Location: Broomfield Hospital, North Essex

Client: North Essex Mental Health NHS Trust

Principal Contractor: Kier Construction

Value: £9.8m

​

The Crystal Centre is a state of the art facility which offers inpatient, community and day care services dedicated to the care of people within the community of Mid Essex, aged 65 and over and who are suffering from dementia or other forms of mental ill health.  

 

The unit comprises of 34 bedrooms within two 17 bed wards.  Accommodation is comprised of single bedrooms with en-suite facilities.  In addition, there are consulting rooms, communal areas and quiet rooms, dining and kitchen areas, visitors’ rooms and office accommodation. Ancillary services include therapy services, including creative therapy and activities for daily living (ADL) and group rooms for sessional anxiety management and confidence assessment.

​

The Crystal Centre is designed to provide a functional environment of care for elderly mental health patients.

​

The challenge was to provide a facility that brings together a number of displaced clinical teams, outpatients, day centre and residential accommodation on one site and in one building, whilst recognising the distinct requirements of the differing ranges of illnesses to be catered for and considering the latest clinical studies on therapeutic environments to assist in the care and rehabilitation of patients.

 

The solution was to create a building that considered every aspect of the design and to maximise every design opportunity to benefit patient and staff.