Decreasing the Stigma of Mental Health Facilities: Creating a Community Treatment Center in East Liberty, Pittsburgh
Abstract
This thesis demonstrates the positive impact that the built environment can
have to decrease mental health stigma by creating specific design tools to blend
community space and mental health treatment facilities through program integration,
threshold layering, spatial options, and innovative therapies. These design tools draw
from the work of social psychologist Dr. Patrick Corrigan, Ann Sussman and Dr. Justin
Hollander’s writings on cognitive design, Professor Stephen Verderber’s writings on
healthcare design, and architect Herman Hertzberger’s theory of polyvalent design to
create space that encourages social interaction between disparate socio-demographic
groups in the community. Enriched social dynamics in this outpatient treatment and
community center hybrid will increase comfort and decrease stigma through the
promotion of casual encounters between those seeking treatment and those using
the space for community programming. This design proposal is sited in the East
Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, which recently lost a mental health center due to gentrification.