Designing tomorrow's high secure units.

A close-knit team of eight senior personnel with backgrounds in mental healthcare have collaborated to develop a new High Secure Building Design Guide for England's three high secure mental health hospitals--Ashworth, Broadmoor, and Rampton. The new publication sets out the key principles and detailed guidance, from a building design standpoint, to ensure a safe, secure, and comfortable environment at each hospital that aids patient recovery and improves outcomes, and balances the need for high levels of security with the requirement to respect the privacy, health, dignity, wellbeing, and spiritual needs, of both patients and staff. HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.