The editorial team of Facilities are pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue dedicated to an exploration of evidence based approaches to establish the most appropriate architecture for the psychiatric milieu.

Facilities for psychiatric care have a tradition of standardization in design and treatment dating back to the moral treatment paradigm of the 1850s. As normative approaches to psychiatric care have changed, so too do the facilities used to house, treat and manage patients. The shift to evidence-based design (EBD) in hospital architecture means that the psychiatric milieu must follow suit.

The search for evidence to model psychiatric facilities is an important endeavour. But psychiatric illness is not like orthopaedics or cardiology, where the needs and satisfaction of staff and patients can be relatively easy to assess and evidence can be easily measured.

Mental illnesses are a heterogeneous group of disorders, and there is a risk in categorizing all psychiatric illnesses together and treating them alike. Environmental influences that exacerbate one condition frequently assist with another. As such, Facilities is soliciting approaches that are specific to:
. model of care (functional program)
. Procurement and governance
. geriatric psychiatry
. mood disorders
. the non-affective psychotic spectrum
. psychiatric emergencies
. substance-related disorders
. facilities for forensic psychiatry.
This list is not exhaustive and interested authors are encouraged to
contact the Guest Editor with alternative proposals. Please kindly take
note of the following requirements if you wish to have your paper
considered for this special issue:
. The content of the paper must conform with the terms of reference of
Facilities
. All papers submitted will be subject to the normal double blind
refereeing process undertaken by the journal
. Submitted papers must not be under review by any other journal.
The closing date for submissions is: 1 June 2012
Submissions to Facilities are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts,
Emerald’s online submission and peer review system. Registration and access are available at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/f
Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts are
available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre:
http://msc.emeraldinsight.com
Full author guidelines can be found on the journal web site at:
http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_
guidelines.htm?id=f
Please contact the special issue Guest Editor for further information:
Jan Golembiewski
Schizophrenia Research Institute Affiliated Scientist
Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 (2) 9351 3474
E-mail: jan.g@sydney.edu.au
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