Mental Health Nursing Skills

Mental health nurses require a diverse set of skills to aid service users and their carers on their journey to recovery. During their training, students need to acquire and demonstrate skills to show that the care they provide is evidence-based and effective. Skills as diverse as assessment, forming therapeutic interactions, caring for physical and mental health needs, as well as leadership and management, can be difficult to learn and master - until now!

Mental Health Nursing Skills provides students with a highly evidence-based and practical account of the skills required for nursing practice. The original text was developed in response to the Chief Nursing Officer's review of Mental Health Nursing in England and that of the Scottish Executive. The authors have updated the content to include reference to the "Playing Our Part" Review of Mental Health Nursing and the latest NMC pre-registration standards. The authors translate theory into clearly applied skills supported by practice examples, tips from service users, and accompanying online activities. With contributions from nursing academics, researchers, practitioners, and service users, this text reflects the best of theory and practice.

Clearly mapped against all the benchmarks expected by professional nursing bodies and suitable for all settings, Mental Health Nursing Skills provides a high quality and student friendly account of the skills required for successful nursing practice.

• 1: Andrew C. Grundy and Debbie Butler: Service users' views and expectations of mental health nurses,


• 2: Isaac Tuffour: Values-based mental health nursing


• 3: Patrick Callaghan and Paul Crawford: Evidence-based mental health nursing practice


• 4: Carmel Bond, Theo Stickley, and Gemma Stacey: Caring: The essence of mental health nursing


• 5: Jean Morrissey: Interpersonal communication: Heron's six category intervention analysis


• 6: Michael Coffey, Greg Rooney, and Stephen McKenna Lawson: Understanding therapeutic relationships in mental health nursing


• 7: Helen Rees, Adam Chillman, and Zaynab Yasin Sohawon: Assessment in mental health nursing


• 8: Alan Simpson and Geoff Brennan: Working in partnership


• 9: Helen Pusey, Simon Burrow, and John Keady: Dementia: A person-centred perspective


• 10: Alan Simpson and Jessica Sears: Recovery-focused care and safety planning assessment and management


• 11: Mary Munro-Hargreaves and Billy Ridler: Key skills in telemental health


• 12: Michael Nash, Christine Kakai, and Roupmatee Joggyah: The essence of physical health care


• 13: Marie Chellingsworth: Low intensity CBT interventions (guided self-help)


• 14: Juanita Hoe and Rachel Thompson: Introductory skills for conducting psychosocial interventions in dementia care


• 15: Maria Filip and Tim Carter: Behavioural activation


• 16: Anita Henderson and Roy Litvin: Behavioural family interventions for the self-harming and suicidal adolescent


• 17: Annmarie Grealish and Gemma Trainor: Key skills in working with children and young people


• 18: Jane Sedgwick-Müller: Key skills in working with people living with neurodevelopmental disorders


• 19: Alan Pringle and Mark Pearson: Medication management


• 20: Richard Griffith: Law and practice


• 21: Dan Warrender and Chris Young: Considering and responding to risk when working with people living with mental health problems


• 22: Mark Baker, Haseem Usman, and Susan Sookoo: Practising safe and effective observation


• 23: Rachel Lees, Keith Waters, and Andy Willis: The recognition and therapeutic management of self harm and suicide prevention


• 24: Dave Riley, Tommy Dickinson, Jeanette Murray, and Wayne Ennis: Supporting people through periods of distress that may result in harm to themselves or others


• 25: Patrick Callaghan and Adam Sutcliffe: Working with people with substance misuse problems


• 26: Ben Hannigan and Nick Weaver: Skills to improve care continuity: Working in interagency and interprofessional teams


• 27: Emma Wadey: Leadership and management in mental health nursing


• 28: Opeyemi Atanda, Patrick Callaghan, Eleni Vangeli, and Paula Reavey: Health behaviour change theories