CARE Planning Guide

CARE is an applied research and evaluation consulting firm that specializes in assessing how architecture and the built environment affect behaviour, well-being and health.

This planning guide is your toolkit. It will help you lay the foundation for a successful POE that will assess the impact of the design of your healthcare facility on patient, staff and visitor psychosocial well-being, as well as behavioural and health related outcomes. This guide will be your first steps in understanding how patients feel when they are in various spaces throughout the healthcare facility, what they do in those spaces and how often they frequent these spaces. Your role is to use this guide to gather all of the required information that your evaluation team has identified as being a priority as they will need it to begin the next stages of the process that will include developing a POE framework and the data collection materials – surveys, interview guides and observations tools. ​

This workbook includes exercises that will help you understand the steps in the POE processes, outline the type of care that is delivered at your healthcare facility, explain the redevelopment project and the associated timelines, document the design intentions, identify the roles and responsibilities for key individuals, prioritize the spaces in the redevelopment project that require the most attention and plan various communications strategies. ​