Call for Presentations – Themes at Design for Healthcare Environments Ireland

Presenting at DHEI is a unique opportunity to share what works for improving mental health and intellectual disability environments. Bring your practical learning, experience, research, insights and ideas to a multidisciplinary audience of clinicians, commissioners, estates teams, architects, service designers, researchers, and people with lived experience. 

This is your chance to highlight what works and how! We welcome practical solutions, innovative approaches, evidence-informed practice, and co-produced examples that make care environments safer, more therapeutic, and better aligned with recovery and rights focused principles.  

 Join a passionate, engaged community at this one-of-a-kind event dedicated to improving mental health and intellectual disability environments in Ireland 

Below, you will find everything you need to know about the conference themes, submission, and selection process. 

Conference themes: 

Safety and Risk 

Creating safe, rights-based environments within existing estates and environments. Addressing ligature risk, regulatory compliance, and retrofit challenges while supporting dignity, privacy, least-restrictive practice, and therapeutic care. 

Examples might include Practical solutions, innovations, or case study examples that reduce risk and improve safety in MH and ID settings, including retrofits, new builds, ward-level, or community adaptations. Submissions from clinicians, estates teams, architects, services leaders, or manufacturers and product suppliers for mental health and ID environments are especially welcome. 

Therapeutic Environments 

Designing person-centred, trauma-informed, and recovery-focused spaces. Exploring how evidence-informed design, sensory balance, access to nature, and privacy can support regulation, wellbeing, and recovery. 

Examples might include How the built environment supports recovery, calm, and wellbeing for people with mental health or intellectual disability needs. Presentations from architects, designers, clinicians, estates teams, or manufacturers and product suppliers for mental health and ID environments are encouraged. 

Co-production 

Working with lived experience to shape spaces that support recovery and wellbeing. People with lived experience, families, clinicians, and estates teams collaborate to inform design, refurbishment, and use of mental health and intellectual disability environments, supporting the development or adaption of safe, therapeutic, and person-centred spaces.  

Examples might include practical examples where co-production directly influenced the design, refurbishment, or ongoing use of mental health or ID environments. Submissions from people with lived experience, service users, clinicians, designers, estates teams, or manufacturers and product suppliers for mental health and ID environments are encouraged. 

Other topics welcome
These themes are examples to guide submissions we also encourage proposals that explore other innovative ideas, research, or practical approaches to improving mental health and intellectual disability environments. 

Use the submission form to submit details of your proposed speakers and a maximum 300-word summary of the content and main points of your proposed presentation, workshop or panel discussion.