VA Des Moines Outpatient Mental Health Clinic

Providing a Safe Environment for Staff and Veterans

This project for a new mental health outpatient clinic was originally designed by Alesia Architecture in 2016. The project was withdrawn by the VA prior to bid/negotiation in order to revise the program for design; they re-issued the contract in 2020 for re-design. As the project prime, Alesia will provide project management and architectural design for a new, two-story medical office building (with future horizontal expansion) for mental health outpatient treatment:

• Provider offices / group therapy rooms / 41 consult rooms for care & medication management with patients
• Private counseling rooms using tele-health (pic-tel) systems.
• All Consult Room will have doors with break-away hardware so no one can barricade inside a room.
• Separated check-in and check-out points will reduce congestion.
• Electronic card access to secure clinical areas (e.g., medication storage) and other, non-public areas. Use cameras at exterior and clinical entrance doors which are also monitored by door positioning switches.
• Designed with the safety of front-desk staff in mind, ensuring they cannot be trapped.