the case of psychiatric patients, this may mean making sense of a living nightmare (Woodbury and Woodbury, 1969;Chadwick, 1993). It is therefore important that all decision makers in design teams for psychiatric wards understand that hallucinatory experience is very real to those who suffer from it and that the environment we create may either intensify or elevate such experiences.…”

“…Even so, good facilities for receiving social support must be considered to enable recovery The current practice of affording space meet up with family and old friends (CHAA, 2007) is very important and, in the interests of fostering meaning, might even be extended with the provision of extra facilities for friends and family to stay over. (Osmond, 1966;Woodbury and Woodbury, 1969;Whitehead et al, 1976;Whitehead et al, 1984;Gutkowski et al, 1992) A salutogenic perspective means that affordances for pets may be considered. They have been shown to radically improve mental well-being (Searles, 1960(Searles, , 1965(Searles, , 1986Wells, 2007) and while affordances for cats and dogs may be too difficult, too dangerous and raise any number of health issues including the possibility of allergies, it must be remembered that relationships with pets are often of more significance to the mentally ill than relationships with other humans and are often important stepping stones for re-establishing human relationships and other milestones for recovery such as the development of self awareness and moral conscience (Searles, 1960).…”

“…Even so, good facilities for receiving social support must be considered to enable recovery The current practice of affording space meet up with family and old friends (CHAA, 2007) is very important and, in the interests of fostering meaning, might even be extended with the provision of extra facilities for friends and family to stay over. (Osmond, 1966; Woodbury and Woodbury, 1969; Whitehead et al , 1976; Whitehead et al , 1984; Gutkowski et al , 1992)…”

Salutogenic Architecture

“…The premise of inclusive design is that we should design for the minority who need special considerations, and the majority will benefit. For those people who suffer from confusion, hallucinations and paranoia, the importance of making sense of the environment cannot be underestimated (Woodbury & Woodbury, 1969). For this reason, it is important to provide familiar environments in all conditions where users are expected to relax, take respite and comfort (so that definitively excludes experiences which are designed to be extraordinary, such as rides in Disneyland).…”

The Paraprofessional and Family Therapy

“…While this approach is used in the prevention of commitment to a mental hospital (8), it also fits the quality of life experience and motivation for change characteristic of the poor. Since it is well established that the poor most often come for help and are most receptive to it during emergencies, the creation of mobile crisis units (32), store‐front walk‐in clinics (14, 22), and family therapy crisis approaches (7, 16, 24, 28) are all useful and appropriate forms of offering help. Any fault with these approaches lies in excluding from the diagnosis and treatment plans the reality factors that contribute to the maintenance of a pathogenic situation.…”