Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland

The Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland was established over a decade ago to influence the future vision for, and delivery of mental health nursing in Scotland. The Forum aims to ensure that the mental health nursing profession is able to constantly evolve meet the needs of people who experience mental health issues, and families and carers, by influencing future policy development at a national level and the implementation of that policy at a practice level and service level.

The Forum achieves its aims through the following objectives:
 Sharing good practice across Scotland
 Influencing the national quality improvement and research agendas
 Influencing the development of nurse education
 Developing and implementing evidence based practice
 Contributing to develop the distinctive contribution of mental health nursing in the ever evolving context of service redesign and the integration of health and social services.
 Identifying and debating challenging issues for the profession, and taking appropriate action were required to influence future direction
 Developing a consensus view on key mental health nursing issues and those which impact on the profession, communicating those across key influential groups within nursing and other mental health professions
 Undertaking work to support the continued development of the profession on behalf of the Scottish Government where required
 Networking with key health, academic and social services groups across the UK and beyond to influence the future vision and development of mental health nursing.

Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland Awards

The Forum Awards are well established, and have proactively evolved over the years, to recognise:
 The significant contribution that nurses make to the modernisation of mental health services across Scotland, increasingly in the context of the integration of health and social care.
 The engagement of metal health nurses in implementing policy into practice and their role in driving forward improvements by their engagement in national educational and improvement programmes.
 The role mental health nurses play in improving the experience and outcomes of care for people experiencing mental health issues and their families and carers – in the context of human rights based and recovery focussed care and support.
 The development and sharing of innovative mental health nursing-led practice across practice and in education sectors.