TMU professor takes leading role in modernizing Canada’s mental health nursing standards
TMU nursing professor Elaine Santa Mina led a team of experts to develop the Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses Standards of Practice 5th edition, which reflects the mental health impact of social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism and more.
More than 25 years after the Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses published its first Standards of Practice – a national resource for mental health nurses – Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) nursing professor Elaine Santa Mina led a team of experts to develop its most recent edition.
Updated about every five years, the Standards of Practice guide mental health nurses as they care for patients with diverse mental health needs. The Standards of Practice 5th edition, published in late 2023, reflects the impact of the unprecedented global and national events of the early 2020s on mental health.
The COVID-19 pandemic, a rise in anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, the opioid crisis, ongoing wars, and rapid changes in technology have all had significant effects on individual and collective mental health, said professor Santa Mina.
“The standards need to be constantly updated to be relevant to the time, to practice changes, to advances in technology and advances in knowledge. For example, the concerns about social media and its impact on children’s anxiety disorders – that’s very different from five years ago,” she said.
The Faculty of Community Services professor led a cross-country team of psychiatric-mental health nursing educators, clinicians, researchers and TMU Master of Nursing students in the revision of the standards. The team’s expertise covered the spectrum of mental health services, with experts in child and adolescent mental health, seniors and long-term care, Indigenous studies, community care, and crisis and addiction interventions. The process took place over three years and involved extensive research and consultations, including two surveys of the Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses membership. After extensive literature reviews and consultations, both before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, the updated Standards were written by consensus method based on the literature, feedback and clinical expertise.
“There is more recognition of the need to treat mental health holistically,” said professor Santa Mina. “We now recognize that physical and mental health cannot be compartmentalized, and our practices need to change to look at models of care that support individuals and communities with both needs.”
The new edition also recognizes the impact of technology on how mental health nurses can provide care to clients, such as through virtual therapy services. It also speaks to the mental health and well-being of the care provider. “The care provider has to attend to one’s own mental well-being in order to be effective in their role,” she said.
This is the third time professor Santa Mina has been involved in updating the Standards of Practice. She said developing this most recent edition was by far the most difficult due to the vast amount of recent news, current events and issues that challenge individual, family, community and organizational mental health and well-being. At the same time, professor Santa Mina said there has been a positive shift in the way our society approaches mental health care.