Nursing
Mental Health Nursing
The Mental Health pathway provides you with the opportunity to become a mental health nurse and experience an interesting, challenging and rewarding career.
Every person is unique in how they experience a mental illness and the degree to which it affects their lives. Often mental illness can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety, confusion and isolation. Most people experience these feelings during traumatic life events such as losing a loved one. However, with mental illness, such feelings become exaggerated or last for so long that they interfere with the person’s ability to work or to carry out the role of parent or partner.
At certain times a person may be particularly vulnerable and the emotional distress can lead to more serious conditions, which may result in a major personality disturbance. When a person has a serious or ongoing mental illness, or they are at risk of harming themselves or others, they are more likely to require hospital care. They may be detained under the Mental Health Act, or cared for at home with extra support from the mental health services. Severe mental illness is three times as common as cancer and affects one in ten adults and one in five children.
The nature of mental health nursing has changed a lot over the last 20 years with a move from providing care in large institutions to providing care in the community. This has led to an increasing range of community services. Specialist areas of activity are also developing, such as drug and alcohol services, child and family services and forensic services (for people who are mentally ill and who have contact with the legal system). Mental health nurses can also work in other areas that cater for a variety of mental illnesses, for example the prison service, social services and the independent and voluntary services. Once qualified you may wish to specialise with a particular client group.
Mental health nurses are responsible for the assessment and co-ordination of care for people who are mentally ill, which also involves reviewing their progress at regular intervals. Nurses collaborate with other professionals such as social workers, health visitors, psychologists and psychiatrists in planning and organising care. Developing professional therapeutic relationships with distressed and vulnerable people can be challenging and requires you to be self aware, recognising when your values and beliefs may influence relationships. You need to show empathy, warmth and respect for people without judging them.