Considerations for mental healthcare facility design in Indian context

Abstract

With time, there has been a shift in the approach towards location and design of mental health establishments across the globe. In India, the situation changed significantly after the establishment of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The nature of change has been affected by the history, cultural norms, and climatic conditions of the country as well. However, today, India follows a generalized design guideline that is devoid of country-specific considerations. Moreover, there is a dearth of recent research work based on contextual design and site location considerations for a mental health establishment in India. This paper presents a study on the current policies of India, the existing design and location theories of mental health care facilities and contextualization of those theories on two primary case studies and two possible site locations. The findings are then applied to an academic design project with a discussion on the possible design and location considerations that need to be addressed in country or state-specific guidelines. It is concluded by highlighting the relevance of case-specific, rather than generalized, fit-for-every-place approach, today.

Keywords:

• Mental health care facility
• Indian guidelines
• site location
• architectural design theories
• deinstitutionalization
• healing architecture

Acknowledgment

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aratrika Sarkar

Aratrika Sarkar is a student of Masters of City Planning at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal. She completed her Bachelors in Architecture from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal in 2021. Her domain of interest includes healing architecture, city planning and urban design.

Jayita Guha Niyogi

Jayita Guha Niyogi is a Professor and Ex. Head of the Department of Architecture, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She acquired her doctoral degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2005. She has 33 years of experience in Architecture and Planning profession, teaching and research projects. Her domain of interest includes integrated land use and transportation planning, environmental planning and management, quantitative techniques.