Of all the locations where you will find commercial furniture, a mental health facility is one where the choice of that furniture will almost certainly have been made with considerable care and no small amount of thought.

Whilst we are not suggesting that commercial furniture bought for other organisations and businesses will have been done on a whim, however, the particular needs within a mental health facility certainly demand greater scrutiny of that furniture.

There are several reasons why that is the case due to the varying nature of what the patients and residents in a mental health facility are being assessed and treated for.

Whilst we cannot give you a list of every possibility, it is fair to say that certain behaviours can be more prevalent in mental health facilities such as aggression, violence, being uncooperative, and self-harm, to name but a few.

All of these potential behaviours, and the others that may manifest, can lead to actions that place any furniture which is in the vicinity at risk of being damaged in some way.

How that might occur can include patients doing one or more of the following:

  • Deliberately damaging/sabotaging furniture
  • Tampering with the furniture
  • Acting violently and smashing the furniture
  • Using the furniture as a weapon
  • Throwing furniture across the room
  • Food, drink, or other substances being dropped or poured onto the furniture

Obviously, not every patient will act in the ways we have outlined, and thankfully instances of these are rare, however, they can happen, which is why the commercial furniture purchased for use in mental health facilities must have certain traits.

These traits will not only protect the future but others from harm should the furniture be used in ways it should not. Here are five of those traits.

Robust And Durable

It should not surprise you that we place this first.

The commercial future in a mental health facility can sit untroubled for months on end, however, just one incident where a patient decides that they are going to throw furniture around means that furniture must be able to withstand it.

This requires commercial furniture to have features such as heavy-duty or reinforced materials and parts including hinges, drawer runners, and handles.

Easy To Clean

A combination of genuine accidents and incidents, whereby someone will decide that their food or drink should deliberately make contact with furniture, means that it is certain cleaning of that furniture is going to be required on several occasions.

It follows that certain types of furniture are simpler to clean than others.

For example, having vinyl chairs instead of fabric chairs is going to make the job of cleaning up food and drink spillages significantly quicker and easier.

Tamperproof

Just because someone is in a mental health facility does not mean they are unintelligent, and in many cases quite the reverse is true.

One of the ingenious pranks, although on occasion it can be dangerous, is to tamper with furniture to either render it unstable or unusable.

On a more serious note, this can also mean the furniture can become a danger, not just to the individual tampering with the furniture, but to others, so it must be tamperproof in as many ways as possible.

Prevents Self-Harm

Unfortunately, some patients in certain mental health facilities are there due to them being suicidal or at least liable to self-harm themselves.

For this reason, commercial furniture suitable for mental health facilities is designed to eliminate any risk of a person using it to harm or kill themselves.

Examples are furniture classified as anti-ligature meaning cords and the like cannot easily be attached, and materials being non-shatterproof to prevent sharp edges from being created.

Anti-Contraband

Some patients require help and treatment for substance abuse such as alcoholism and drug addiction.

As such, the mental health facility they are in may have commercial furniture which is classified as anti-contraband.

This minimises the opportunities that patients have for hiding contraband in their rooms.

Examples of these are shelving and drawers in patients’ rooms which are open rather than closable.