BEHAVIORAL HEALTH & HIGH ABUSE LIGHTING
Lighting for Behavioral Health/High Abuse Spaces
When it comes to patient and staff safety, behavioral health/high abuse facilities need light fixtures that are tested and proven to perform to the highest standard in these specialty environments.
Our behavioral health/high abuse luminaires are engineered to meet the rigorous requirements of the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS-OMH) and other industry recommendations. In the last several decades, behavioral healthcare has evolved dramatically – alongside our societal understanding of mental illness. Treatment objectives have changed from symptom control to patient-centered recovery. These changes permeate every element of behavioral health/high abuse facility design, including lighting.
Symmetry – Patented Lens
View Product PageSymmetry Offers 23" and 45" Recessed Ceiling Luminaires
The Symmetry family includes luminaires designed for behavioral health/high abuse facilities which require fixtures to be both safe and therapeutic in design.
Application PhotosVideo: Symmetry for Behavioral Health/High Abuse
Want to see more beautiful Symmetry photos? Visit the application photos in the gallery.
Gig – Personal Task Light
View Product PageThe Gig Personal Task Light Has Touch Dimming Controls
This compact task light is designed for patient and caregiver safety. More importantly, is its minimalist, attractive design.
Application PhotosVideo: Gig for Behavioral Health/High Abuse
This compact task light for behavioral health/high abuse spaces is controlled via touch dimming. View more product photos in the application gallery.
Sanibel – Minimalist Over Vanity and Downward Task Lighting
View Product PageSanibel Balances Toughness with Beauty
Visa Lighting’s engineers developed the Sanibel to provide lighting with a clean, modern architectural look, while meeting the requirements for behavioral health ligature and impact resistance. This luminaire features an easily cleaned, die cast aluminum housing with a frosted acrylic lens protected with high-impact resistant clear polycarbonate.
Application PhotosVideo: Sanibel Stands Up In High-Impact Testing
The impact resistance testing regimen for Sanibel exceeded 100 joules over multiple impacts, and included a ligature resistance test after each impact making this robust luminaire ideal for behavioral health and high abuse setting.
Sole – Illuminated Impact Resistant Mirror
Product PageSole – The First Lighted Mirror Designed for Behavioral Health/High Abuse Applications
With an impact-resistant mirrored polycarbonate and tamper-proof hardware, this mirror is ideal for patient bathrooms.
Application GalleryVideo: Sole for Behavioral Health
The Sole mirror for behavioral health/high impact applications features a mirrored polycarbonate with laser cut-outs for illumination.
Lenga – Overbed Slot Luminaires
Product PageLenga – Recognized as the Industry’s Slimmest Overbed Luminaire
Lenga dual slots are constructed with a coextruded lens to emit exam level light asymmetrically, in order to center above the patient bed without producing glare or shadows.
Application PhotosVideo: Lenga for Behavioral Health/High Abuse
Lenga overbed slots now include two models for behavioral health/high abuse applications. View the application gallery to see more photos of Lenga.
Serenity – Perimeter Illumination
Product PageSerenity – Designed to Replace 2x2 and 2x4 Troffers
The Serenity family features illuminated diffusers with soft, calming patterns.
Application PhotosVideo: Serenity for Behavioral Health/High Abuse
Serenity ceiling luminaires for behavioral health/high abuse include a soothing luminous perimeter and diffuser panel. View more of Serenity in the application gallery.
Patient-centered Design
Robust Yet Noninstitutional in Style
The Visa Lighting Behavioral Health/High Abuse lighting collection is engineered to be extremely robust with adequate ligature resistance and tamper-resistant fasteners. However, we also believe it is equally important that these specialized luminaires are beautiful, noninstitutional in style, and produce high quality illumination to best round out the design of patient-centered behavioral health spaces.
Ready to Get Started?
Designing Luminaires for Behavioral Health
During product development, we reached out to specifiers of behavioral health applications to discuss their concerns. What we found was that, while architecture and interior design in these spaces have grown immensely in the last decade, luminaire product design has lagged behind the innovative curve. We sat down with specifiers to work together on new concepts that could match up to current aesthetic, performance, and safety standards.
Visage – Recessed Linear Luminaire
Visage is a recessed linear luminaire with a minimal frame and multiple length options. Visage lighting can be mounted horizontally, vertically, wall mounted, or ceiling mounted. Visage features a clean, luminous diffuser, multiple length options, and a shallow recessed depth. With models for indoor, outdoor and behavioral health, this recessed linear luminaire is a lighting design staple. The beauty of Visage lies in its simplicity.
Product Page
Visage – Recessed Linear Luminaire
Visage is a recessed linear luminaire with a minimal frame and multiple length options. Visage lighting can be mounted horizontally, vertically, wall mounted, or ceiling mounted. Visage features a clean, luminous diffuser, multiple length options, and a shallow recessed depth. With models for indoor, outdoor and behavioral health, this recessed linear luminaire is a lighting design staple. The beauty of Visage lies in its simplicity.
