Celebrating Mental Health Nurses’ Day

About Mental Health Nurses’ Day 

It’s been five years since our forum launched Mental Health Nurses’ Day on 21 February 2019.  

The day aims to celebrate, describe, and promote the profession of mental health nursing across the UK. It’s also an opportunity to recognise the role of mental health nurses globally, including in countries where registered mental health nurses do not exist in the same way as in the UK and other western nations. 

Our first-ever national celebration was treated as a trial to gauge interest in such an event. The positive attention led to a national movement.  

From 2021 onwards, individuals, groups and organisations have celebrated mental health nursing in various ways. Most notably, the previous chair of the forum, Ed Freshwater, has led the discussion by independently engaging the nursing community via an annual Twitter (now known as X) discussion and social media promotion via #MHNursesDay. 

Interest in the day continues to grow in the UK and internationally, where mental health nurses are asking for Mental Health Nurses’ Day to become a more formally established and recognised campaign.  

We want to use Mental Health Nurses’ Day as a sustainable and impactful celebration of best practice, to encourage co-production with those we serve, and promote our profession as an attractive and fulfilling career. 

Advancing mental health nursing at the RCN 

The past year has presented mental health nursing in the UK with new challenges and pressures but also incredible opportunities to advance our profession now for the future. 2023 saw NHS England commission the RCN to revamp our psychosocial interventions education programme for mental health nurses. This incredibly popular programme is designed to enhance the skills of post-preceptorship nurses, with the first cohorts starting in mid-2024. 

The RCN Ethnic Minorities Subcommittee has officially merged with the Sharon Dennis Group. Through the power of allyship, the newly formed group continues to progress in their efforts to improve the careers and experiences of nurses from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Given that approximately 40% of the mental health forum comprises individuals from ethnic minority communities, this work is critical to advancing the nursing profession through diversity and inclusion. 

Mental health nurses told us how they continue to experience dilution of their role within services and report incidents of dangerous substitution. Concerns have been raised around the genericism of nursing education – losing our field of practice, specialism, and identity. The RCN has worked with a plethora of individuals, groups and organisations to raise these concerns and find solutions. Going into 2024 and beyond, we will be working even closer with the NHS and independent sector to reestablish the role and identity of mental health nursing. 

Our commitment to patients has always been through our active leadership and engagement to see parity of esteem between physical and mental health become a reality. This is about recognising that mental health is just as important as physical health. We must strive to treat both with equal weight and resource. We know from our recent report, Five Years On: Are we Achieving Parity between Physical and Mental Health?, we have a long way to go before such parity is a reality.  

We’re now eagerly awaiting the publication of a definition of parity of esteem by the Department of Health and Social Care. The definition will aid us in our campaign for equality and inclusion and strengthen our ability to lobby the government for real change.  

Get involved  

We’re looking ahead to next year’s celebrations… 

If you or your organisation want to support the campaign and be part of our collective vision for the future, please express your interest via the following:

• RCN members, please log in to your RCN account and join the Mental Health Forum by following the ‘getting involved’ link: https://www.rcn.org.uk/Get-Involved/Forums. Please ensure that you agree to receive emails from the RCN so you can keep up to date with this campaign and our broader work.  
• Non-RCN members, groups, and organisations, please complete this form, and you will be added to a stakeholder engagement list. 

We will update you on the progress of our work and any activities that emerge from it.  

Happy Mental Health Nurses’ Day 2024! On behalf of the Royal College of Nursing and the 14,000-strong Mental Health Forum.