Exploring Place for Community Mental Health Support in Natural Environments

Abstract

The thesis looks at developing a new model for a mental health support program which is integrated into a natural recreational environment. Its starting point is Beginning Again, a registered charity in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, which provides a supportive workplace, called Treasures, to engage psychiatric patients in meaningful and productive work. The intent of the thesis is to develop an architecture that reflects the mission and objectives of the program in order to increase the opportunity for recovery and interaction with the local community. This is done by creating a more general prototype or “parent seed” which can be applicable to many locations and then testing the model by planting it in the Oak Ridges Corridor Park, located in the suburban community of Oak Ridges, Ontario. This thesis builds upon the long history of rehabilitative environments to create a community model of care that regards work as primarily a social and cultural activity.