Healthcare organisations and nurse leaders have an important role in promoting patients' right to vote, through the development of policy guidelines, integrated networking and innovative practice. Patients' mental capacity to vote is usually assessed by nurses, who must therefore be aware of clients' voting rights and if the right resources are in place to help them do so. Patients' rights, as citizens, are recognised in law and in professional guidelines, but more needs to be done to protect their voting rights. There should also be better access to transport and family support, and more flexible electoral procedures. This article reviews the literature on promoting patients' participation in local and general elections and suggests that their voting rights should be endorsed by organisations and nurse leaders through policy guidelines and a flexible and proactive nursing approach to participation.
Depression is a common illness in society today; assistant practitioners (APs) and healthcare assistants (HCAs) may work with clients who are suffering from depression, either as a standalone illness or as the result of a reaction to their current circumstances. It is the aim of this article to provide an overview of depression, taking into consideration the causes and symptoms of the illness. It will also look at the most common types of depression and possible treatments for the client.
Individuals who deliberately self harm are not just based within mental health services within the UK. Assistant practitioners and healthcare assistants working across a variety of clinical and community settings may have to work with such clients or patients. This article aims to define the term ‘self harm’ and discuss why it happens. It will also look at current treatments available.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.