Feature Article Service user involvement in undergraduate mental health nursing in New Zealand Carole Schneebeli, Anthony O’Brien, Debra Lampshire and Helen P. Hamer School of Nursing, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand ABSTRACT: This paper describes a service user role in the mental health component of an under- graduate nursing programme in New Zealand. The paper provides a background to mental health nursing education in New Zealand and discusses the implications of recent reforms in the mental health sector. The undergraduate nursing programme at the University of Auckland has a strong commitment to service user involvement. The programme aims to educate nurses to be responsive and skilful in meeting the mental health needs of service users in all areas of the health sector and to present mental health nursing as an attractive option for nurses upon graduation. We outline the mental health component of the programme, with an emphasis on the development of the service user role. In the second half of the paper, we present a summary of responses to a student satisfaction questionnaire. The responses indicate that the service user role is an important element of the programme and is well received by a substantial proportion of students. We consider the implications for nursing education and for recruitment into mental health nursing. Finally, we discuss some issues related to service user involvement in the development of new models of mental health service delivery. KEY WORDS: collaboration, deinstitutionalization, mental health nursing education, service user. INTRODUCTION Psychiatric institutions of the 20th century provided an environment of custodial care guided by a paternalistic ethic. One effect of this environment was to give rise to the survivor movement where individuals spoke openly about their experiences and lobbied government to bring about a change in how mental health services were deliv- ered. Internationally, governments pursued policies of deinstitutionalization, which led to closing stand-alone hospitals or reducing the number of inpatient beds in favour of community care (Mental Health Commission 1998). Although deinstitutionalization has been criticized for failing to fully provide for the needs of people with mental illness (Richmond & Savy 2005), the relocation of services to community settings brought opportunities for the development of service user participation in mental health care. Service users utilized their personal knowl- edge of recovery to lobby for representation in the man- agement and governance of mental health services (Mental Health Commission 2001). The philosophical shift from passive recipient of ser- vices to active participant at all levels of service delivery and policy development led to greater collaboration between service users and mental health professionals. The introduction of user-run services, peer support ser- vices, consumer advisory roles, and educational roles has now been embraced as a mandatory requirement of ser- vices. Some education providers have also moved to involve service users in teaching programmes. One devel- opment has been in service user roles in the education of nurses, including teaching in formal programmes of edu- cation (Happell & Roper 2002), and it is this role that is Correspondence: Carole Schneebeli, Waitemata DHB, Private Bag 93-503, Takapuna, North Shore, Auckalnd 0740, New Zealand. Email: c.schneebeli@auckland.ac.nz Carole Schneebeli, RN, PGDip Mental Health Nursing. Anthony O’Brien, RN, MPhil. Debra Lampshire, senior tutor. Helen P. Hamer, RN, MNurs (Hons). *Since the preparation of this paper, the service user consultant has been employed in a faculty role within the school. Accepted July 2009. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (2010) 19, 30–35 doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2009.00642.x © 2010 The Authors Journal compilation © 2010 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.