Main description:

Introducing Mental Health Nursing offers a systematic overview of both the science and the art of caring for people experiencing mental health problems. It addresses the attitudes, knowledge and skills required to provide care for service users across all health-care settings, from specialist mental health services to general hospitals and community care.

The authors place the service user at the centre of all aspects of mental health care and emphasise the importance of the therapeutic relationship as the cornerstone of good mental health nursing practice. Emphasis is placed on the role of the nurse as an intrinsic member of the mental health team, and nurses are encouraged to think critically about the perspectives that they bring to their practice.

The second edition has been fully revised and updated, with increased focus on Indigenous social and emotional well-being, as well as two new chapters on Recovery and Cultural Safety. A must-have book for undergraduate nursing students, new graduates and professionals changing specialties or simply wishing to refresh their mental health nursing knowledge.

'This is a brave and dignified text - beautifully written and conceived and given the current texts available - a must for any serious undergraduate nursing program in an Australian university.' - David Buchanan, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom

'I recommend this text to all students of nursing, whether you intend to pursue a career in this speciality or if you simply desire to provide the best care possible in any field of practice.' - Associate Professor Stephen Elsom RN PhD, Director, Centre for Psychiatric Nursing, The University of Melbourne

Contents:

Figures and tables

Acknowledgements

Preface

PART I BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT FOR MENTAL HEALTH NURSING

1. Introduction

2. Conceptual frameworks guiding mental health nursing

3. Recovery

4. Mental health practice settings

5. Legal, ethical and professional issues in mental health nursing

PART II DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

6. Diagnosing mental illness

7. Symptomatology in mental health

8. Sociological understandings of mental health and Indigenous social and emotional well-being

PART III TREATING MENTAL ILLNESS

9. Physical treatments in mental health care

10. Treatments in mental health: complementary and other therapies

PART IV MENTAL HEALTH NURSING ROLES AND PRACTICE

11. Mental health and illness assessment

12. Nursing care in mental health

13. Treatments in mental health: psychotherapy

14. Cultural safety

15. A safe environment

16. Mental health issues across the health care sector

Index