Aims

Aims of the Group

Mental Health Nursing has a long and proud tradition having made significant contributions to improving the care of mental health service users and their carers over the last two centuries. In an ever changing landscape, Mental Health Nurses (MHNs) still make up the largest professionally qualified group of the mental health workforce in the UK today, working in increasingly diverse practice contexts and innovative, specialist roles. As such, MHNs will continue to play a key role in the design and development of mental health services and the delivery of mental health care across the UK. Whatever changes occur in the profession, and there will be many over the next decade, the driving force behind these must always be a fundamental desire to enhance the experiences of service users and their carers through ensuring partnership with users and carers in all aspects of care and service delivery and collaborative involvement in MHN education and research.

MHN education and research are central to ensuring that MHNs are equipped with appropriate values, knowledge and skills so that they can draw on the best available evidence to deliver high quality user and carer-centred care. Increasingly, mental health practice, education and research agenda is multi-disciplinary and multi-agency and it is vital that MHNs fully engage with this agenda, not out of professional self-interest, but in order to advance education, policy and practice that best meets the needs of clients and carers.

In order to promote such engagement and develop a strong voice from MHNs working in Higher Education, MHNAUK was formed in 2003. The group brings together representatives from all UK Higher Education Institutions engaged in mental health nursing education and research.

The specific aims of the group are;

1.	To represent and promote mental health nursing education, research and practice development
2.	To influence and respond to the UK mental health agenda through well-informed debate, discussion and the dissemination of material that reflects our views on a range of issues
3.	To act as a source of consultation and advice to mental health nurses and others on mental health nursing education and research
4.	To share good practice and innovations in the development and conduct of mental health nursing education and research
5.	To conduct research into mental health nursing education

Meetings are held three times a year at various venues across the UK hosted by member HEIs. The group has produced a number of position papers and responses to consultations and is represented on a wide range of relevant national policy, education and research steering groups. The Terms of Reference for the group can be found here.

The current chair is Professor Joy Duxbury, University of Central Lancashire, Preston.

The current vice-chair is Professor Steven Pryjmachuk. University of Manchester.