The literature is robust with increasing evidence of the incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality rates that are linked to mental illness. Canada is a diverse country with diverse cultures. Cultural safety is an imperative if mental health services are to be relevant to individual needs.

A collaborative approach is needed where teams of people join together to promote mental health. Mental health promotion provides RPNs the opportunity to contribute to teams comprised of different disciplines. The transdisciplinary team (T-team) approach is constructed so the recipient of the mental health service is a member of the team and is central to team decisions. Consensus decision-making is not uncommon to the process of T-teams. The team members collaborate rather than working side-by-side or separately, which is common within multidisciplinary teams.

Although improved communication and a holistic approach result from the transdisciplinary process, extra time and effort are required by team members to effectively implement the innovative team. The concept identified by Baer in 1993 as 'role release' differentiates this team process where team members reinforce each other's treatments and ordinary people share the responsibility to help themselves when knowledge and resources are shared. T-teams recognize and respect all members' expertise. These teams provide a vehicle to formally activate mental health promotion strategies.

Just as health promotion demonstrates a commitment to democracy and participation, mental health promotion has afforded the mental health field a renewed sense of importance and meaning. Although mental health promotion is not a new concept in Canada, it is relatively young. Mental health promotion provides a new paradigm where all people have the potential to form healing partnerships, learn from one another and support an optimal level of mental health functioning. Mental health is viewed as an obvious resource for daily living within a mental health promotion context. Registered Psychiatric Nurses support mental health promotion and compliment a variety of disciplines to meet the mental health needs of Canadians.

The mental health promotion approach supports the creation of authentic partnerships and decreases the potential that people affected by mental illness will become forever dependant upon professionals. Registered Psychiatric Nurses utilize a mental health promotion framework to elevate the therapeutic process of helping people to help themselves. A mental health promotion approach can foster the interaction and intervention with people in varying states of vulnerability.

Mental health promotion seems to have the potential to enhance a more comprehensive framework for 'authentic' practice beyond Western medicine and may become an alternative view for the traditional medical model that seeks symptoms rather than causes of mental illness.

The World Health Report (2001) provides ten overall recommendations that are minimum actions required for mental health care worldwide. The education of a critical mass of psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses are presented as a strategy to provide minimal resources. The creation of national training centres for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists and psychiatric social workers are identified as affording people affected by mental illness medium resources. The highest level of resources noted in the World Health Report requires providing education for advanced treatment in mental disorders.

In Western Canada, the largest single group of mental health professionals is that formed by Registered Psychiatric Nurses. We believe that persons experiencing mental health problems have the right to quality services just as do persons who are experiencing physical problems. This means that we believe that any and all professionals working in the mental health/mental illness field should have formal preparation in the area.

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