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 →
A mental health nurse’s first response to the launch of the Power Threat Meaning Framework
The 12th of January 2018 is a day that I very much hope will be remembered: the day that the Power Threat Meaning Framework was launched. Supported by the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology, it was written by a group of respected critical thinkers, including psychologists and service-users. For me, the launch was... Continue Reading →
The United Nations and Mental Health
In June 2017, a report was read (download it here, it's free) to the United Nations on the subject of mental health. This was the third annual report of the UN Special Rapporteur for health, or to give his full title, The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone on the Enjoyment of the... Continue Reading →
The Layard Report
The following post was submitted by Jonathan Gadsby. As ever, please feel free to comment below. In December 2016 an electronic version of a new report became available, prior to its imminent publication in book form, by the London School of Economics. Dubbed 'The Layard Report' after key author Richard Layard, the actual title is The Origins... Continue Reading →
Asylum Magazine Interview
The following is an interview between Jonathan Gadsby of the CMHNN and Helen Spandler, part of the editorial collective of Asylum Magazine, an affordable quarterly magazine that is packed with articles about critical mental health. There is simply no other magazine like it in the UK and it feels like it has an increasingly important contribution... Continue Reading →
What is going on at the DCP?
This post is a short round-up of some extremely interesting work being done by psychologists in the UK, mostly connected to the Division of Clinical Psychology, taking a critical view of mental health services. It also introduces a brand new document they have produced, as well as two other important recent ones. Mental health nurses won't... Continue Reading →
The Surviving Work Survey
Hello everyone. The following post is from Elizabeth Cotton, and provides background information about the 'Surviving Work Survey'. It is an important project that we feel will interest mental health nurses (it is for other professionals too). Please forward the link to your colleagues, too. Yours, The CMHNN team. If you’re working in mental health it’s... Continue Reading →
Critical Mental Health Nurses' Network 