Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Volume II, Wellbeing and the Environment

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Linking the Physical Design of Health-Care Environments to Wellbeing Indicators

Sarah Payne, Rachel Potter and Rebecca Cain

University of Warwick, U.K.

Introduction

Maintaining a healthy life plays a key role in a human's wellbeing and quality of life. Throughout life there are times when physical and mental health issues need to be addressed, requiring consultation with health-care professionals and access to health-care facilities. Of course, the medical care received is of upmost importance, but the environment in which the care is received can also impact the recovery process and broader aspects of wellbeing. This chapter examines how the physical design of health-care environments impacts on wellbeing.

Health-care environments incorporate a broad range of necessary health-care services and range from large teaching hospitals, providing acute services for thousands of patients, to small care homes, providing long-term care for only a handful of residents. Health-care environments need to be able to support all age groups, at all stages of health. Primary, acute, and long-term facilities include: general practice surgeries, dentists, outpatient departments, radiography departments, hospices, mental health units, rehabilitation wards, and spinal injury centers: the list is endless, the environments diverse, and their purpose varied.

Wellbeing is also a broad term encompassing a number of concepts and is defined in a multitude of ways. A report for the Scottish Government described ...