Nurses have established their usefulness in community mental health work. As members of the health professions, nurses are interested primarily in fostering the physical and emotional welfare of individuals. They are oriented toward the whole person, in the context of his family and community. Because of their generally pragmatic approach, they are able to help people deal more effectively with some of the realistic problems of life, such as poverty, illness, child-rearing problems, and family-life problems. Because they are skilled at working collaboratively with other health professionals in the community, such as public health nurses, they make excellent liaison people and mental health consultants. (49 pp.)