Staff Across the region participate in a Mental Health Nursing Workshop

18th October 2024

Over 60 staff from the HSC Trusts, Department of Health (DoH), PHA, Education Providers, HSC related organisations and people with lived experience, participated in the first Mental Health Nursing Workshop hosted by Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council (NIPEC) on 14 October 2024.

Linda Kelly, Chief Executive, NIPEC in opening the workshop outlined the context of the work commenting:

“The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) has commissioned NIPEC to undertake a programme of work to support and inform the future direction of mental health nursing roles and the development of a proposed model for mental health nursing, across the lifespan. This first workshop is the start of this new work and after today, we are looking forward to developing an action plan to chart the journey ahead.”

The DoH CNO, Mary Frances McManus briefed the participants on the Minister’s key priorities and the CNO`s ambition, Shaping Our Future A Vision for Nursing and Midwifery in Northern Ireland: 2023-2028 (DoH, 2023). Mary Frances McManus emphasised:

“Mental Ill Health can affect anyone at any and time and Mental Health Nurses play a pivotal role in population health. The CNO, Maria McIlgorm, has commissioned NIPEC along with senior Mental Health Nurses to develop a Mental Health Nursing Model. This Model will clearly define a career and education pathway for mental health nurses which will see a workforce ready to meet the current and future needs of our population while addressing health inequalities.”

The workshop delegates heard from Rodney Morton, former Deputy CNO, as he shared an overview of the key strategic and professional messages from across the UK. This included recommendations from the Nursing Midwifery Task Group Report (NMTG) (DoH, 2020) and featuring the Mental Nursing Review recommendations (DoH, 2020).

Geraldine McKendry, Senior Professional Officer, NIPEC who is the project lead, was delighted to see the range of participants who attended the workshop and the very positive engagement and commented:

“Nursing staff here today included; Consultant Nurses Adult Mental Health and CAMHS, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Mental Health Nurses working across Acute Hospital, Community, Specialist Services, Nurse Leads with management/ professional responsibility, alongside colleagues from DoH, PHA, RCN, and Education Providers from UU, QUB, OU and CEC. This wide attendance reflects the range of stakeholders and clinical nursing staff working within mental health services who are eager to participate in this regionally important work. I want to thank all who attended and are involved in this this work. My NIPEC colleague Ann McDonald, Associate Professional Officer and I will be reviewing the outputs from the workshop today and will be working closely with each of the HSC Trusts Consultants Nurses in Adult Mental Health and CAHMS. We will be building momentum across the region as we take this exciting work forward.”

NIPEC will be continuing to profile this work going forward on its website and social media.