Who does a Mental Health Nurse Work with?

Doctors and nurses specializing in mental health form the backbone of treatment and recovery for people mental health problems. Because mental illness is so closely related to physical health, a mental health nurse often plays a significant role in caring for patients with mental illness, who need assistance in managing their condition.

Patients may include people suffering from eating disorders, personality disorders, depression, dementia, and problems with substance abuse. They can work in private clinics for depression, psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals, correctional facilities, special needs schools, and home care. Mental health nurses form an integral part of a patient’s care team, providing personal medical care and monitoring as required. Patients are assessed individually, and a unique treatment plan is developed to provide each patient with the best possible care.

A mental health nurse can provide personal care, counseling services, dispense medication, and offer assistance wherever the patient may need it. In this way, the mental health nurse is indispensable to the core psychiatric care team, and works closely with psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, and the like. Since a nurse is likely to spend more hours with any one patient collectively, it’s important that they are closely involved in the treatment plan as laid out by the case doctors. It can therefore be seen how a mental health nurse fits into every functioning aspect of treatment and recovery, with both the patients and the doctors.