Designing for recovery : developing and validating tools to assess psychiatric care environments

Psychiatric care is increasingly integrating personal recovery, which focuses on the patient’s process to regain a sense of purpose and control over their condition instead of focusing primarily on symptom alleviation. Concurrently, there is growing recognition of the impact of environmental factors on patients’ health and recovery, as highlighted by evidence-based design outcomes. However, a comprehensive framework to assess the impact of environmental features on patients’ well-being, recovery, and satisfaction with quality of care is lacking. Purpose: This research aims to develop a theoretical framework that integrates personal recovery, patient satisfaction with quality of care, and evidence-based design outcomes. Based on this framework, researchers will develop a patient survey and an environmental assessment scale to assess psychiatric ward environments both objectively and from the patient’s perspective. Methods: A literature review informed a comprehensive theoretical framework and the patient questionnaire and environmental rating scale’s development. Both the scales content and construct validity will be validated psychometrically with a group of experts. Psychometric properties and application concerns (user and administrator friendliness) will also be addressed. Results: Patients from psychiatric units (n=100) will complete an interviewer-rated questionnaire, while experts (n=4) will objectively assess the environment of the psychiatric units. The study is expected to identify critical architectural and environmental factors that impact personal recovery and satisfaction in psychiatric settings. This study will inform the design of future psychiatric units and contribute to the development of a generalized tool for assessing psychiatric ward environments.