Visa Lighting recently reported that two of their luminaires have been accepted by the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS-OMH) and published in the latest edition of “Patient Safety Standards, Materials and Systems Guidelines”, as reported in recent press coverage in the Business Journals.

Excerpt from The Business Journals report…

“The NYS-OMH sets high standards for the testing and selection of products and design strategies,” says Laurie Emery, Healthcare Market Development Manager at Visa Lighting. “These products are engineered to accommodate spaces for patients dealing with serious mental health illnesses.”

Behavioral health environments treat patients that may present a higher level of safety and security risks, including ligature, suicide, and self-harm. Luminaires in patient areas must be tamper-resistant, ligature-resistant, and impact-resistant so that they do not present a ligature or weapon opportunity when damaged or combined with other objects.

NYS-OMH, in association with the architecture firm architecture+, regularly publishes these guidelines to recommend appropriate products for behavioral health facilities owned and operated by the state. “Although the focus was for New Yorkers, their product safety standards are referred to by designers for consideration on behavioral health projects throughout the US,” says Emery.

All products listed in these guidelines have been tested for patient safety in conformance with OMH testing protocols. NYS-OMH does not endorse particular products or manufacturers, and emphasizes that facility has an obligation to thoroughly assess their own needs and risks. “For a manufacturer’s products to be listed, they must go through NYS-OMH testing,” says Emery. “If the products pass, they are noted as “Accepted” in the publication.”

To read the full article > 

The products currently listed include GIG and SERENITY.

Gig is the industry’s first ligature-resistant, impact-resistant personal task light designed to fit a comfortable, modern bedroom. It has ¼” thick impact-resistant polycarbonate lens, cast aluminum housing, and tamper-resistant hardware. When specified with a high abuse mounting bracket, Gig has an IK10+ impact rating. These elements combined ensure that patients are not able to damage the luminaire or combine it with other items to create harmful edges, weapons, or ligature anchor points.

Gig is also available with capacitive touch dimming controls. This means a patient can control the level of light by simply touching the body of the luminaire. Touch dimming allows the patient to feel a direct, tangible sense of control over their environment, while also eliminating the need for a ligature-resistant light switch in the patient room or communal area where Gig is installed.

Serenity is one of Visa Lighting’s popular 2×2 ceiling luminaires (model #CM1922). Serenity features soothing illumination from the outer frame diffuser and specialty decorative pattern options for its middle panel, as well as an amber night light option. The high abuse lens and frame is made of 1/8″ thick high impact clear polycarbonate and secured with tamper resistant fasteners.

For more information on these great products, contact us at The Dulanski Group – lighting@dulanski.com