Designing for the wide-ranging spectrum of mental healthcare
August 26, 2026
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Access to mental health resources and care has become a defining strain point on the U.S. healthcare system, with plenty of statistics pointing to an increase in mental health diagnoses in the United States with a shortage of adequate facilities and trained providers to meet the increased demand.
With increased awareness about the need for more mental health services, there is also recognition that there is a need for more than just traditional inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare. Residential facilities, addiction and detox services, dual medical/psychiatric units and pediatric and geriatric-specific buildings are among the broader range of mental healthcare settings our design and consulting teams have contributed their expertise.
Having multiple options for mental healthcare tailored to a person’s unique needs results in better long-term outcomes for the patient. A patient who gets the right setting early is also less likely to cycle back through a hospital's emergency department, which was never built to absorb the overflow from sparse mental healthcare resources.
Understanding where the system is strained or lacking within a community or region is vital, and something our clinicians and data analysts can plot out alongside healthcare institution leadership. This helps clients determine the necessary service lines and the spaces that would provide the most comfortable and safest patient and staff experiences.
Here's a look at a few of the healthcare settings our teams, across CannonDesign, Blue Cottage of CannonDesign and Yellow Brick Consulting, have deep experience in across the spectrum, whether through planning and design, transition and activation or both, built to close those gaps:
Medical/Psychiatric units
Patients in need of inpatient mental healthcare can also have complex medical conditions that are difficult to properly manage in a behavioral health setting. There is often a lack of appropriate monitoring equipment, medications or trained staff available to care for both medical and mental conditions.
Dual medical/psychiatric units are growing in number across the country to ensure these patients can get the appropriate care and better outcomes. Not only do they have the necessary equipment to monitor a patient’s vital signs, installed in a manner that maintains patient and staff safety, but they are also supported by clinicians who are cross trained in medical and mental health care.
The Froedtert Complexity Intervention Unit (CIU) in Milwaukee provides concurrent medical and psychiatric care to patients with complex needs by staff trained in this integrated care. This unit, the sixth of its kind in the country, targets patients who have medical and psychiatric diagnoses too complex to be properly managed in either psych or medical units.
The 16-bed unit features integrated headwalls that incorporate all gases, outlets and monitoring equipment out of reach of patients but easily and quickly accessed by staff. Often patients in this unit are in bed most of the time, and patient rooms provide control of lighting and temperature, with additional acoustic control for privacy and comfort as well as abundant access to natural light. The CIU provides more efficient and effective care that ultimately improves patient outcomes, reduces cost and shortens length of stay.
Pediatric full-spectrum hospitals
Mental healthcare services across the spectrum have been in high demand in recent years, and healthcare organizations across the country are utilizing state and federal funding opportunities to create behavioral health facilities tailored towards children and adolescents.
The new Oklahoma Children's OU Health Behavioral Health Center, set to open in late 2026, centers patient and clinician safety, family-centered care and stress reduction. With 72 private inpatient beds with adjacent acuity-adaptable bathrooms, this building leads with empathy and leaves the old institutional feel of behavioral health facilities behind.
Designed in partnership with local Oklahoma City firm Bockus Payne, the design lets kids both be connected to others or create boundaries if needed, while also balancing safety and calmness. The new center will also house intensive outpatient programming and partial hospitalization care, as well as a shared gymnasium and outdoor activity areas.
Dayton Children’s Hospital also prioritized expanded access to inpatient beds, as well as crisis care, within its Mathile Center for Mental Health and Wellness, which opened in 2025. Our teams provided the full spectrum of services for the project, from initial design through transferring patients and activating the building, which is detailed here.
Residential centers
For those individuals who need longer inpatient mental healthcare, or bridge services to transition from inpatient to outpatient care, residential facilities can help set patients up for success with a solid fountain of mental healthcare and social service support.
The Cordilleras Mental Health Campus in the wooded canyons of Southern California includes four single story, 16-bed rehabilitation cottages focused on specific populations and their tailored treatments, including young adults, those with co-existing medical conditions, those with traumatic backgrounds and more.
An adjacent campus center offers activity space on the first level and includes a kitchen, chapel, retail store and primary healthcare offices. The second level houses shared residential rooms and level three is for individuals with less severe mental health disabilities who can work in the community during the day. This environment with plentiful resources allows patients to get to a stable place physically and emotionally before leaving the campus.
It is also the first net zero energy mental health facility in California and generates power on-site using rooftop solar panels installed on both the buildings and parking areas, offsetting its energy consumption.
Substance Use/Detox facilities
For those needing treatment related to substance use, especially detox facilities, specialized facilities and staff are necessary to ensure the best outcome. Sometimes these are standalone buildings or are part of a larger mental health or medical campus. They often combine spaces where patients can be closely monitored by staff with more residential or long-term stay buildings as patients move through their treatment and can receive more counseling and other resources.
The STAR (Stabilization, Treatment and Recovery) Center on the Skagit County Crisis Stabilization Campus in rural Washington state has voluntary, inpatient mental health beds, some of which are crisis stabilization beds, acute detox beds and long-term addiction and mental health care beds. The campus is set in a forested area, with a courtyard and large windows providing access to nature.
Neurodiversity and trauma-informed design principles and research guided the team to use a neutral interior color palette with accents of purple, green and wood tones to create a serene environment to ease stress. Patients are provided with appropriate flexibility, choice and a sense of normalcy throughout their recovery and reintegration into the community. A variety of therapy rooms, both large and small, open activity zones and outdoor access provide choice for patients and care providers. Nurse stations are designed to be open based on patient acuity with a welcoming approach to supervision and engagement.
Mental healthcare deserts
For those not living close to a larger city or suburb, finding any type of mental health providers or resources is challenging. Telehealth may be the only option, but it often falls short in helping those in crisis or those struggling with a complex or chronic condition.
Prisma Health in South Carolina is utilizing a public/private partnership to fund and create a new behavioral health hospital primarily for residents of Upstate South Carolina. The primarily inpatient facility will include 112 beds and replace Prisma’s current 65-bed mental health facility, built in 1969. It will provide care for all ages, from children to older adults, to help reduce the number of patients needing to be transferred to facilities hundreds of miles away. It will also have the Sargent-Wilson Wellness Center, which will provide recreation and educational programming for patients and act as a resource for the larger community.
Closing the gap in mental healthcare services means making sure there are resources, treatments, providers and facilities available for the broad spectrum of mental health conditions and needs. Our design, consulting and clinician teams bring years of experience to this work, not only designing buildings and programming to fit these needs, but pursuing empathetic, safe and future-facing environments that directly support the effort to close that gap.
