New multidisciplinary charitable network will bring together lived experience, clinical insight, design, research, health systems and industry to improve the places where mental health care happen

New York, September 28, 2026– We are excited to announce Design in Mental Health Network – North America (DiMHN-NA) is launching as a new multidisciplinary charitable network focused on improving the environments in which mental health care and support take place across North America.

The Network brings together people with lived and living experience, clinicians, architects and designers, health systems and facilities professionals, researchers and academics, manufacturers, industry partners, policymakers and others who influence the places where care happens.

Its starting point is simple: the environment is part of the care experience.

The design of a mental health environment can influence privacy and dignity, feelings of safety, opportunities for human connection and the degree of choice and control a person experiences. It also shapes the everyday working environment of the clinicians and staff delivering care.

DiMHN-NA has been incorporated in the State of New York as a charitable corporation and formally introduced the Network to the wider North American community in September 2026.

As part of its launch programme, DiMHN-NA will host an online webinar, Working Together to Better Understand and Improve Mental Health Care Environments, on Monday, October 26, 2026, from 2:00–3:00 PM EDT. Moderated by Frank Pitts, the session will bring together perspectives from lived experience, peer support, psychiatric crisis care, operations, architecture, interior design and standards development to explore how co-design, co-production and multidisciplinary collaboration can lead to better decisions about mental health care environments.

Its mission is to improve mental health care environments through collaboration, shared learning, and better design.

Rather than promoting the perspective of any one profession, DiMHN-NA will create opportunities for different forms of expertise to meet earlier in the process, including expertise developed through lived experience.

Francis Murdock Pitts, FAIA, FACHA, OAA, Chair of DiMHN-NA, said his own interest in creating the Network grew out of decades spent looking for people who wanted to think more deeply about the relationship between mental health care and the built environment.

“I was looking for kindred spirits,” Pitts said.

What began as a small specialist field has changed significantly. Across North America, a growing community of clinicians, designers, researchers, health systems, manufacturers, people with lived experience and others is exploring how environments can better support care.

The opportunity, Pitts believes, is now to connect that expertise.

A central part of the Network’s work will be encouraging better conversations around questions that can otherwise become separated: safety and dignity, observation and privacy, risk and autonomy, operational requirements and therapeutic value.

Safety remains fundamental to mental health design. DiMHN-NA believes, however, that safety should be considered alongside the wider human experience of an environment.

A space can be physically secure while still asking important questions: Does it feel safe? Does it protect dignity? Does it support relationships? Does it provide meaningful choices? Does it help staff deliver good care? Were people who will experience the environment involved early enough to influence it?

Pitts said: “Recovery is not a commodity. It’s a very, very personal thing.”

That principle informs the Network’s commitment to environments that provide different opportunities for privacy, connection, agency and participation rather than assuming one solution will work for every person or every setting.

DiMHN-NA has developed in collaboration with the UK’s Design in Mental Health Network, an established charity dedicated to improving mental health outcomes through better design.

The organizations have established a partnership for coordinated action and mutual support. The relationship will allow knowledge, evidence, and practical learning to move across borders while recognizing that North America has distinct healthcare systems, standards, regulatory environments, cultures, and operational realities.

The aim is to ask what can be learned, what translates, what does not, and what North America can contribute in return.

DiMHN-NA will introduce the Network at the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. In keeping with its multidisciplinary approach, the launch will take the form of a conversation rather than simply a presentation, inviting people from across the sector to help identify where the Network can be most useful.

DiMHN-NA is now inviting people with a stake in better mental health environments to join that conversation.

Join the Network. Share what you know. Learn from others. Help create better conditions for care, connection, dignity, agency, healing, and recovery.

Explore the Design in Mental Health Network – North America: dimhn-na.org

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LinkedInDiMHN-NA

Join the mailing list:
https://bit.ly/DiMHNNorthAmericaSubscribe

About Design in Mental Health Network – North America

Design in Mental Health Network – North America (DiMHN-NA) is a multidisciplinary charitable network working to improve the quality of mental health care environments across North America.

Incorporated in the State of New York as a charitable corporation, DiMHN-NA brings together people with lived and living experience, clinicians, architects and designers, health systems and facilities professionals, researchers and academics, manufacturers, suppliers, industry partners, policymakers and other decision-makers.

The Network shares evidence, practical learning, and expertise across disciplines to support environments that are safer, more therapeutic, and more humane, and that create better opportunities for dignity, agency, connection, care, healing, and recovery.

DiMHN-NA has developed in collaboration with the UK’s Design in Mental Health Network. The organizations have established a partnership for coordinated action, mutual support and shared intellectual property, creating opportunities to exchange international learning while developing approaches relevant to the distinct healthcare systems, standards, practices and communities of North America.

• Learn more: dimhn-na.org
  LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LinkedInDiMHN-NA
• Join the mailing list:
  https://bit.ly/DiMHNNorthAmericaSubscribe