Cultural, systemic and structural impact
Space & Service Design-students design inclusive communications tools and service systems for Patient Rights
Client: Psychiatric Hospital (OPZ Geel-B)
From patient rights to lived understanding: designing inclusive communication in psychiatric care
Patient rights are fundamental, but they only become meaningful when people can understand and use them. In psychiatric care, this can be challenging: information is often shared during intense moments, while legal language and standard materials may feel abstract or overwhelming.
Together with Psychiatric Hospital OPZ Geel, students from the Space & Service Design programme explored how patient rights could become more visible, accessible and embedded in everyday care. Through a human-centred design approach, they developed inclusive tools and service concepts for children, young people, adults, elderly patients and elderly patients with dementia.
Rather than functioning as isolated design artefacts, the proposals operate as systemic frameworks. Together, they demonstrate how inclusive communication can be embedded across the full care journey, from admission to discharge.
1. Making rights understandable for children
For young patients, patient rights can feel abstract and difficult to understand. Students therefore developed playful tools
that explain these rights through stories, visuals and interaction.
By adapting the information to children’s age and development, the tools make patient rights more accessible, less intimidating and easier to talk about.
ToolKIDS builds on existing official youth-rights materials, enriched with internal input from OPZ Geel. It is currently a prototype that will be tested further, with attention to informing parents and clarifying illustration rights if necessary.
2. A youth-friendly website for patient rights
For young people, students designed an interactive, youth-friendly website where
they can learn about their patient rights at their own pace.
The website offers clear language and visual guidance, making information easy to revisit
independently, with parents or together with staff. This gives young patients more control and makes patient rights accessible beyond formal consultation moments.
3. A toolkit for conversations with adult patients
For adult patients, students developed a Patient Rights Toolkit that helps staff explain patient rights clearly and confidently.
With structured explanations, flashcards and conversation cards, the toolkit turns legal information into an open dialogue. It supports both patients and care professionals by making sensitive topics easier to discuss in clear, accessible language.
4. Making patient rights visible for elderly patients
For elderly patients, information about patient rights can easily fade into the background after admission. Students therefore developed an Interactive Information Corner: a visible place in the care environment where patients can revisit their rights throughout their care journey.
By making information continuously accessible, the concept reduces reliance on one-time explanations and lowers the threshold for asking questions. In this way, patient rights become more visible, approachable and supportive of autonomy and dignity.
5. Everyday tools for eldery patients with dementia
For elderly patients with dementia, tudents developed simple everyday tools such as cards, stickers, a shared box and a weekly calendar. These introduce patient rights step by step, using visual cues and repetition to support recognition.
By connecting rights to familiar moments, such as a conversation, a family visit or a quiet pause during the day, the tools make information easier to revisit and include in the daily rhythm of care.
Illustration – ToolKIDS
ToolKIDS builds on existing official youth-rights materials, enriched with internal input from OPZ Geel. It is currently a prototype that will be tested further, with attention to informing parents and clarifying illustration rights if necessary.
Service design as a bridge between systems and people
Across all proposals, the students moved beyond isolated communication artefacts. Their work shows how design can function as a systemic framework: connecting people, places, tools and moments across the care journey.
The project demonstrates the value of service design in complex social and healthcare contexts. By involving stakeholders, testing ideas and translating abstract information into meaningful experiences, students explored how design can contribute to more inclusive and equitable care.
Patient rights are not only legal principles. They are part of how people feel informed, respected and supported. Making them visible, understandable and discussable is therefore not a detail — it is an essential part of humane care.
Together with staff, management, and patient representatives, the design teams explored existing approaches to communicating patient rights. They assessed which ideas were feasible and further developed the most promising concepts. In doing so, they not only tested touchpoints, but also examined the service behind them, ensuring that the solutions are workable and sustainable in daily practice. Each step brought them closer to making patient rights more accessible, visible, and understandable.
Our project in the press:
OPZ Geel was guest at ‘Health & Care Network Kempen’: LinkedIn-post
“OPZ will talk about a project where design, care, and communication ensure inclusive, accessible, and user-friendly communication about patient rights. With this project, they show that patient rights are not something you simply explain, but an essential part of the care experience for every patient. By combining design, care, and communication, they contribute to understanding, empathy, and guidance in the daily work of a care institution.”
Publication in Zorgnet-Icuro. Zorgnet-Icuro vzw is the umbrella organisation representing Flemish general hospitals, mental healthcare institutions, and social-profit residential care providers.
“We must dare to stand in their shoes and truly empathise. Only then do we realise that what seems obvious to us as professionals can feel overwhelming, unclear or even intimidating to patients. If we want to communicate well about rights and obligations, we must start from their experience, not from our procedures.”
“We must always keep in mind what the patient needs in order to feel in control of their care process. Providing information is not enough. It has to be understandable, accessible and offered at the right moment, so that patients can genuinely exercise their rights and make informed choices.
Space and Service Design
Postgraduaat
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