Best Practices for Incorporating Art in Behavioral Health Settings

Recently, Jim Hunt contributed to an article sponsored by RAO Contract Sales, Inc., on the "Best Practices for Incorporating Art in Behavioral Health Settings" in Healthcare Design Weekly Pulse on August 7, 2020.

Art can have a tremendous healing effect on patients, but particular care must be taken within behavioral health environments. It’s not just the images you select—it’s how you display them. When done right, artwork can play a vital role within all healthcare environments, providing a positive distraction and an upbeat vibe. Those attributes mean such installations can be particularly valuable within spaces serving those with behavioral health (BH) issues.

But installing art in BH environments involves making a variety of careful choices when it comes to such factors as subject matter, styles of artwork, and frames designed for everyone’s safety.

Architect James Hunt, AIA, founder and senior consultant for Behavioral Health Facility Consulting LLC (BHFC) in Topeka, Kansas, has seen his share of badly executed art installations in BH environments throughout his half-century of experience.

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