Steering a steady course in an era of compulsory treatment: Taking mental health nursing into the millennium

Abstract

Serious concern about public safety underpins development of mental health services that will inevitably lead to a more explicit policing role for mental health nurses in particular. Many mental health nurses are understandably concerned about this trend, however, we argue that their pessimism is unfounded. For the first time in a generation the current national strategy for mental health services is accompanied by an investment programme which, whatever its deficits, marks an attempt to ensure that previous deficits are made good. Further, evidence from other countries where compulsory treatment has been introduced would suggest that the success or failure of such measures is related to whether or not they are integrated into effective, comprehensive and adequately funded systems of mental health care. This paper discusses steps that mental health nurses might take to ensure that they maintain a role whose primary purpose continues to be the care of the individual patient (service user) even within a health care system oriented increasingly towards social control.