The Case for Community – in Healthcare and in Life

After more than a year of starts and stops, lockdowns and re-openings, and the turbulence that came along with all things 2020, we were fortunate enough to have attended the Healthcare Design Conference & Expo in Cleveland this year.  The weather was rainy and cold, but the conference was warm and welcoming as the healthcare design community was once again able to gather and share insights into lessons learned and the best practices found for creating healthy, healing environments.  

The educational sessions ranged in topics from the use of technology to the use of green-spaces as a wellness tool in urban environments, from designing for neurodiversity to designing for neonatal care amid an ongoing opioid crisis, but each session had one thing in common; The importance of community involvement as a contributor to a successful outcome.  

Each project, no matter the scope, involved an interdisciplinary team made up of contractors and planners, stakeholders and designers, but the lynchpin…the keystone that shaped the vision, defined the purpose, and held them both together throughout the project was the focus on the community of people that would be served.  Involving these critical members of the team meant that the community values, beliefs, traditions, and challenges would all be addressed and integrated into the solution.

It should be no surprise that involving a community in a project that specifically aims to serve them would result in positive outcomes.  In social psychology, the intrinsic human need to belong is universally accepted and well studied, and after the collective experience of a global pandemic, most of us have seen the detrimental effects that social isolation can have on our mental, emotional, and even physical wellbeing.  This year’s Healthcare Design Conference exemplified in stunning fashion that recognizing, supporting, and celebrating our interconnectedness is a recipe for success not only in continuing to serve our communities, healthcare and otherwise, but also in life in general. 

Excerpt provided by Sarah Dabbas, Eastern Regional Project Manager (PIVIUM.com)