Thank you to some students and a tutor of a UK-based class of nursing students for the following, which is a report of a small-group discussion. Some of those students were embarking on the final of four years of study (in order to become dual qualified nurses) and others the final of three years (to... Continue Reading →
Response from Haley Peckham
Last month we posted a report of a MHN classroom discussion here in the UK. It was part of a module in which student nurses were encouraged to consider the range of ideological forces at play in their work and the real-world consequences. The module had the strapline: "There is always another side to every story".... Continue Reading →
The Neuroplastic Narrative in the classroom
The following is a report of a UK-based student mental health nurse discussion group. The mixed group of eight mental health nursing students comprised some who were working towards a Masters-level pre-registration qualification, some working towards an undergraduate award, one of whom is on a degree-level apprenticeship programme, and their tutor (also a mental health... Continue Reading →
Student MHN Classroom response to Connell et al.
Dear Chris Connell, Emma Jones, Michael Haslam, Jayne Firestone, Gill Pope and Christine Thompson, We are class of mental health nursing students in the UK, a mixture of BSc nursing students and some 'RNDA' students (also degree-level nursing students but completing pre-qualification education as apprentices). Most of us are doing the standard Future Nurse Curriculum... Continue Reading →
Brief response to queries about the new All Wales Psychiatric Genomics Service
Thank you to all those who have been in touch about this. It would be wrong to say that the Critical Mental Health Nurses' Network takes the following view, because a network of critical thinkers does not aspire to have just one view on a subject. However, our network (which is not something with a... Continue Reading →
Student MHN Classroom response to Dan Warrender
Dear Dan Warrender,We are a group of 3rd year mental health nursing students in the UK, completing our first field-specific module in the Future Nurse Curriculum. Today we have spent several hours with our tutor discussing your recent paper, Mental health nursing and the theory-practice gap: Civil war and intellectual self-injury.We found it very striking and... Continue Reading →
Conscientious Objection to forced pharmaceutical interventions: FAQs
FAQs and frequent concerns This is the next in a series of posts and documents on this developing theme and has been written by Mick Mckeown and Jonathan Gadsby. Tomorrow, we are presenting our recent paper (behind paywall - sorry, not much we can do about that here) at the Critical Voices Network Ireland 2021... Continue Reading →
The latest from the network
September 2021 Dear Critical Mental Health Nurse,Greetings from the Midlands, United Kingdom, to wherever you are! When ten of us mental health nurses began this journey nearly ten years ago, first with discussions and later the formation of a critical mental health nurses network, a couple of conferences and a website, we did not know... Continue Reading →
Mental Health in a time of Climate Emergency
Dear Readers, The following two documents explore the theme of mental health in a time of climate emergency. Next week will see the largest single act of civil disobedience the United Kingdom has ever witnessed, as the non-violent direct action group, 'Extinction Rebellion' again take to the streets, squares and bridges of the capital. What... Continue Reading →
MHA Report Response No.1
Welcome to the first of what we hope will be several blog posts that are written in response to the Government's independent Mental Health Act Review, Dec 2018. This first post is a critique of a central underlying assumption of the review. In it, Jonathan Gadsby argues that by framing the debate in terms of autonomy... Continue Reading →
Critical Mental Health Nurses' Network 