Physical design of supported accommodation for people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities: a scoping review

Evidence suggests that the built environment can have an impact on physical and mental health and that there exists a relationship between wellbeing and architectural design. Following work by Ulrich who identified the importance for health of interaction with the natural environment, studies further explored the relationship between health and the built environment. Recently, there has been a focus on design of inpatient facilities with key design features identified for improving quality of life and health outcomes. This may be particularly important for people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities who are more likely to have significantly poorer health than the general population and experience a range of co-morbidities.

Research has suggested that supported accommodation has the potential to improve quality of life outcomes for people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities . Despite this, there is a lack of research into the physical design of supported accommodation and features that could potentially have an impact on physical and mental health outcomes for service users.

This paper aimed to review physical design of supported accommodation for people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities. The objectives were to: 1) examine the scope of the evidence in relation to physical design of supported accommodation; 2) identify physical design features or qualities and 3) identify the impact of the physical design on the health and wellbeing of service users.