Community mental health nursing - an innovation through faculty practice in Pakistan

The concept of community mental health prevention and promotion are vital components of integrated health care; however it is not very well established in most of the developing countries like Pakistan.Mental health nurses from a private university teaching hospital planned their mental health promotion activities through performing home visits in collaboration with a community based social welfare service in Karachi over the period nearly two years. The purpose of those 20 months visits was to promote clients mental wellbeing along with addressing their physiological needs by introducing the concept of early identification of health seeking behaviours and promoting Psychiatric rehabilitation in the identified families of the given population in Karachi.This paper recognizes the innovative and pioneering work in community mental health care promotion led by the mental health Nursing Team of Aga Khan University, in Pakistan. Also, this write up identifies the evolving role of a mental health nurse in Pakistan, principally in community setting, where not only early recognition but rehabilitating clients with mental health issue is still a big challenge. Thus, this article distinguishes an expanded role of a mental health nurse as a nursing counselor, family educator and human rights advocator in Pakistan.