Healthcare Furniture Australia

Sourcing appropriate healthcare furniture in Australia is no easy task. What may appear safe to the untrained eye can represent a serious risk in mental health care settings.The challenge of sourcing appropriate mental health furniture is two fold: firstly, clinicians need to ensure that the furniture is safe for patients and staff and secondly, furniture should have a home-like appearance so that patients feel comfortable. 

Design limitations mean that this is not always possible, however, thanks to modern technology and design techniques, mental health care furniture is becoming safer and more welcoming. Here are some of the key considerations at play when sourcing mental health care furniture, and some of the solutions currently available on the market:

Behavioural Challenges

Destructive and distressing behaviour in psychiatric settings are common, so furniture needs to be carefully chosen to reduce the risk of harm to patients and staff alike. Furniture that can be broken apart can be easily weaponised, or used to conceal objects. Zippers, drawers, accessible frames, screws and sharp edges are all weak points in mental health furniture design. Ideally, mental health furniture is lightweight and durable with concealed reinforced aluminium and steel frames, tamper proof screws, rounded edges, no sharp points or corners, non removable drawers or doors, no zippers, and easily fixed in place to walls and floors as needed. Today, durable polyethylene one-piece construction furniture is an excellent solution. Their flowing design properties make these pieces of furniture difficult to pick up, and they cannot be broken apart. One-piece polyethylene furniture can also come weighted or unweighted, as the facility requires.

Creating an Atmosphere like home

The concept of ‘deinstitutionalization’ was introduced in the 1960s to revolutionise mental health care. In their publication ‘Psychiatric services and architecture’, architects Baker and Davies and psychiatrist Sivadon addressed the role of furniture. 

They advised mental health care facilities to shift from prison-like to home-like designs and styles that are as domestic and comfortable as possible. Their innovative approach has since been backed up by social theories and studies on patient outcomes. Notably, prison-like atmospheres have been connected with higher rates of absconding and distress, whereas home-like atmospheres have greater therapeutic value.

Disease Control

In the effort to ensure that mental health furniture is safe from challenging behaviour, disease control can be overlooked. However, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are required to have furniture that will resist the growth of bacteria and the spread of infectious diseases.

Mental health care furniture should be UV stabilised and water-resistant, have excellent chemical resistance and a wipe clean surface, as well as antimicrobial material throughout the product – not just on the surface material.

While it has always been important to have effective disease control in place in health settings, this aspect of furniture design has been emphasised by Covid-19, and it is now being given more attention.

Today it is more important than ever to have furniture that can be effectively cleaned, but in health settings furniture should also be approved for Covid-19 resistance. This means that your furniture must be rigorously tested and free from the kind of porous materials that become contaminated by viruses.

Testing can be done by soiling sample furniture against the Feline coronavirus. Samples are then wiped with 70% alcohol wipes and allowed to dry before testing for sterility. Furniture performance against the Feline coronavirus will give a good indication of their suitability for use in health care environments.

Mental health care furniture also needs to be resistant to soiling from patients. As a result of frequent cleaning, the durability of the surface and interior material is a high priority, in order to withstand cleaning chemicals.