Mental and physical health work together to support well-being, and never more importantly than when a patient experiences a sudden and devastating trauma. This article explores the interplay of mental and physical health in the context of acid attack burns to someone’s face. It explains trauma in event terms and how an understanding of types of psychological trauma can be drawn on to advance collaborative nursing practice in a burns unit. While nurses have been educated in separate disciplines, it is argued that working across the traditional divide can be advantageous in trauma situations. This is the second article in a series on ‘well-being, physical and mental health’.

This article explains how physical health fits into the overall well-being of a person and why people with a mental illness are more likely than the rest of the population to experience poor physical health. It represents the first article in a series on body and mind, well-being and how physical and mental health issues interact as focal points for the work of mental health nurses.

Historically, mental health and physical health have been conceived in western healthcare as separate domains and our preparation of registered nurses for practice has often reflected this. However, in this series, case studies are used to show how closely physical and mental health interact and how the two are important to sustain a state of well-being. The series is designed to help registered nurses reflect on their current practice and to help students to anticipate the range of care requirements that may be needed when a service user comes into their care.