The first product has been certified in a new national mental health product standard.
On 12th October, the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB), part of The Building Research Establishment (BRE), issued the first Statement of Verification under the Products for Mental Health Safeguarding Scheme (ProMHS).
This is a new scheme that independently assesses building products used in mental health facilities.
The Statement of Verification covers the PUNCH and SHIELD product ranges, manufactured by UK-based LED lighting company Orlight.
This verification provides independent evidence of how the product performed when assessed against the Informed Choices Testing Guidance for Products in Mental Health Facilities.
Situl Jetha, Creative Board Director at Orlight, said: “We wanted to put the performance of our product through a rigorous independent assessment and give customers clear evidence they can use when making specification decisions. We are proud to be the first manufacturer to reach this point.”
LPCB tells Building Better Healthcare there are plans in the works to expand the scheme, with "multiple approvals set to come".
What is ProMHS?
In practice, ProMHS helps healthcare teams choose products that have been independently tested against risks such as ligature and physical damage, supporting safer mental health environments for people receiving care and the staff who work in them.
Up until now, products often made self-claims of "anti-ligature" or “tamper-proof”. The methodologies to test this were inconsistent and often not independently verified.
ProMHS aims to take this fragmented approach and replace it with a consistent methodology that is not pass/fail, but reports performance against specified criteria.
The Statement of Verification records the product tested, the representative installation and substrate, the test methods used and the performance achieved against the Ligature and Robustness performance criteria set out in the Informed Choices Testing Guidance.
Orlight as the pioneer product
The verification of Orlight, issued as ProMHS-0001, is the first under the scheme.
It gives designers, specifiers, estates, clinical, procurement teams, and healthcare providers independent evidence to inform product selection and local assurance.
The Informed Choices Testing Guidance is the result of several years of collaboration between LPCB, DiMHN and a multidisciplinary group of clinicians, estates professionals, safety specialists and manufacturers. It provides standardised, repeatable methods for evaluating ligature susceptibility and product robustness, allowing performance evidence to be assessed and compared more consistently.
ProMHS is the route through which products are independently assessed and their performance verified against that guidance.
We are proud to be the first manufacturer to reach this point
Under the guidance, the product as installed is tested against defined criteria, including ligature susceptibility and robustness where applicable, and relevant observations are recorded. It does not give a product a simple overall pass or fail, describe it as universally ‘safe’, or determine whether it is suitable for every environment.
Creating safer mental health environments depends on more than individual products.
Verified results should be considered alongside lived experience, clinical and estates expertise, the care model, correct installation and maintenance, and local risk assessment. Product verification provides one part of that wider evidence base.
Laura Critien, Head of Certification, Built Environment at LPCB, said: “The first verification is an important step. ProMHS gives manufacturers a consistent route for presenting product performance for independent assessment, while giving those specifying and purchasing products better evidence to inform their decisions and consider alongside the needs and risks of a particular setting.
Orlight’s Statement of Verification shows there is an appetite across the industry to put independent evidence behind product performance claims. We are proud to have reached this first milestone and hope it is the first of many products to complete verification under the scheme."
Orlight’s Statement of Verification shows there is an appetite across the industry
Charlotte Burrows, CEO of the Design in Mental Health Network, said: “This work is about giving the sector a stronger evidence base for informed choices, not attaching a generic 'safe' label to a product.
Seeing the first product complete the verification process is an important milestone in putting years of collaborative work into practice.”
