Co-produced with Experts by Experience and mental healthcare professionals, the award-winning new 78 bed inpatient mental health facility in North London stands as an exemplar project in user-centred and therapeutic design.
Highgate East, situated next to Whittington Hospital, features two contemporary older adult wards and three rehabilitation wards to support modern-day mental health care as part of the St Pancras Modernization Programme.
Kingsway Group were proud to partner with North London NHS Foundation Trust, Ryder Architecture, and BAM Construction to deliver a safe and welcoming environment at Highgate East. Through carefully planned architecture and integration of community spaces, such as a public café within the building, Highgate East will play a crucial role in the continued destigmatisation of mental health care.
– Highgate East, ‘Healthcare’ category winner at New London Awards 2024
Creating a therapeutic & safe care environment
The safety and wellbeing of service users and staff was a key consideration at every step of the project, resulting in a bright, spacious and welcoming environment conducive to healing and recovery.
As the UK’s experts in anti-ligature design, Kingsway Group were specified to provide the specialist internal anti-ligature doorsets, enhancing safety while contributing towards the non-institutional look and feel achieved by Ryder throughout the building.
Kingsway Group’s FD30S fire-rated SWING/SENTRY doorsets were specified throughout the facility, including the service user bedrooms, sensory & calm rooms, treatment rooms and more, providing a non-institutional feel whilst minimising risk and ensuring care staff are prepared in the event of a barricade scenario. The specialist SWING/SENTRY doorsets deliver an enhanced level of safety, featuring a full door-edge ligature alarm system to alert care staff if a ligature is detected against any of the door’s exposed edges. The SENTRY ligature alarm systems were integrated with Kingsway’s K-Alert Alarm Annunciation System, ensuring staff are correctly alerted when a ligature is detected.
Duralux Vision Panels were fitted to the SWING/SENTRY doorsets to provide privacy while enabling safe staff observation when necessary, operated by the Kingsway Staff Key – the same key that operates the door’s anti-barricade mechanism.
For the bedroom doorsets, a selection of therapeutic images were fitted within the Duralux Vision Panels, providing each bedroom with its own identity while introducing colour into the ward environment. A Sand Orleans Oak finish matching the fixed furniture and cabinets throughout the facility helped further soften the environment.
Kingsway’s anti-ligature SOLO Single-Action Door Systems were utilised elsewhere in the facility, in areas such as ward offices and the state-of-the-art sports hall; one of Highgate East’s many unique spaces that help blur the boundary between mental health services and the community. Ryder discuss this notion in more depth, explaining that “a leading aim for Highgate East was to address the stigma that often exists around mental illnesses, which can cause feelings of exclusion from society.
“Our approach creates a facility which is a ‘good neighbour’ and accessible to all to engender feelings of belonging and help service users feel part of the local community. With its urban context, the location and aesthetic of the new building helps to blur the boundary between the service and the community. With access to a café within the main entrance and sports hall at the lower ground level, the public are encouraged into the building to help destigmatise mental health services.” – Ryder Architecture.
Highgate East also makes exemplary use of outdoor spaces to create a therapeutic environment for services users, visitors, and staff. Ryder explain that “access to fresh air is created for each ward through a series of terraced sky gardens, each fully enclosed to be safe and secure whilst optimising activity, recreation, and connection to nature.”
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