The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has joined the World Health Organization’s efforts to raise awareness on depression on the occasion of World Health Day.
One of ICN’s five priority areas, which will be extensively featured during ICN’s Congress in Barcelona, 27 May-1 June, mental health is a fundamental component of wellbeing and governs and impacts all other aspects health. Any threat to its integrity can have wide reaching consequences, with mild to severe or even fatal outcomes.
According to Dr Frances Hughes, ICN’s Chief Executive Officer, “Mental health services must be integrated systematically into all health services, starting with primary care, and interventions should focus on support, not coercion, and be tailored to values and priorities of the individuals and their families”.
Depression is one of the most common forms of mental illnesses, recorded in every region of the globe and among all social classes; it is nevertheless still widely misunderstood. Often disregarded and stigmatized, mental health services are frequently under-funded. The last few years have witnessed an alarming lack of specialist Mental Health Nurses --as well as a rise in institutional and political barriers preventing research and development, and contributing to an overall invisibilisation of the issues at stake. These negative outcomes are often cumulative and in the worst cases, can contribute to the complete marginalization of those who already suffer, plunging them in a vicious cycle of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse and exposing them to violence and other correlative illnesses.
Nurses working with mental health consumers on a recovery-focused approach, tackling stigma and discrimination and addressing the social determinants of mental illness are crucial in 2 carrying out effective prevention.
In order to overturn this pervading tendency, ICN is actively involved on several levels:
* In policy making, by formulating viable solutions and providing best practice recommendations at the highest levels;
* In educational reforms, by disseminating evidence regarding models of care, advocating for the integration of mental health training in nursing curricula at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and contributing to the strengthening of the workforce;
* In advocacy, by representing nurses and mental health consumers’ interests at the global level and pushing for investment in healthcare.
In addition, on the occasion of its 2017 Congress in Barcelona, ICN will showcase high profile experts in the fields of nursing in conflict and mental health nursing. Daryle Deering, from the University of Otago, New Zealand and Heather Casey, Past President of the New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses will speak at a main session on innovative primary care models for mental health in New Zealand; and Dr Ian Norton, Dr Pilar Fernandez and Dr Aiko Yamamoto will present a main session dedicated to nursing in disaster and conflict contexts.
A series of concurrent sessions such as “Nursing care in mental health and psychiatry”, “Improving mental health across lifespan”, “Discover and uncover: Initiatives to better support people with mental health and/or addiction problems to improve their wellbeing” will be held.
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
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