Collaboration and partnership: nursing education and self-help groups

Development of a collaborative partnership between a mental health psychiatric nursing course and Recovery Incorporated, a self-help group, is described. Baccalaureate nursing students' reactions to their clinical experience as participant observers are examined. Through collaboration, a partnership developed that afforded students an appreciation of the role of self-help groups in supporting mental health, awareness of consumer responsibility for decision making. This partnership also fostered increased openness to diversity.