I would design it in the shape of a sphere and I would put it in the middle of nowhere. It would have vast landscapes and allow as many people as it can hold.
Oh wait that’s earth 
were already in an asylum and we can’t get out 
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That’s genius nick
All this money going into stupid concepts. How about just finding the cure and not need asylums at all?
Wow my own post almost triggered a delusion that my room was in an asylum setting.
I used to think about that a long time ago that everyone I was friends with was really just part of my treatment program.
Sneaky brain…
But you CAN use some good old fashioned techniques related to the earth, like the native sweat lodge…a MUST for any nature ‘asylum’… it is beneficial for both mind and body…I know some people here won’t go for the spiritual aspect of it, but there are actually far more real medical benefits, and the Scandinavian type sauna is utilized in many health spas without a spiritual aspect:
http://adironndaspiritualhealer.com/website/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Crestone2.jpg
Mental Healing - The sweat lodge ceremony gives its participants the opportunity to free their minds of distractions, offering clarity.
Spiritual Healing - The sweat lodge ceremony offers a place for introspection and connection to the planet and the spirit world.
Physical Healing - The sweat lodge ceremony gives anti-bacterial and wound-healing benefits. A full Medical Review (pdf) of the health benefits and risks of Native American sweat lodges were published by the Indian Health Service in 1998.
Healing Benefits of Sweat Lodge Ceremonies
Here you can read some of the medical benefits of the sweat lodge…
http://www.ihs.gov/provider/documents/1990_1999/PROV0698.pdf
Natural health practitioners have recommended sweat
therapy for persons with a variety of ailments, from infectious
diseases to insomnia. There is growing scientific support for their enthusiasm based on laboratory work, clinical studies,
and research involving heat chambers and saunas.
The potential health benefits of regular participation in
Native American sweat lodges are numerous.
The potential health hazards of sweat lodges need not
exclude individuals with mild or moderate risk factors from
participation. The social, spiritual, and psychological benefits
of a sweat lodge may greatly outweigh a person’s potential
medical risks.
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I feel that it would almost be a step backwards and prefer some sort of group homes or after care to institutions.
Anyway If I were to design one I’d have hotel style access cards so you could lock your room to other patients or remove yourself from a dangerous situation.
Also dimmer switches with some sort of electric slow dim function so they don’t wake you up when they turn the lights on or wave a torch throw the window to check on you,
They would also have doors that can’t be kicked down easily. (yes with reversible hinges for the hostage takers among us 
)
Everyone I’ve met in person with schizophrenia was usually super brilliant. My one friend can fix cars and is good with mechanics he’s also a hard worker. He said his IQ is 150. One other man I met had Autism as well, and yet was brilliant with computers and mechanics also. He took the entire computer apart and put it back together in one sitting, for fun. I met another man with it who does not take pills and is a great artist, musician, and people-person. I met lots of people with bipolar and schizophrenia like symptoms who were never diagnosed but also became great friends.
I would make a modern asylum a school, like mortimermouse said. It would be a center for growth and education, and would be so successful that they might bypass normal colleges because of their acceptance of people despite disabilities, and their abilities to accept and embrace and support various functionally different people so that the community as a whole could represent a diverse productive educational foundation.
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There are a few that are starting to go the different route some have posted here:
Ontario
Canadian Society for Orthomolecular Medicine (CSOM)
What type of practitioner are you? An organization for the promotion of orthomolecular (“correct molecule” - nutrition) treatments in mental health and other fields of medicine. Members include M.D.'s, naturopaths, etc.
What type of treatments do you use? Promote nutritional treatment
Do you use psychiatric diagnosis (such as “ADD” or “schizophrenia”)? Up to individual practitioner
Do you prescribe or recommend psychiatric drugs? Up to practitioners
Do you help take patients off of psychiatric drugs if they wish to do so? Up to practitioner
What type of clients do you serve?
All mentally disturbed patients
http://www.orthomed.org/
This is cool, it’s in the same city as the infamous Insane Asylum used in the movie "In Dreams"
Massachusetts
Freedom Center Northhampton MA
Client types: All mental health conditions
Does not prescribe psych drugs and helps clients off of psych drugs
Practice includes peer support, advocacy and activism group working against human rights abuse and for holistic alternatives.
