Old See House highly commended, Building Better Healthcare Awards 2014

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.