‘Making the physical environment psychologically informed … looking after precious ornaments’…
06.03.2020: At the start of this week, as part of my role as the Lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) in Centrepoint, I have had the pleasure to travelling again to our services in West Yorkshire; in Bradford and Barnsley, to begin the roll-out of the PIE Day 1 staff training for our north region(s). I received a typically warm northern welcome by staff in both Bradford and Barnsley, and really enjoyed delivering the training session(s) to the passionate, dedicated and interested staff who attended, having lots of positive reflective and insightful discussions about the importance (and challenges) of ‘building relationships’ in a PIE. It was also lovely to revisit one service in Barnsley in particular; where the importance of the ‘physical space’ in a PIE has really been considered and enacted to create a welcoming and homely space for the homeless young people that live there, as well as the staff that work there.
Within a psychologically informed environment, as I have briefly discussed in a previous blog (c.f. 12.07.2019: ‘Home is where the heart is…’), careful consideration should be given to the physical spaces of a service or hostel provision, because of the impact upon psychological and health outcomes (Codinhoto et al, 2008). In particular consideration should be given to the ergonomics (or shape and layout of the environment to encourage relationship building and positive interactions), ambient factors (e.g. materials, fabrics, lighting, acoustics and temperature), art and aesthetics (e.g. colour, design and art), and services (e.g. maintenance and cleanliness). All decisions around the physical environment should be co-produced with the users of the space (e.g. staff and young people) and aim to answer the question; ‘Could I live there?’ in the affirmative.
One of the best tips in the Westminster Council PIE Good Practice Guide (2015; https://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Creating%20a%20Psychologically%20Informed%20Environment%20-%202015.pdf) when considering the physical environment of any homeless service is that staff should ‘look at the service through the client’s eyes … walk through the building … experience the service that’s being offered … think about the physical layout … would you feel safe and relaxed in that space?’ (p.11). In addition, further details on the importance of the physical environment have been noted in Keats et al (2012) PIE Good Practice Guide (c.f. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/340022/1/Good%2520practice%2520guide%2520-%2520%2520Psychologically%2520informed%2520services%2520for%2520homeless%2520people%2520.pdf) and ‘The Centre for Health Design’ has some useful links to a range of resources which may aid the design of homeless hostels (www.healthdesign.org/).
The ultimate objective of a PIE is to create a non-institutional, safe and welcoming service that facilitates interaction between staff and homeless young people, and as I visited some of our Yorkshire services, positively I could see this principle in action. Staff were rightly proud of their service and the high standards of maintenance, care and decoration therein. Notably they were also pro-active in addressing any issues that deviated from these goals. For example, I heard about a recent accidental saucepan fire in the communal kitchen, which had caused some damage, but which staff had addressed immediately by re-painting and decorating the area effected to re-create a welcoming and usable communal kitchen. Importantly, staff reported involving some of the young people in the service in the re-painting, thereby developing their skills in paining and decorating, which will be invaluable when they are managing their own housing tenancies in the future as well as offering informal opportunities for staff and the homeless young people to work together and build relationships! Staff and young people had also chosen motivational sayings and quotes to add to the walls, which created a positive and inspiring psychologically informed physical space.
Something else that struck me about the physical environment in this service, were the ornaments decorating the hall way and communal lounge areas. Whilst my first thought was ‘surely these will get broken?’, perhaps a reflection of my past work in forensic settings(!), I noticed that in the context of a well-maintained and homely space, respected and developed in conjunction with the users of it, they actually didn’t! Rather the staff and young people treated them with care, and I wondered whether this was actually a metaphor; ornaments are fragile and vulnerable, rather like some of the homeless young people referred to the service? Consequently, the great care taken by staff and young people in the service to ‘look after the objects’ in their physical environment was also being mirrored in the great care that they took to look after the psychological and emotional well-being of each other.
The power of the physical environment to impact on emotional well-being was also in evidence recently in a new service that Centrepoint has just opened in Essex. As part of the PIE initiative, I have been able to release some funds to allow the staff and young people to co-produce the decoration and refurbishment of this space. This has resulted in wonderfully colourful, welcoming and homely communal spaces, as well as a ‘chill out area’ with colourful beanbags, and resources for games and activities nights to build relationships between those that live and work in the service. These changes were not expensive and complicated to undertake, but seemed to have a major impact with the service receiving very positive feedback from residents, staff and visitors alike, with one homeless young person who recently moved in commenting that ‘this is the nicest home I have ever lived in!’ Consequently, I have also spent time this week processing and releasing some funds to action various co-produced requests for simple and quick improvements to the physical environment from several of our other Centrepoint services in the North and London region(s). I look forward to revisiting these services in the future to see these changes, and I continue to welcome co-produced physical environment ideas and applications from other services moving forward.
Finally, this week I would like to highlight firstly that Centrepoint is hosting the ‘National Youth Homelessness Conference’ in conjunction with their #EndYouthHomelessness partners, on Thursday 19th March 2020, in Coventry. There is a diverse range of topics and keynote addresses, and I am delighted to have been asked to co-present a workshop on PIE with our ‘PIEineers’ group (i.e. current and recently ex-Centrepoint Young People). We plan to use this opportunity to create a good practice sharing and learning discussion session on all aspects of PIE’s in the area of youth homelessness services, and I am very much looking forward to this event. If any readers of this blog are interested in attending, and joining our PIE workshop, tickets for the event can be obtained via: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/connect-the-national-youth-homelessness-conference-tickets-87934776283.
Secondly, I am particularly proud to report that our recent co-produced PIE presentation at the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) national conference in Solihull (c.f. 31.01.2020: ‘A co-produced conversation about PIE…’) has been picked as an Editors highlight of the event in ‘The Psychologist’; the professional practice journal of the BPS (c.f. https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/march-2020/pockets-resistance-and-change). Of note, the homeless young people; ‘PIEineers’ that co-presented with myself and shared their story as well as their involvement in PIE so far, were specifically mentioned! Moreover, in keeping with the theme of this week’s blog on the importance of the physical environment in a PIE, what was specifically highlighted was their quote; “When we’re at Centrepoint we want to feel we belong and we’re at home’…
