Stephen Parker, architect and mental and behavioral health planner, Stantec (Washington, D.C.)
Editor’s Note: This article is part a Healthcare Design’s Industry Predictions series. Throughout January, HCD will share perspectives from respected industry voices on where the sector may head in 2026 and what challenges and opportunities are on their radar.
Stephen Parker (Headshot: Stantec)
Healthcare Design’s 2026 Healthcare Design Industry Predictions series continues with Stephen Parker, architect and mental and behavioral health planner, Stantec (Washington, D.C.).
Here, Parker discusses some of the opportunities and challenges he sees for 2026, including addressing med/psych needs beyond the emergency department and new projects coming online soon.
Environments for Aging: What lessons did the industry learn from 2025’s challenges?
Stephen Parker: We’ve found the most resilient clients and communities facing a funding shortfall are the ones with the most creative and collaborative solutions. From braided funding models to leveraging opioid settlement funds, communities in crisis have come together to serve their most vulnerable.
EFA: How can these lessons inform projects or strategies going forward?
Parker: We’ve started to see these new models of care and funding approaches manifest in design briefs. From more progressively financed and new design build models to mental health accidents and emergencies (A&Es) in the UK learning from our crisis care and EmPATH projects.
EFA: Where do you think the healthcare design industry will head in 2026?
Parker: We’ll see a wave of new projects come online, from Cleveland Clinic’s new Neurological Institute to the first Ketamine Sensory Clinic at Northwestern to Aqqusariaq, the first inpatient generational trauma facility for Inuit families.
EFA: What do you see as the biggest opportunity for change in the new year?
Parker: Addressing med/psych needs beyond the emergency department or the few such units in North America. Co-morbidities are increasing and we’re asked to design for scheduled detox, geropsych, and PTSI all in the same psych-safe spaces.
EFA: What emerging trends or opportunities are you most excited about?
Parker: Lived and living experience being incorporated as not just a voice in the design process but a true partner and stakeholder in the development of the model of care and operations of behavioral health facilities.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design and can be reached at [email protected].
