Developments in mental health nursing: a critical voice

This paper examines stances that are being adopted in relation to the current and future direction of mental health nursing practice. The argument is made that mental health nursing is being pushed into a direction that is essentially positivistic and narrow in its focus, stating that the current hegemony of thinking which dictates that our primary focus of concern should be with individuals suffering from severe or recurring mental illness, allied with the drive towards ‘evidence based practice’ is symptomatic of wider issues that should be of concern to all parties interested in the issue of mental health care. The authors examine the context and rationale for these developments from socio‐political, philosophical and ethical viewpoints, highlighting that their logical outcome is the exclusion of individuals from the right to health care and question the motives underpinning what could be considered a fundamental shift in the provision of mental health services. The argument is then advanced that caution should be adopted by mental health nursing services before abandoning what Gournay (1994) described as ‘redundant ideologies’ and that a broader view of mental health nursing action should be accommodated. The validity of trying to account for mental nursing action in quantifiable and biomechanistic terms is questioned and an alternative paradigm of accounting for such action is suggested.