I found this special issue of Contemporary Nurse focusing on mental health nursing interesting for a number of reasons, the foremost being the very fact of its focus on mental health nursing. It also represented the views and work of some of the leaders in the profession across a range of scholarly and research articles. I found myself debating and discussing (in my head) many of the issues as they were presented.

I am interested in consumer participation in mental health services. In the future, the changes brought about by consumer participation will have a greater impact than the changes that were the result of deinstitutionalization. Views on the changing roles of consumers are only beginning to take hold in Australia. This special issue strengthens my belief that consumers are nurses’ natural partners in mental health care and that in the future we can look forwards to working side by side. Naturally I was pleased to see that a number of consumers were included as co‐authors on papers.