Paul Vernon Co-Authors "Envisioning Living Environments for People With Mental Illness"

Paul Vernon, Director of Planning and Urban Design at PACDC member organization KSK Architects, recently co-authored a report on best practices and design guidelines for housing for the mentally ill. Envisioning Living Environments for People with Mental Illness was supported by the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation, and was published by the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.

From the report's Overview:

"Living environments support people with severe mental illnesses in their paths to
recovery. This document focuses on the design of housing to meet the unique needs of
people with mental illness, including architectural guidelines, landscape components,
and neighborhood planning strategies. Housing can and should be an important component
in promoting mental health and helping people with mental illnesses regain
control over their lives. An integrated multi-disciplinary design team of architects,
landscape architects, mental health providers, service recipients and families can help
to ensure that residential environments are designed to serve the needs of people with
severe mental illnesses. The guidelines are intended to promote the most effective and
therapeutic residential design strategies to support the healing and recovery process."

For the full report, click here.