Behavioral health facilities often carry the stigma of a "scary psychiatric ward" with padded walls and caged lighting, appearing more like a penitentiary than a home or clinic. We are surrounded by inaccurate portrayals of mental illness with negative connotations, in various media. Fortunately, that is changing. Equipment, finishes, architectural details, lighting, planning, and facilities are expanding and growing to adapt to current population needs. Behavioral health design is honing focus to incorporate residential health and wellbeing strategies into these environments to yield more human-centric qualities (with intended better outcomes for residents). Lighting plays a critical role to evoke these feelings. However, in a Healthcare environment, luminaires must still adhere to stringent design guidelines such as ligature and impact on resistance attributes. In this webinar, two lighting experts will address innovative behavioral health lighting design strategies, review case studies and current research, and offer how you can adapt lessons learned to provide friendlier environments for residents, staff and families.
Experts
Lauren Schwade is Mazzetti’s healthcare lighting expert, with more than 16 years of experience and a portfolio filled with notable clients and facilities such as MD Anderson and MSK. With a specialty in healthcare and smart design, she is committed to delivering lighting solutions that meet patient, family and staff needs 24/7, ensuring an environment that is fully conducive to health, wellness, and healing. Lauren is actively involved in advancing her industry. She sits on the IES Healthcare Committee, serves as the Communications Chair within her local Women in Healthcare Chapter and is an affiliate member of The Center for Health Design.
Mark de la Fuente is a Senior Lighting Designer and Professional (Electrical) Engineer at Mazzetti, based in St. Louis. Mark uniquely couples artistic design with technical implementation on his projects, including award-winning interior and exterior lighting projects. In Mark’s 20+ years of experience, he has designed for a variety of building and project types including educational, penitentiary, commercial, cultural, and healthcare facilities.
In his role at Mazzetti, Mark leads projects from schematic design, thru construction documents and construction administration, coordinating with Mazzetti’s Lighting Design Studio as appropriate. Mark has a BS ARCE from the University of Kansas and is a past president of the IES St. Louis chapter.