Product PageThe Beauty of Visage
Create beautiful lines of light with the Visage family of linear slot lights. This architectural lighting staple creates clean lines and a contemporary design style. The Visage family offers beautifully framed, evenly illuminated diffusers with a shallow recessed depth in multiple lengths. Many experts suggest that a warm, homelike atmosphere with noninstitutional fixtures can prevent psychological stress and offer positive distraction.
To view more inspiring Visage lighting ideas visit the gallery.
Application Photos 
The Beauty of Visage
Create beautiful lines of light with the Visage family of linear slot lights. This architectural lighting staple creates clean lines and a contemporary design style. The Visage family offers beautifully framed, evenly illuminated diffusers with a shallow recessed depth in multiple lengths. Many experts suggest that a warm, homelike atmosphere with noninstitutional fixtures can prevent psychological stress and offer positive distraction.
To view more inspiring Visage lighting ideas visit the gallery.
Application PhotosProduct Testing: Impact-, Ligature-, and Tamper-Resistance
In order to qualify as suitable for high risk behavioral health/high impact areas, these luminaires underwent vigorous testing. Gig, our patient room task light, and Sole, our unbreakable mirror, are both IK10 rated. This means that they can withstand over 100 joules of impact without damage or loss of function. Thick polycarbonate on all our behavioral health/high abuse products protects the light sources while allowing illumination to shine through, and tamper-resistant hardware prevents the luminaires from being opened up or disassembled. The luminaire bodies and their assemblies have an ligature-resistant design.
Video: Sole Product Testing
Video: Lenga (overbed) Visage
Video: Symmetry
Guide: Light Designing for Behavorial Health
Behavioral Health Blog Resources
Keep ReadingBlog: What Does "Noninstitutional Design" Mean for Behavioral Health?
Most design guides recommend a “noninstitutional” aesthetic for fixtures and furniture in behavioral health/high abuse facilities, often in the context of recommending “therapeutic” design.
Keep ReadingBehavioral Health Design: Balancing Safety and Empathy
Behavioral health facility design isn’t just about safety – it’s also about offering comfort through the design itself. Balancing these two objectives is considered critical for patient well-being.
Keep ReadingBlog: Lighting Design for the Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children's Hospital
Visa Lighting designed behavioral health lighting for one of the nation's top children's hospitals, meeting high standards for both aesthetics and function, with luminaires built for safety in patient rooms.
Behavioral Health Design Resources
- "Patient Safety Standards, Materials and Systems Guidelines (27th Edition, January 2022)"
- by the New York State Office of Mental Health
- "Innovative Ligature Resistant Products"
- by Behavioral Health Facility Consulting (Previously by NAPH)
- "How to Design and Build a Safe Therapeutic Environment for Psychiatric Patients and Staff"
- by Kimberly McMurray, AIA, EDAC, MBA and James M. Hunt, AIA
- "6 Behavioral Health Design Trends"
- by Rebecca Kleinbaum Sanders in Healthcare Design Magazine
- "Lighting for Behavioral Health"
- SlideShare by Lauren Roberts (Schwade) LC, EDAC, IES and Brienne Willcock, LC
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between behavioral health and mental health?
These terms are often used to mean the same thing, but in the healthcare world, behavioral health is a more accurate umbrella term referring to many facilities that treat mental illnesses, as well as any other affliction that can prevent a patient from functioning, like addiction. Behavioral health inpatient facilities, including departments within general hospitals, treat a wide range of patients that must be kept safe.
What makes a luminaire an anti-ligature fixture?A "ligature" is any material that can be used for tying or binding, creating a risk for suicide or self harm. Anti-ligature fixtures and furniture cannot be used as ligatures or as attachment points for ligatures; nor can they be attached with other items to create ligature opportunities (e.g., wedging with a shoe). We refer to our fixtures as “ligature resistant” rather than “anti-ligature” because no product can prevent 100% of possible harm; rather, we recognize how multiple variables and conditions combined contribute to environmental safety.
What is vandal resistance?Materials that are "vandal resistant" are made to withstand any attempt to abuse or damage them. Vandal resistant luminaires are often used in high traffic public spaces. In behavioral health facilities, light fixtures with tamper resistant fasteners and frames discourage property destruction and prevent materials from becoming dangerous after being damaged. A light fixture that is deemed "vandal resistant" is not necessarily appropriate for behavioral health applications, but may share characteristics in construction with luminaires designed specifically for behavioral health facilities.
What does it mean that a light fixture is high abuse?Areas that may be at risk for vandalism need high abuse lighting. High abuse lighting is designed to withstand impact without taking damage or losing functionality. You may see high abuse light fixtures in behavioral health facilities, schools, correctional environments, public transportation, and industrial spaces. Many elements of behavioral health fixtures are classified as high abuse because they also apply to fixtures in those spaces.
What does noninstitutional design mean?Design principles are changing in many markets, and behavioral health is no exception. Human-centric design in the behavioral health environment means paying close attention to the sensory impact of materials. For us, that means engineering high abuse light fixtures that don't look harsh or institutional. This can be a challenge. Impact and tamper resistance limit materials, and ligature resistance limits form, but we see it as an opportunity to solve design problems creatively.