Search

Summary: For the past decade nurse education has incorporated service user and carer perspectives into their programme and research agendas. Moving from rhetoric to the reality of embedding adult service user and carer knowledge into nurse education this paper discusses how this good practice was extended to young people under the age of 18. Globally, the mental health of young people is coming under the spotlight and based on this two “World Café” events focusing on young people and their mental well being were organised. Targeting a multi-agency audience the aim was to develop a partnership consortium, bringing together local organisations involved in promoting the mental well being of young people. This paper reports on the first World Café, led by two local young people''s groups, ‘Florescent Adolescent’ and ‘Vocal’. Following the presentations four important areas were identified (1) Inclusive rather than exclusive (2) Crystal ball gazing — young people''s futures (3) A hole in the net — catching young people at the right time (4) Exposing the hidden agenda. The day resulted in three collaborative research proposals and the realisation that young people need opportunity to participate through utilising more innovative ways of engaging with the professional adult world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper seeks to address a range of unconscious organisational, professional and educational processes that impact upon the provision of mental health nursing care and the service users experiences of this care. These can often result in a state of anomie for the service user and inhibit real choice being a feature within therapeutic relationships. The paper argues that mental health nurses do not set out to practice in this way, but because of the unconscious nature of many of their responses, their practice is often restricting and only serves to reinforce traditional professional/patient relationships. Using a psychoanalytical approach to data analysis, these unconscious processes are examined. A possible way to address these concerns is posited that advocates greater direct involvement of service users in the educational processes of nurses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]