Design in Mental Health, the leading event for the mental healthcare built-environment, has announced the addition of several influential leaders to the speaker line-up for its new Design and Digital Solutions Theatre.
Design in Mental Health 2025 takes place 3–4 June at the Manchester Central Convention Complex. This new theatre is a key feature of the free-to-attend Exhibition at the event and will deliver a programme of 20-30 minute presentations covering critical issues at the intersection of design, safety, technology and sustainability within mental health settings.
Topics on the programme cover areas as diverse as designing virtual reality experiences for mental well-being, curtain walls in medium security adult mental healthcare units, co-creating an augmented reality board game for adolescent skill development, creating autism-friendly NHS environments, creating ligature resistant products, fire safety on mental health wards and sustainability in mental health.
The latest additions to the speaker line-up include:
- Wes Baker, Director of Strategic Analytics, Economics and Population Health Management at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust – leader in strategic finance and Data Scientist, working at the confluence of strategic finance, analytics, data science, and healthcare transformation.
- Michael Crilly, Director of Social Health & Community Inclusion at Mersey Care NHSFT – Service Director for The Life Rooms Social Model of Health, a key strategic vehicle for Mersey Care NHSFT’s delivery of the social dimension of its bio-psycho-social care model.
- Emily Burch, Partnership Chief Nursing Information Officer at The North London Mental Health Partnership – digital health leader and champion of digital competency for mental health staff.
- Zillah Watson, CEO and Co-founder of Phase Space – Emmy-nominated creative leader and former head of BBC VR, now developing VR for positive mental health.
- Nicola Honey, Director of Scene Graph Studios – a Virtual Reality Developer, specialising in mindfulness and wellbeing applications.
- Niamh White, Co-Founder of Hospital Rooms – whose mission is to bring world-class art to mental health hospitals.
- Emma Shakespeare, Principal Design Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine – Award-winning healthcare design leader and passionate advocate for mental well-being.
Mel Sands, Event Director, commented:
“We’ve built the Design and Digital Solutions Theatre to provide access to cutting-edge thinking and proven best practice to as many attendees as possible from across the NHS and wider mental health community – irrespective of their budget. Just like with our multi-stream Conference programme, the speakers across our free programme bring a wealth of experience – from frontline delivery, to policy, to product and service design – and their willingness to share their knowledge on this platform reflects the collaborative ethos that underpins this unique event.”
The programme for the Design and Digital Solutions Theatre now features nine hours of free content across the two days of the event, with more speakers to be announced in the coming weeks.
The up-to-date programme can be viewed here.