The bedrooms, though not the primary location for treatment, is a service user’s home from home and place of refuge during their recovery journey. It is their place to rest in safety. These spaces must deliver in a number of areas.
A place for restful sleep is understandably the most important. Disrupted sleep affects our psychological state, impairing a service user’s short and long term recovery.
Creating a non-institutional feel to the space is very beneficial. It is preferable to design the bedrooms to look as close to a residential setting as possible. The type of luminaires selected and their lit effect can impact this greatly.
The lighting should create a pleasant, restful space and the light itself should provide good colour rendering to enable various tasks to be carried out. Luminaires should not be placed directly above the bed as this will cause discomfort to the service user resting underneath.
Luminaires with ligature resistant design are essential as they help prevent self-harming as the aperture between the luminaire’s diffuser and body is minimised. A high level of impact and tamper resistance also helps secure the luminaire from interference, dismantling and potential weaponising.
In this type of space we recommend 150 lux average during the day dimmed to 50 lux at night. Luminaires should be specified with a soft diffused glow, supplemented by wall lights. Despite a service user requiring their own space, operational staff need to be able to control lighting within individual bedrooms from outside the room.
Service-users may need to be observed during the night and discreet lighting that does not disturb their sleep is essential. The main light should be service user controllable which staff can override from outside the room if required. A night light should be incorporated in an over bed light which can be operated inside or outside of the bedroom. Low glare night lights will ensure service user visual comfort.
In the en-suite toilet high ingress protection is required due to water presence.
For further lighting advice speak to our technical sales team on 020 8254 2022 or e-mail technicalsales@designplan.co.uk
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