Mental illness and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Understanding the fundamentals.

1. With an increasing emphasis on psychiatric rehabilitation, psychiatric nurses must understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the application of the legislation to the mentally disabled. 2.

Psychiatric nurses' knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides civil rights protection for qualified individuals with disabilities. In spite of the protection afforded, people with serious and persistent mental illness may require advocates to help them benefit from the ADA. This descriptive investigation used primary data from 900 psychiatric nurses to determine their knowledge of the ADA.

Using elderly volunteers to care for the elderly: opportunities for nursing.

A growing population of educated and skilled younger retirees may help provide volunteer services to the growing population of frail elderly in homes, hospitals, and community agencies. Nursing professionals are in key positions to provide insight and guidance in the development of programs that offer new opportunities for older volunteers. Program structures that encourage collaboration, cooperation, and innovation among professionals and volunteers have the potential to increase health care services while decreasing economic challenges.

Early precursors of psychiatric nursing, 1838-1907.

Care of the insane during the 17th and 18th centuries was undeniably grim until the advent of moral therapy. Wasserbauer and Brodie explore the humanistic approach that laid the groundwork for early psychiatric nursing.