School of Nursing Scrapbook 1979

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New Nursing Program TOBenefit MentarlYlll

programs of long-term outpatient help, she said. Similar grants have been made to 13 nursing programs in the country, which is "particularly pleasing" in view of increased political talk about cutting back on health care spend– ing, said Palmer. "In such cuts it always seems to be the aged and the mentally ill that suffer first, so it is good to see this program financed," she said. Though there has been an acute need for such specially trained nurses for years, the interest in the mentally ill taken recently by First Lady Rosalynn Carter has helped get backing for the program, said Blenner. · · 1'he need for the program was first raised by rµembers·of U.e local psy- chiatric nursfng. , fe.· ssion, .satd Palmer, and a co . · ·. , ~ .of m.1~sing 1 practitioners was esfa . ~ed to 'h~P. get the . grant frouf: ~C·', N~tiopal Institute for Mental H~_m~ ·, \·· "The grant applicatfott~ 1 was pro– duced in only four w.eeks and by the time it was presented, received the backing of all the mental health community, not just the psychiatric nurses,'' said Palmer. . . ." ·The two-year degree ~m will begin in the spring semester of 1980.

the nursing school. There are between 4,000 and 5,000 such patients between the ages of 21 and 50 in the county, but most of them are first "hidden behind high walls" and later sent out into the community with only the minimum amount of preparatory counseling, said Janet Blenner, assistant profes– sor of nursing at USD and director of the new program. The graduates will go to work in key mental health clinics throughout the county, providing and developing

Beach and is "desparately needed," said Mary Wallace, nursing supervi– sor at the Veterans Administration Hospital. The program will be offered at USD's Philip Y. Hahn School of Nursing and will only accept eight students a year. Applicants must be qualified registered nurses who hold a bachelor's degree in nursing. Upon graduation, the students must "make a commitment to go out and work with the chronic mentally ill," said Dr. Irene Palmer, dean of

By MICHAEL SCO'IT-BLAIR Education Writer, The Son Diego Union

San Diego County's 4,000 chroni– cally ill mental patients are forced 1o become "revolving .door" patients at local mental institutions because there is insufficient outpatient help ,fqr them, said local nursing leaders who unveiled a $1 million training program at USD yesterday. The five-year, iederally funded program will be the only masters degree program in advanced psychi– atric nursing available south of Long

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~ ·.(D Wednesday, November 21, 1979