Treatments are free weekly yoga classes, resource exchange through weekly support groups. We work from our experience reducing/going off medication to help others find what works for them.
http://www.freedom-center.org/
New York:
Elizabeth A. Plante
Huxley Institute
What type of practitioner are you? We are an organization that refers practitioners of many disciplines who use alternative mental health treatments.
What type of treatments do you use? Homeopathy, Nutritional therapy, allergy testing
Do you use psychiatric diagnosis (such as “ADD” or “schizophrenia”)? Yes, we believe they are diseases
Do you prescribe or recommend psychiatric drugs? No
Do you help take patients off of psychiatric drugs if they wish to do so? Yes
What type of clients do you serve?
All mentally disturbed clients
Depressed patients
Psychotic Patients (Includes those classified as “schizophrenic” or “bipolar.”)
Clients classified as “autistic”.
Mentally ■■■■■■■■
Here is the complete list…this is cool because it shows there are numerous institutions all over the world that are using alternative methods of treatment
Oh look, another anti-psychiatry post by the usual chronic poster.
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Why is it that some people can only see ONE way only, the way they have been taught? These are real alternative treatment centers, with success stories. They do not all automatically shun therapy or medication, but some will help people get off meds IF THEY WANT TO.
These are centers that exist to help people, support people, and assist them in bettering their lives while dealing with a wide variety of mental afflictions.
I do not understand why some people just automatically slam them.
Most of those places offer a nutritional treatment regimen. Nutrition has been proven to help in some cases. It’s even been discussed here at length without being bashed.
The OP asked how would you design a modern asylum…some have posted about a retreat like environment and others posted about it being educational like a school. So what i have posted is simply answering the OPs question as to what I would like to see more of for treating the issues we discuss here.
I had hoped this would not become another vehicle for anti psychiatry propaganda. Discussions on alternatives to the mainstream would have been more appropriately, and indeed politely, expressed on another thread.
Quite frankly I am getting sick of the threads I start being hijacked.
Having said that most people have come up with some interesting suggestions.
It’s not ‘propaganda’. This isn’t a war, this isn’t politics…
Your topic title says
"How would YOU design a modern asylum?
I answered how I would.
We certainly know the old model of asylums wasn’t too great.
I also think most of things posted are good suggestions.
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I would have a gym, for people who need excersize or physical therapy, a pool, to swim and relax, a beautiful garden to walk through early in the morning before it gets too hot. Numerous theapists to work through my past so i may eventually cope better, and no time limit, i can leave when i feel healed. Oh yeah, one mast thing, a starbucks please.
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Try doing it without the antipsychiatry BS.
@firemonkey, i agree.
I get a kick out of how people claim 'antipsychiatry BS" when it is not BS at all, and, while they may employ alternative treatments they cannot all be called antipsychiatry:
Note:
Members include M.D.'s
-Do you prescribe or recommend psychiatric drugs? Up to practitioners
-Do you help take patients off of psychiatric drugs if they wish to do so? Up to practitioner
-Do you use psychiatric diagnosis (such as “ADD” or “schizophrenia”)? Yes, we believe they are diseases
This certainly does not sound ‘antipsychiatry’ at all!
You have medical doctors, it’s up to individual practitioners whether they prescribe meds or not, telling me that in some cases they will prescribe meds, and, they use psychiatric diagnoses…at least the ones I quoted.
Regular psychiatrists will sometimes take people off meds or not recommend meds. last one I saw is a licenced psychiatrist who works for a regular secular clinic. He said he was NOT going to put me on any meds because I was doing well without meds. he also said he only gives meds as a last resort. Not only that, years ago when i flipped out ON meds and cut, then ended up in a state hospital the PSYCHIATRIST at the state hospital nonetheless took me OFF meds, telling me "You had a bad time with those medications, and they had you on quite a coctail. I’m going to try you without meds and see how it goes’…10 days later he tells me he sees no reason I should even be there but since it was a mandated 21 day observation due to self harm he had no choice. I was let go on day 21… this was a state psychiatrist who was pumping a lot of other patients up with thorazine, but he took me off meds…
By the way, I’m not posting here telling people to go off meds, or stop going to therapy, but if people are having problems with their present situation, meds not working, therapists not listening, by all means look for alternatives, look for second opinions.
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