Discuss the proposition that nurses are in a unique position to make a difference in the effort to improve the mental health of individuals and communities
Topic 2: History of mental health nursing The history of mental health nursing is closely associated with the development and decline of the asylum as a means of providing regulation of and care for people considered to be mentally ill. While the scope of practice of mental health nurses was largely associated with the functioning of the asylum, or as it was later renamed, the psychiatric hospital, opportunities for professionalization and expansion of the scope of practice were limited. However, with the demise of the asylum and the emergence of deinstitutionalization, nurses working in the mental health system in many countries began to engage with new ideas: the therapeutic community, the primacy of interpersonal relations, and therapeutic use of self. At the same time the availability of medications that seemed capable of controlling at least some of the symptoms of disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, were making treatment in the community possible. More recently developments such as the rise of evidence-based practice, the recovery paradigm and the rise of the mental health consumer Movement are influencing the development of mental health nursing. However, studies of the social determinants of health/mental illness indicate thatpoorly resourced environments serve as incubators of mental illness, and globally mental health nursing services tend to be resourced and organized in ways that do not directly address socially based impediments to mental health. If you select this as your topic for Assessment 2, the question to be addressed in your Blog is :Discuss the proposition that nurses are in a unique position to make a difference in the effort to improve the mental health of individuals and communities , but to do so would require a fundamental rethink of mental health nursing thought and practice. Required readings Sheridan, A. J. (2017). Historical overview of psychiatric/mental health care. In: E. L. Yearwood & V. P. HinesMartin (eds.), Routledge handbook of global mental health nursing Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 19-33. Santangelo, P., Procter, N., & Fassett, D. (2018). Mental health nursing: Daring to be different, special and leading recovery-focused care? International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 27 (1),251-266.Additional readings