Mental health: Nurses make demands for next government

The proposals form the latest – and final – chapter of the Manifesto for Nurses, which Nursing Times has been drawing up since October in preparation for the next general election, now set for 4 July.

This final chapter explores ideas from nursing professionals on how the political party in power can protect the UK’s mental health and wellbeing and future-proof the mental health service.

A key theme in the responses was the need to view mental health as a separate specialty with different training needs to other specialties, while there were concerns that training had become too generic.

More broadly, nurses advocated for government policies that address the underlying causes of certain mental health problems, such as poverty, and for policies that improve support for people with the most serious mental health conditions.

There was also a need for work to raise public awareness of mental health. More radical ideas included training psychology graduates to provide therapy to some patients, in order to tackle waiting lists.

Now that the final chapter has been completed, Nursing Times will compile all your ideas into a final manifesto. We will hand this manifesto over to the main parties running in the elections.

Your mental health needs at a glance:

• More community support for mental health
• More psychiatric nurses in primary care
• Improvements in education for mental health nurses
• Actions to address the causes of poor mental health
• Routine mental health checks
• Public awareness campaigns on mental health
• Recognition of the unique nature of mental health care

What you said:

Georgina Callard

Georgina Callard, Primary Care Mental Health Nurse, Queen’s Nurse and Lead Professional Nurse Advocate, Northamptonshire

Mrs Callard wanted to see psychiatric nurses in every GP practice.

She said more mental health nurses in primary care would support preventative work as it allows people to address their mental health problems at an earlier stage.

“The demand is definitely there! I am doing this and have reduced the number of referrals to secondary care, so it is working,” said Ms Callard.

Alison Ruth Cross, Mental Health Specialist for Perinatal and Infant Health, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

“More money needs to be spent on mental health, but in the right way. Get the people who work in mental health involved and ask them what is needed,” Cross said.

Alison Ruth Kruis

She called for no more ‘postcode lotteries’ for good mental health care in the future.

She added: “More needs to be done to break the stigma around mental health and the right people need to be in the right places to do it.”

Sally Davies and Yvonne Yelland, academics in Northamptonshire, both have over 30 years’ experience in mental health.

The pair’s joint calls to action include a call for “caring basic government policies” that ensure everyone has access to enough money to live on, a place to live and a decent job.

They also wanted the government to help healthcare professionals educate the public about mental health and to provide more support for social prescribing through general practice.

In addition, they said steps needed to be taken to ensure “equal valuation” between adult care and mental health – and to better recognise that the two fields are different and require different skills.

Erica Safar-Omoigui

Erica Safar-Omoigui, Mental Health Practitioner, Plymouth

Ms Safar-Omoigui believed that a ‘public education’ campaign on mental health would make a positive difference.

In addition, she wanted to see a “fairer career path” so that all mental health nurses have the opportunity to progress into advanced roles.

Stephanie Luff, Clinical Nurse Specialist, London

Stephanie Luff

Ms Luff wanted the government to take further action to tackle the causes of poor mental health.

“We cannot solve mental health problems in reverse. They must be tackled at the source: more social housing, more funding for schools, reasonable support for job seekers, etc.,” she said.

Dan Warrender, Lecturer in Mental Health, Abertay University, Dundee

Dan Warrender

“The future of mental health care in the UK can be supported by developing well-trained mental health nurses,” Mr Warrender said.

He warned that current educational standards are too generic and fail to “articulate a specific vision of what it means to be a psychiatric nurse”.

“A new government should prioritize emphasizing the unique nature of mental health care and improving the underlying training of the workforce,” he added.

Jacqueline Parker, Liaison and Diversion Nurse, North East London NHS Foundation Trust

Her demands include making mental health a “distinctive profession”, legally protecting the title of “nurse”, reinstating the nursing bursary, ensuring all student nurses complete a mental health placement, and taking action to support the resilience of the public to “prevent normal life problems from being labelled as illness”.

Ed Freshwater, Mental Health Nurse and Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Leicester

Ed Zoetwater

Mr Freshwater urged the next government to “wake up” to the “unbearable experience” of people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“For years – but especially since the pandemic – politicians, along with the public and the media, have been talking about mental illness as if it were only mild to moderate anxiety, stress or a depressed mood,” he said.

He claimed that people with serious mental illnesses were facing a “relentless government attack” in the form of lower benefits, worse housing and fewer employment opportunities – and called on the next government to change this.

Rachel Cadden

Rachel Cadden, Newly Registered Mental Health Nurse, East Midlands

She called for the introduction of routine mental health checks for people at ‘high-risk ages and stages of life’ and for investment in drop-in mental health centres.

Betty Scholes, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, University of the West of Scotland

“I want to see the differences between mental wellbeing and mental health problems recognised,” said Ms Scholes.

She said there should be non-medical pathways available to help people achieve mental wellbeing, and more investment in services for people with serious mental illness.

She also expressed concern that the current nursing curriculum, because of its emphasis on “physical health and technical skills,” was inadequate to prepare nurses to work with patients who were acutely mentally ill.

“Greater recognition of the work of mental health nurses and investment in both preparation for pre-registration as a specialty and the ongoing development of nurses… could redress this current imbalance,” Ms Scholes said.

Helen Bennett, Nursing Assistant and Student Psychiatric Nurse, Cygnet Health Care, Yorkshire

Helen Bennett

Ms Bennett said more mental health services are needed in the community.

She suggested that the government could tackle waiting lists by making better use of people with degrees in psychology, who could be trained to provide therapy to people with conditions such as personality disorders.

Michelle Orrell, Mental Health Nurse, North West England

She urged the next government to “stop privatizing and sending [the] “the most difficult cases of mental health problems to private care”.

Michelle Orrell

Ms Orrell said improvements were needed in mental health services across pay, workload, training, wellbeing support and workplace culture.

Patricia Todd, Retired Mental Health Nurse, South East England

Patricia Todd

“The shortage of mental health nurses is a major factor in the delivery of good mental health care,” said Ms Todd.

She warned that these shortages mean newly qualified mental health nurses are often left “doing their jobs without the help and support they need” – and called for this to change.

Mick McKeown, Professor of Mental Health, North West England

Providing his insights for the next government, Professor McKeown said: “Mental health can be one of the most rewarding jobs, with successful outcomes often dependent on the skilful use of self within relational care processes.

“But budget cuts and staff shortages threaten this situation, and services are becoming increasingly restrictive and coercive.”

He warned that in the future, a balance will need to be struck to ensure nurses still have enough time to provide direct and human care between keeping records and managing the use of technologies such as CCTV, body cameras and remote monitoring systems.

Brodie Andrew Paterson, Consultant Nurse Psychotherapist, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Scotland

Brodie Andrew Paterson

“Mental health care in the UK is in crisis,” Dr Paterson warned.

“Course recruitment has declined. Practitioners are under enormous pressure and are emerging from increasingly generic training programmes with insufficient knowledge, skills and values ​​to practice empathetically, safely and effectively.”

He called for a “thorough review” of current standards for mental health nursing training, and for staffing strategies that would give nurses sufficient time to provide “relational practice” and reduce levels of burnout, compassion fatigue and moral injury.

Download a PDF of the Mental Health chapter below.