01 Foundations of Mental Health Nursing
Explore how mental health is shaped by individual and social conditions, and how nurses use complementary models and collaborative care to support well-being, safety, and recovery.
and
is more than the absence of illness. It includes well-being, the ability to cope with life’s stresses, use personal abilities, and participate in relationships and community. It can change over time and is shaped by interacting individual, family, community, and social conditions.
challenges can occur alongside physical illness or substance use. A person with a diagnosis can still pursue meaningful goals and live a meaningful life.
commonly refers to and substance use, as well as behaviors that affect health and functioning. Nursing care therefore considers the whole person—not only symptoms—including physical health, relationships, culture, living conditions, strengths, and access to support.
Complementary models of
Models offer different ways to understand a person’s experience. They are complementary perspectives, not competing explanations, and none can diagnose someone on its own.
: Considers biological influences such as brain processes, genetics, physical illness, and medication effects. It helps guide medical assessment and treatment, but alone may overlook personal and social context.
: Considers biological factors together with psychological experiences and social or environmental conditions. For example, low mood may relate to illness or sleep disruption, grief or persistent stress, and isolation or housing insecurity. The nurse explores how these factors interact rather than assuming a single cause.
Psychological and interpersonal perspectives: Consider how learning, thoughts, emotions, development, relationships, and coping patterns influence distress and behavior. They can help identify useful supports and skills.
Social, cultural, and systems perspectives: Consider how family and community relationships, cultural meaning, discrimination, poverty, trauma, and access to services affect well-being and care.
: Emphasizes hope, strengths, self-direction, and the person’s own definition of a meaningful life. Recovery is individual and may involve different pathways, supports, and goals over time.
Together, these perspectives support broad questions: What is happening for this person? What matters to them? What is affecting their well-being, and what supports could help?
The nurse’s role and process
nursing takes place in psychiatric settings, primary care, hospitals, schools, long-term care, and community services. Nurses promote wellness and prevention, assess needs and risks, provide nursing care and education, coordinate with other professionals, and advocate for safety, dignity, and access to appropriate care.
Psychiatric- nursing includes care across the lifespan for and substance use concerns. Nurses practice within their education, competence, professional standards, and applicable law.
Applying the
Assess: Listen to the person’s concerns and goals; observe behavior and functioning; and consider physical health, medications, substance use, culture, supports, and relevant history. Assess immediate safety when indicated.
Identify needs and plan: Work with the person to identify priorities, strengths, desired outcomes, and realistic next steps. Seek consultation or referral when needs exceed the nurse’s role or resources.
Provide care: Build a ; offer clear information, health teaching, and appropriate nursing interventions; administer and monitor prescribed treatments; and coordinate care with the person’s consent when possible.
Evaluate and adjust: Ask whether the plan is helping, review outcomes with the person, and revise the approach as needs or preferences change.
Building a
The is intentional, respectful, and bounded. Nurses use attentive listening, empathy, curiosity, and clear communication—not judgment, false reassurance, or personal advice—to help people express concerns and participate in care.
Nurses protect privacy, explain relevant limits to confidentiality, and respond promptly to safety concerns. Coordination with others should involve the person’s consent when possible.
Individualized, recovery-oriented care
treats the individual as a partner, not as a diagnosis or passive recipient of treatment. It asks about preferences, values, culture, strengths, relationships, and the person’s definition of recovery. The resulting plan is collaborative and individualized: it supports informed choice and self-direction while addressing safety and health needs.
Peer, family, or other chosen supports can be included when the person wants them and applicable privacy requirements are met. Recovery principles emphasize hope, personal strengths, multiple pathways, and meaningful connection and purpose.
Responding to trauma
A recognizes that trauma may affect trust, behavior, and a sense of safety. Nurses promote physical and emotional safety, transparency, collaboration, empowerment, and choice, and seek to avoid unnecessary retraumatization.
For example, a person experiencing anxiety may identify returning to work as their main goal. A person-centered nurse explores what the person believes is contributing to the anxiety, asks what has helped before, discusses suitable options, and agrees on a next step with them. The nurse does not assume that symptom reduction is the person’s only priority.