Social psychiatry and social policy for the 21st century ‐ new concepts for new needs: the ‘psychologically‐informed environment’

Although the idea of a therapeutic community (TC) has lost none of its dynamism, there are many modern‐day environments in which the original TC model has been unable to make headway. In recent years, new ideas have been emerging for the development of institutions and services that can be adapted to a wide range of psychological needs and settings, such as homelessness hostels and refuges. The psychologically‐informed environment (PIE) arises from the scope for reflective practice, leading to changes in day‐to‐day working ‐ including a more planned variant for high secure services. The PIE approach seems to offer greater flexibility in scope than the TC model. Nevertheless, such new approaches may yet need a clear values base; and the next article in this series will explore new ideas for the creation of 'enabling environments' in a still wider range of settings.