Understanding the effects of the clinical and philosophical contexts in which HLPs are established and the way challenges and benefits are affected by context has practical significance for the future development of health programs in forensic settings, prisons, and general mental health units.
A New Zealand Nursing Council review of undergraduate education provides an ideal opportunity to make much needed changes to the system of preparation for mental health nurses. This article critiques comprehensive nursing education through an examination of its history in New Zealand, recent mental health reports and a projected estimate of workforce needs. Historical analysis reveals a process of marginalization and invisibilization of psychiatric/mental health nursing within comprehensive programmes with a consequent reduction of skills and a weakening of the profession. The author concludes that psychiatric/mental health nursing is a distinct scope of practice which requires specialty undergraduate preparation.
Australia and New Zealand are committed to upholding the rights of people who experience mental illness and providing a "recovery" approach to service delivery. These have farreaching implications for acute inpatients, many of whom are admitted voluntarily. In order to inform future research in these two countries, this review aimed to identify literature pertaining to the experiences of people admitted voluntarily to acute adult mental health facilities. Literature was limited to studies in English published between 1993 and 2013. Perceived coercion was the focus of most studies, many of which reported that voluntary service users do not always experience their admission and treatment as strictly voluntary. Two smaller bodies of literature reported that service users were limited in their ability to make informed choices and had poor knowledge of their rights and legal status. Further research on informed consent, knowledge of rights, and access to advocacy is warranted.
INTRODUCTION: Although people with serious mental illness (SMI) have a high prevalence of physical illness, health-related quality of life (HQoL) has not been sufficiently explored. AIM: To explore the self-reported HQoL of mental health service users in New Zealand. METHODS: Responses on the Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short Form (SF-36) measure of HQoL from 404 adult mental health service users in a metropolitan district health board area in New Zealand were analysed and compared to a representative sample of the general population. RESULTS: Mental health service users scored significantly lower on all eight domains of the SF-36 than the general population, the largest difference being in the role limitation — emotional domain. DISCUSSION: Being female, younger than 25, obese or overweight, or of New Zealand European/Other ethnicity were associated with poorer functioning on multiple HQoL domains. Future studies should seek to understand the factors contributing to perceptions of HQoL of mental health service users in New Zealand. KEYWORDS: Mental illness; mental health; New Zealand; quality of life; self report
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