Mental health nursing today: a view from the USA.

摘要

In the USA, mental health and substance-abuse problems/diseases are the leading cause of disability and death for women of all ages and the second highest cause for all men (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2006), but there is some good news. The supply of mental health providers has increased in recent years with non-physician providers (nurses, social workers, and psychologists) now constituting an important part of the workforce (Scheffler and Kirby, 2003). In part because of that trend, prices for treatment of major illnesses (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder) have been declining (Frank and Glied, 2006). Behind those facts lurk many twists and turns as mental health nursing (mental health nursing is used as an umbrella term that includes all permutations of psychiatric-mental health nursing) has sought to gain professional respectability and meet the needs of patients and their families.