Murals brightening up mental health centre

Have you spotted the new murals popping up at health facilities in the area?

Work has been ongoing to make some of the Powys Teaching Health Board premises in the area more welcoming for visitors and patients with murals.

The health board’s Engagement and Communications team has been designing, printing and installing vinyl murals in areas such as patient waiting rooms and children’s treatment spaces to make the visual environment more appealing.

Y Parc offices in Newtown have benefited with a welcome mural.
 
“We are getting more and more requests from our departments across the county to design murals,” explained Steve Haslam, the health board’s Graphic Design and Production Officer.

“Some of the murals we’ve designed have incorporated work by local artists while, for others, we’ve used photos of the local landscapes and mixed them with hand-drawn artwork.”
 
“If we were going to an external agency to produce these for us, it would be costing many thousands of pound per mural but we can do this work at a fraction of the cost. We already had printers which were able to handle this type of work  so we haven’t had to purchase any equipment to be able to make our buildings more patient, visitor and staff-friendly.”
 
Aimee Louviere-Cowen is Clinical Lead Practitioner for Neurodevelopmental Services based at Brecon Children’s Centre and she commented: “We have an immediate shared experience/talking point which is huge for our clients who can find initiating interactions super difficult. Even a box of toys or games can be daunting whereas talking about the design on the door is low pressure and straight away puts them at ease.”
 
The artwork is designed and printed at the health board’s headquarters at Bronllys and then installed by Steve and Communications Manager Tab Wheeler. In the past 12 months or so, they have installed murals at a number of premises, including:

Ysbyty Bro Ddyfi in Machynlleth;
Y Parc offices in Newtown;
Bronllys Hospital;
Cottage View Residential Home, Knighton;
Powys Health, Care and Social Care Academy, Llandrindod Wells;
Breconshire War Memorial Hospital, Brecon;
War Memorial Hospital, Llandrindod Wells;
Ystradgynlais Community Hospital;

Murals have also been installed in Powys Health, Care and Social Care Academy premises in Bronllys and Llandrindod Wells.