Mental Health Nursing

This specialist section aims to share robust international research findings and encourage the exchange of ideas to promote evidence-based developments in mental health nursing practice. Mental health nursing deserves a special section in Nursing Reports due to its unique requirements, including fostering a supportive and non-judgmental environment, addressing stigma, promoting timely help-seeking, offering therapeutic psychosocial interventions, and managing risk. Research into mental health nursing is vital to identify best practices, foster innovation, improve patient outcomes, and address gaps in care. We are particularly keen to promote research conducted by people with lived experience of recovery and mental health to improve relevance and impact.

This journal publishes a range of article types, including clinical trials, pilot/feasibility studies, personal narratives, letters to the Editor, systematic/other literature reviews, study protocols, discussion papers, instrument development and testing, quantitative observational studies, service evaluations, and qualitative studies. The topics of interest for this section include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Co-design with service users, carers, and other stakeholders;
• Personal narratives from people who have lived experiences of mental health and recovery;
• Public and patient involvement in mental health research;
• Clinical trials of novel interventions;
• Early intervention;
• Family and carer support;
• Peer support;
• Mental health nurse education and training;
• Personal recovery;
• Resilience;
• Mental health service evaluation research;
• Interface between mental health and physical health;
• Mental health promotion;
• Suicide prevention and interventions for self-harm;
• Working with people who use substances/alcohol;
• Acute and intensive psychiatric nursing care;
• Prevention and management of workplace violence;
• Dementia care;
• Mental health of children and young people;
• Mental health-related stigma ;
• Psychoeducation;
• Epidemiology and risk factors for mental illness;
• Medication management;
• Forensic mental health nursing;
• Mental health nurse management;
• Ethical issues in mental health nursing.