Providing nursing leadership in a community residential mental health setting

The worldwide burden of mental illness is increasing. Strong leadership is increasingly emerging as a core component of good mental health nursing. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the ways in which nurses can provide strong and consistent leadership in a values-based practice environment that embodies respect for individuals' dignity and self-determination within a community residential mental health service, which provides a structural foundation for effective action. This is accomplished through the presentation of two vignettes, which highlight how the seemingly impossible becomes possible when an economic paradigm such as agency theory is exchanged for a sociological and psychological paradigm found in leadership as stewardship at the point of service. It is through stronger nursing leadership in mental health that stigma and discrimination can be reduced and better access to treatments and services can be gained by those with mental illness. Nurse leadership in mental health services is not new, but it is still relatively uncommon to see residential services for "high needs" individuals being led by nurses. How nurses meet the challenges faced by mental health services are often at the heart of effective leadership skills and strategies.