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 →
Book
We announced it on twitter, but here is a short post about our book. In September this year, PCCS published a book compiled by three of us, Pete Bull, Stephen Williams and Jonathan Gadsby. It has been described as a 'first': a critical book about mental health nursing, written largely by mental health nurses. It... Continue Reading →
What’s going on right now?
We are collaborating on a document that we hope brings together the views and ideas of our discussion about conscientious objection to enforcing pharmaceutical interventions. Soon we will be posting it up here for comments and feedback. That will also be a time for us to decide if it is going to be something to... Continue Reading →
Conscientious Objection from Enforcing Treatment
Welcome to our first online discussion forum on the subject of RMN's possible conscientious objection to enforced treatment. Scroll down to take part in the discussion! We focussed on the 15th, 16th and 17th of Oct, but you can read what was written and still contribute if you wish. (But perhaps read these paragraphs first, if you haven't... Continue Reading →
The possibility of the right to conscientiously object from enforcing treatment
Dear Readers, The Critical Mental Health Nurses' Network want to begin a profession-wide conversation about the possibility of a right to conscientious objection to enforcing treatment. This is a serious and complicated subject and needs to be handled with great care. However, we believe that this is an important conversation to have at this time,... Continue Reading →
Andy Hanson
Dear Reader, The CMHNN are proud to present UK-based Andrew Hanson's nursing story. We believe this kind of long-view is rare and important to us as a profession. Many times on this website we have re-asserted that critical thinking is not new in mental health nursing. The thought-provoking account below especially speaks to the idea... Continue Reading →
Book Update
Pete Bull, Steven Williams and Jonathan Gadsby, three UK based RMNs, are very pleased to announce that we have sent the full text of our multi-authored Critical Mental Health Nursing book to the publishers (PCCS Books). The chapters are written by a range of authors, some are nurses, some have used services or cared for... Continue Reading →
Bread and Roses: activist imaginings for the future of mental health nursing
Dear Readers, One of our number has become a professor! We are very pleased to be able to publish Mick Mckeown's inaugural professorial lecture. Mick has been a great support and source of energy and inspiration to the network from soon after we formed. No critical thinker automatically loves establishment recognition, but Mick's appointment to the... Continue Reading →
