THE HALFWAY HOUSE: DEINSTITUTIONALIZING THE MENTAL HEALTH CARE

Abstract

In contemporary times, within Pakistan, where every one person out of four is inflicted with a mental disorder, (WHO) there is a dire need to re-evaluate the current model of health care, which has aided to creation of the dichotomy by judging the 'normality' according to self-created standards. This has led to a moral sickness in the form of stigmatization of 'the others' by the 'normal' people. Over the years, the image of senseless, impulsive, animalistic psychopaths, locked behind bars, has been reinforced by the barbaric system of institutionalization and media. (Foucault) The remedy is to unlearn what has been taught to the society, and restore the humble values of compassion and empathy through anti-thesis of the current structural order. There is a need to establish 'deinstitutionalization' as a tool of cultural transformation, where 'the others' and the 'normal' are brought together and cured of their respective disorders in a space of 'transition': A halfway house. The Halfway house, using a psychosocial approach, would form a transitional stage between the medicinal treatment phase of 'the other' and their reintegration into the society; it would act as an interface, in the heart of the urban city of Rawalpindi, between the 'normal' and the 'other', to create a synergy of mutual support. With the help of architectonics and its collaboration with biophilic elements of design, the programmes of the Halfway house are manipulated to facilitate the transition. The adjacent park is extended into the site and is used as an instrument to allow for a flow of public movement. With the use of natural materials like wood and strawbale that keep the building in transition, programmes, vantage points, pathways and spaces are designed to allow the residents to feel like they have freedom to meander through the spaces, whose permeability varies as the