Background
Audrey House, an Enhanced unit for women, part of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (DHCFT) Kingsway Hospital, Derbyshire, was originally a 10-bedded mental health rehabilitation inpatient service which provided recovery programmes in a community setting. Following an assessment of the services offered across Kingsway Hospital, Audrey House was selected for conversion to an 8-bedded high intensity service provision for female service users, as part of the Trust’s Making Room for Dignity programme.
The programme team had to consider how they would refurbish the existing space to accommodate the change of use and increase the security whilst also installing items they had not provided before, including personal use televisions in all the rooms.
Tough Furniture worked in collaboration with CTD Architects and the team at DHCFT to identify the solutions required to meet the needs of service users in the newly refurbished high intensity rooms. It was a multi-phased project which concluded in January 2024.
The Solution
To make best use of the space available and to ensure the safety and security of service users and staff Tough Furniture drew on their extensive experience of providing fitted furniture to mental health care environments, in order to manufacture and install a secure but attractive suite of bedrooms.
The care unit design used combined 18+25mm MF MDF boards in Tough Furniture’s Dark Elm finish to create the fitted furniture elements which were integrated with a blue hued laminated Formica (Maui) into the recessed shelving in the finished product.
The fully enclosed Water-Resistant beds, designed with angled sides and no visible fixings were constructed from 18 & 25mm MDF Thermo- formed in Kydex XD (extreme durability), this provides high levels of moisture resistance and ease of cleaning. The internal multi-ribbed framework of the bed is constructed from 18mm Birch plywood providing the bed with maximum robustness. Additional weighting was installed for extra security.
The finish included the use of anti-pick mastic to ensure the furniture was flush to the walls and skirting boards and to make cleaning easier.
For more on Tough Furniture’s fitted mental health Design and Build projects see:
Audrey House Enhanced Care Unit unit for women is part of Kingsway Hospital, a collection of in-patient provision under Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, for more information, please see:
