Project: Faith Regional Behavioral Health Unit (BHU)

Location: Norfolk, Neb.

Specifier: Specialized Engineering Solutions

Project Summary: In 2018, Faith Regional Health Services completed a new 16,951 square foot behavioral health unit, including 18 private patient rooms and common areas for daily living, dining and recreation.

Challenge: Engineers wanted to provide safe, secure lighting in patient areas that would blend seamlessly with the less secure staff-only areas and contribute to an overall residential feel.

Solution: MedMaster™ behavioral health downlights, SimpleSeal™ HASEDI, MightyMac™ RMCA and CC LED luminaires

Benefits: Design-friendly lighting with behavioral health-specific features, including sealed, anti-ligature housings, tamper-resistant fasteners and impact-resistant polycarbonate lenses. 

Lighting protects patients while helping them feel at ease

Compassion.  Health. Hope. Safety.  Structure. These are the keywords for today’s behavioral health environments, and the primary drivers for the designers of the new behavioral health unit at Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk, Nebraska. Specialized Engineering Solutions in Omaha, Nebraska was charged with identifying lighting products that would fit with Faith Regional’s mission to provide mental health services in a residential-style environment.

“Overall, we were interested in robust lighting that could withstand high levels of abuse while trying to minimize the institutional look of fixtures … to give the patients a comfortable and ‘normal’ environment,” said Project Manager Michael Fagan. Also, “We wanted to match the aesthetic patient spaces to those that were for staff only.” 

For these and other reasons, Fagan and lead designer Andrew Reinke selected a combination of Kenall sealed LED luminaires, including MedMaster BHDL behavioral health downlights, SimpleSeal HASEDI and MightyMac RMCA troffers and corner mount luminaires. 

“Another challenge was to have corridor ceilings in the patient care unit accessible by facility maintenance, but not by residents. The architect designed the corridors to have lower soffits on each side, with a higher grid ceiling down the center. This presented a challenge to light the corridors well, while also lighting the cavity between the soffits on either side. We addressed the corridor lighting by utilizing a combination of the BHDL series downlights and HASEDI series troffers: the downlights mount in the soffits on each side of the corridor to illuminate the walls and floor, and the troffers light the cavity above and are also connected to the Life Safety branch to serve as emergency lighting,” Reinke said, 

“We addressed the balance of visually pleasing luminaires and robust, anti-ligature requirements by being very selective of the types of fixtures we were going to specify. We were intentional about seeking better options than simply selecting the first vandal-resistant fixtures we could find,” Reinke said.

Kenall Behavioral Health Luminaires feature:

• Tamper-resistant fasteners
• Sealed housings that discourage vandalism
• Anti-ligature housings
• IP66 option for wet locations (showers)
• Meet patient safety standard guidelines

Benefits to Faith Regional Health Services

• Durable products with a design aesthetic that supports the architect's vision
• Ability to match finishes and color temperatures to lighting in less secure areas
• Lower maintenance requirements reduce the need to disrupt patient schedules
• Lower energy utilization and reduced energy costs through the use of LED lighting