QICN launches community mental health and learning disability nursing faculties

Two new faculties to support learning disability nurses and mental health nurses working in community settings have been launched by the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing (QICN).

The faculties are designed to ‘strengthen’ the voice, status and professional development of nurses working across community mental health and learning disability settings, and ensure ‘their expertise shapes the future of community care in the UK’.

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QICN chief executive Steph Lawrence said: ‘Community mental health and community learning disability nurses play a vital role in delivering compassionate, person-centred care across communities.

‘These new faculties recognise their expertise and leadership, providing platforms for professional development, advocacy, and innovation.

‘They represent a major step forward in raising the profile of these essential workforces and ensuring their voices influence policy, research, and practice.’

The QICN said its new Faculty of Community Learning Disability Nursing would provide strategic leadership and specialist support for nurses working with people with learning disabilities, ‘helping to reduce health inequalities and advance person-centred care’.

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Meanwhile, the Faculty of Community Mental Health Nursing will act as a ‘hub’ for education, leadership, and innovation, championing excellence in practice and workforce wellbeing, it said.

The faculties were launched today during an event bringing together community nurses, leaders and stakeholders from across the sectors at the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT).

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The new faculties join those launched for general practice nurses and adult social care nursing.

Nursing in Practice’s latest feature explores the life-saving role of learning disability nurses working in general practice.