Designing a Therapeutic Facility for Youth
Utilizing a new proposed state-owned, contractor-run facility model, Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) set out to standardize State facilities to eliminate the practice of outsourcing youth services. The new facility is designed to house 24 to 32 youths aged 12 to 21, requiring the most intensive level of therapeutic services available in a facility-based environment.
The Eastern State Hospital / Pine Lodge campus in Medical Lake, Washington, will serve complex youth cases requiring special attention focusing on a model fostering interdependence and trust between the caregivers and the residents. The design team explored many supported and unsupported sites on campus while comparing each site’s impact on the built environment and staffing ratios for residential counselors. This process drove design strategies to segregate populations while maintaining staff proximities and efficiencies.
