21 Mar, 2025
Pineapple’s Daniel White hosts a discussion exploring how design impacts mental health spaces, with a focus on de-escalation in creating safe, therapeutic environments.
The design of EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment Treatment & Healing) units and other behavioural health crisis units plays a pivotal role in creating a calm and supportive space for psychiatric patients in otherwise chaotic and stressful emergency departments – which are usually designed to accommodate physical ill health rather than mental ill health.
Join Daniel with guests Dr Scott Zeller and Virginia Pankey as they discuss the physical environment’s influence on patients’ psychological well-being and behaviour, not just in terms of safety and recovery but also in functionality, aesthetics, and overall psychological impact – reinforcing the fact that physical spaces themselves can be therapeutic too.
Dr. Zeller is the creator of the EmPATH (Emergency, Psychiatric, Assessment, Treatment and Healing) model. He is also the Vice President of Acute Psychiatry for Vituity where he is responsible for overall strategy and business development of the practice. He is Past-President of both the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry and the National Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies, and currently serves as a professor at two medical schools. He was formerly Chief, Psychiatric Emergency Services for Oakland, CA, where he developed the blueprint for improving emergency psychiatric services known as the “Alameda Model”.
He has authored multiple textbooks, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, lectures internationally as a keynote speaker, and is known as the co-inventor of On-Demand Emergency Telepsychiatry. He led Project BETA (Best Practices in the Evaluation and Treatment of Agitation), which has revolutionised the care approach for agitation around the world. He was awarded the 2015 USA Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Behavioural Health, the 2019 Ritz E. Heerman Memorial Award for improving healthcare for all Californians by the California Hospital Association, and in 2020 was named one of the “Ten Most Influential People in Healthcare Design” by Healthcare Design Magazine.
Over the past 10 years, Dr. Zeller has consulted over 200 hospitals and state associations regarding behavioural health projects. His focus is advocating for providing timely, targeted and optimal crisis care in a therapeutic environment. This work has evolved into creating sustainable psychiatric emergency care in coalition with hospital systems, county amenities and state associations. His leadership is helping to improve and reimagine emergency care worldwide for psychiatric patients, which allows general emergency departments to focus on providing better care for all.
Virginia is a leader in the planning and design of healthcare projects with a focus on behavioural health and acute care.
Based in HOK’s St. Louis studio, Virginia has been profiled in Healthcare Design Magazine and other publications for her expertise in behavioural health design. A frequent speaker on healthcare planning and design, she has led workshops, panel discussions and presentations for the Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI); Washington University in St. Louis; American Society for Health Care Engineering; Planning, Design and Construction Summit; Healthcare Design Conference + Expo; and the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Health. Her speaking topics have included behaviour health codes and standards, med/psych facilities, behavioural health crisis units and more.
Virginia is an active member of FGI, serving as a co-chair of its Behavioural and Mental Health Topic Group, a member of its Health Guidelines Revision Committee, and a past chair of its Behavioural Health Crisis Stabilisation Unit Topic Group for which she co-authored a white paper titled ‘Design of Behavioural Health Crisis Units’.
