The importance of the Physical Environment for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the relationships between appraisals of the physical environment with the subjective experience of consumers, and work satisfaction of clinicians, in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
 Design, setting, and outcome measures: A survey of clinicians, parent/guardians, and child/adolescents was conducted across eight community CAMHS in Western Australia. Respondents evaluated the waiting room and therapy rooms on a number of environmental attributes, and factor analysis was carried out to confirm that these ratings loaded on an overall appraisal of the physical environment measure. This measure was thencorrelated with self-reported subjective experience of consumers, and overall work satisfaction of staff members.
 Results: Clinicians were found to be much more critical of the physical environment compared with consumers. Moderate associations were found between appraisal of the physical environment and subjective experience of consumers. A strong positive association was found between clinician appraisal of the physical environment and overall work satisfaction.
 Conclusions: The present study adds to the limited existing research arguing for the important role that the physical environment can have upon both consumer and staff experience in mental health settings. The present study provides empirical evidence to justify steps being taken to enhance the physical environment in mental health clinics. The inter-relationship between physical environment attributes suggests there is potential for managers to improve the overall perception of clinic space via relatively small actions (e.g., adding a nice piece of artwork).
 Abbreviations: CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Effects of environmental experience on audience experience of street performance (busking).

“…While these questions are hardly addressed in the current street-performance literature, the research regarding customer experience and that regarding audience experience in the “non-street” performing-arts contexts together provide some clues for assuming the importance of environment in SAE. Customers’ experience of a given service transaction can be influenced by their perception about the environment where the transaction takes place; this premise has received empirical support in a variety of research contexts (Bitner, 1990; Chang, Shu, & King, 2014; El Sayed, Farrag, & Belk, 2004; Hansen, 2002; Pilpel, 1996; Rogers, Edwards, Hudman, & Perera, 2016). SAE is also a type of customer experience, as it leads to customer judgments (e.g., perception and liking of the performance) and customer behaviors (e.g., donation of money); hence, we expect that the environment plays a similarly important role in SAE as it does in other customer-experience contexts.…”

The Impact of Shared Versus Individual Office Space on Therapist Appraisal of Their Work Environment

“…The physical environment can impact service experience and well-being of both consumers and staff in healthcare settings. [1][2][3][4][5][6] This knowledge has influenced the construction of new facilities, and the refurbishment of old facilities, to be a more thoughtful process. [1] Organisations might assume that aspects of office design, commonly used in the corporate sector, are appropriate within the healthcare context.…”

“…[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Work environment -Physical and social aspects In the organisational psychology literature, a distinction is made between physical and social aspects of the work environment. [2,5,22,23] The physical environment constitutes the physical layout of the workplace, ambient noise levels, ventilation, and furnishings. [4] More specifically, Rashid and Zimring [2] make a distinction between indoor environmental variables (such as noise, temperature and air quality) and interior design variables (such as spatial layout and furnishings).…”

“…We also included a brief measure of our own devising for appraisal of the physical environment that we have published previously. [5] Some additional questions were included about noise, distraction, and work satisfaction. A couple of final open-ended questions were also included to obtain some qualitative data.…”

“…Finally, our study of therapists complements other recently published work that has provided evidence to suggest a relationship exists between client appraisal of the physical environment and their reported emotional experience in a mental health service environment. [5] Table 6. Comments provided by therapists occupying individual offices, about office space.…”