SAN LUIS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
The mental health community in San Luis Obispo is a work in progress; even though there are small clinics, stabilization units, and mental health centers, there is no comprehensive CA-5150 approved hospital within a 150-mile radius.
Fig 1: CA-5150 approved hospitals in California
“Medical care cannot be separated from the buildings in which it is delivered.”
CR Horsburgh, Healing by Design.
New England Journal of Medicine. 1995
A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL FOR SAN LUIS OBISPO
Most 5150-designated psychiatric hospitals have one common issue: freedom and lack thereof. Since there are design and safety guidelines in place for the patients’ and staff’s safety, psychiatric hospitals have gained a reputation for being restrictive, trapping places. In this project, ways were explored in order to help the patients feel more comfortable and independent while still providing the safety and security that a psychiatric hospital requires.
SPATIAL ORGANIZATION
In plan, the buildings relatively follow the contours of the Creekside site, while also having a single long hallway in the residential buildings. This helps with surveillance, which is an important factor in psychiatric hospitals to keep the patients safe.
On the site is four main buildings: the check-in/counseling building, the two inpatient ward buildings for adult and under 18s respectively, and the communal building, in which residents would spend scheduled time in the cafeteria, the library, music room, movie theater, gym, or pool. The building also has a large deck that wraps around one side which helps with the uncertainty of creek flooding, but also serves the purpose of an overflow deck for patients to get some vitamin D on sunny days.
As for food regimens, meals would follow a macrobiotic model in which patients would grow their own produce in the garden, supervised by garden consultants, and eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables similar to other preceding hospitals that rehabilitate people with eating disorders. People with mental health issues often have difficulties with food, and paving the way for healthy habits is often the first step towards a good recovery and stabilization. The growing itself would serve as growing therapy, but what they grow would also be beneficial towards their health.