Facilitating psychiatric nurses’ advocacy for mental healthcare users’ human rights in a primary healthcare setting: a conceptual framework

Background: Even though human rights advocacy is a part of mental health care, psychiatric nurses in South Africa’s primary healthcare (PHC) setting face substantial challenges when advocating for the rights of mental health care users (MHCUs). The study aimed to develop a conceptual framework to facilitate psychiatric nurses’ advocacy for mental healthcare users’ human rights in a PHC setting. Methods: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual design was used to investigate the psychiatric nurses’ experiences advocating for MHCUs’ human rights in a PHC setting. Three phases were followed: the empirical phase, the classification of concepts, and a development phase. Following the empirical phase, a conceptual framework was developed to facilitate psychiatric nurses’ advocacy for MHCUs human rights in a PHC setting. Results: Three themes were derived from focus group interviews with psychiatric nurses in the empirical phase. These themes yielded the central concept as ‘the facilitation of empowerment’ of psychiatric nurses in advocating for MHCUs’ human rights. The central concepts were also classified. A conceptual framework was developed that included the relationship, working and termination phases. Conclusion: The study described the development of a conceptual framework to facilitate psychiatric nurses’ advocacy for mental healthcare users’ human rights in a PHC setting. Psychiatric nurses play a key role in advocating for the human rights of MHCUs. This task is important and should be implemented from the government to the societal level, including all stakeholders.