ID-24ST-15—Beyond Stigma: Care Spaces

Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Industrial Design students develop interventions for Addiction Care Today, Rhode Island Hospital’s new clinic for people who use drugs. The students are asked to identify where stigma lurks and how to eradicate it.

Addiction Care Today (ACT) is a ‘bridge clinic’ at Rhode Island Hospital that offers walk-in treatment for people who use drugs. ACT opened its doors during the studio semester, which allowed our students to do site visits and talk to clinicians at an innovative clinic before and after it had begun serving patients. A notable public success of this collaboration is that one student team designed an identity system for ACT, which they have adopted for use and which was featured on the evening news with coverage of the clinic’s grand opening. A deeper success is how the insightful questions that students asked help the clinic staff see their roles and responsibilities in new ways. We are in talks with the ACT team to build on the success of this partnership towards more intensive collaborations.

Spring 2024 — 6 Credit Studio

Faculty
Justin Cook
Tim Maly

Partners
Rhode Island Hospital
Lifespan Division of Addiction Medicine