2020 APNA Elections Call for Nominations
Here’s an amazing opportunity to hone your leadership skills while forming lasting connections: The 2020 APNA Call for Nominations is open! Through March 30th, you can submit your name to be considered for one (or more) of the open positions on the APNA Board of Directors or 2021 Nominating Committee: President-Elect, Secretary, Member-at-Large, and 2021 Nominating Committee member. Each will provide you the opportunity to make a contribution to psychiatric-mental health nursing in a national role. Learn More

APNA Annual Conference Call for Abstracts
Share your innovation, best practice, or analysis by submitting an abstract proposal to be considered for presentation at the APNA Annual Conference this fall. The APNA Scholarly Review Committee is seeking a diverse array of abstracts in administration, education, practice, and research from all levels of nursing. Your abstract will be peer reviewed and considered for a variety of presentation formats. Submission deadline is March 2. Click here for more information.

APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship
To encourage and inspire the next generation of psychiatric-mental health nurses, the APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship will provide up to 30 pre-licensure/undergraduate and graduate nursing students with registration, travel, and lodging expenses to attend the APNA 34th Annual Conference, September 30-October 3 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, 1-year complimentary membership in APNA and foundational experiences with psychiatric-mental health nurses from across the country. Click here to learn more and apply. Application deadline is April. 6, 2020.

What Can You Expect at CPI West?
When you ask attendees what they love about CPI West, three things rise to the top: Collegiality. Expertise. Passion. At the APNA Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute West this March 14-15 in San Diego, CA, experts will share in-depth clinical knowledge of psychopharmacology issues. Alongside 10.0 contact hours of updates, you will gain actionable takeaways that can be incorporated into your daily practice. Click here to register now.

Celebrating the Year of the Nurse! The World Health Organization designated 2020 the Year of the Nurse – what better way to celebrate than by highlighting incredible psychiatric-mental health nurses? Kicking things off is APNA Scholarly Review Committee Chair, Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, and Director of Tobacco Treatment Services and Evidence-Based Practice at Eastern State Hospital, Chizimuzo “Zim” Okoli, PhD, MSN, MPH, RN:  “I am continually humbled and inspired by the dedication and passion with which psychiatric-mental health nurses pursue patient care, healthcare services management, education, practice, and research…Each abstract submitted to the conference seems to reflect the collective essence of what makes psychiatric-mental health nursing a unique, indispensable sub-specialty for holistic healthcare.”

Patient-centered quality care provided to individuals suffering from mental illness – especially when in crisis – can be significantly enhanced by completing and using a psychiatric advance directive (PAD), also called a mental health advance directive. These tools specify an individual’s preferences regarding future mental health treatment. As mental illness continues to rise in the U.S., The Joint Commission has issued a new Quick Safety advisory titled “Improving care with psychiatric advance directives.” The advisory reviews Joint Commission requirements and the regulatory framework related to PADs, as well as safety actions to consider. Full Story

Montana officials are making plans to invest $80 million over the next five years to expand community-based services for individuals with severe and disabling mental illnesses. Under an existing Medicaid waiver benefit option, the funding will increase the number of individuals already receiving community-based services. Known as Montana Medicaid Severe and Disabling Mental Illness - Home and Community Based Services Waiver, the program has delivered over $9 million in local services over the past two years. Currently, the program serves 357 Montanans each year, and under the proposal, that number is expected to expand to 750 by 2025, reported the Daily Inter Lake. Full Story

New research suggests some of the common first-line cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies show limited effectiveness for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in active duty military personnel and veterans, reported PsychCentral.com. Researchers at New York University Grossman School of Medicine led a review of recent clinical trials and discovered that commonly used therapy approaches — Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) — were not as effective for PTSD as originally thought. Full Story

A national shortage of psychiatric services means a growing number of US emergency departments (ED) are turning to telepsychiatry to fill a critical treatment gap, new national data show. Investigators surveyed over 5300 EDs and found that 20% of those that responded to the survey were utilizing telepsychiatry services, especially in high-volume EDs, those located in rural areas, and those designated as critical access hospitals, reported MedScape.com. Full Story

For one heath plan, behavioral health services delivered via telemedicine now accounts for nearly one-third of all telemedicine visits, according to a review of 2019 claims data by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. In 2018, behavioral health services accounted for less than 25% of all telemedicine visits. The health plan serves more than 1.5 million members across 39 counties of Upstate New York, reported OswegoCountyBusiness.com. Full Story

People who have trouble falling asleep may be at increased risk of developing cognitive problems or dementia than their counterparts who sleep well, a research review suggests. Individuals with insomnia were 27% more likely to develop cognitive problems, the study found. People who had what’s known as sleep inadequacy, or an insufficient amount of quality rest, were 25% more likely to develop dementia, reported Reuters. Full Story

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) and set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of Nov. 15, 2020 for olanzapine/samidorphan (ALKS 3831), a novel treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder. The treatment, produced by Alkermes plc, is an investigational, once-daily, oral atypical antipsychotic drug candidate aimed at providing the efficacy of olanzapine without the associated weight gain, reported MDMag.com. Full Story

Researchers have discovered a neural signature that predicts whether individuals with depression are likely to benefit from sertraline, a commonly prescribed antidepressant medication. The findings, published in Nature Biotechnology, suggest that new machine learning techniques can identify complex patterns in a person’s brain activity that correlate with meaningful clinical outcomes. The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. Full Story

In the first national study of its size, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health, Department of Nursing, have found that male and female nurses are at higher risk of suicide than the general population. The study found that female nurse suicide rates from 2005 to 2016 were significantly higher (10 per 100,000) than the general female population (7 per 100,000). Similarly, male nurses (33 per 100,000) were higher than the general male population (27 per 100,000) for the same period. Full Story

The Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020 — the compromise agreement reauthorizing the OAA — includes the key provisions from the Younger-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Act, including providing access to support services including nutritional services, supportive services, and respite care through the National Family Caregiver Support program. The agreement also extends authorization of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, and important provisions in the Supporting America’s Caregiver & Families Act. Full Story

A bill to create a 24/7 crisis and access line for people in need of immediate mental health services in Michigan was signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Jan. 27. House Bill 4051 will authorize the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to contract out and oversee a statewide mental health hotline. Once installed, operators could connect callers with local care providers and resources, including up-to-date availability of psychiatric and substance abuse services, reported MLive.com. Full Story

The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed the Mental Health ABC Act, comprehensive legislation aimed at reforming the mental health care system in the state. Senate Bill 2519, an Act Addressing Barriers to Care for Mental Health, serves as the first step toward developing a more integrated system of mental health care delivery to better meet the needs of individuals and families, reported The Recorder. Full Story

The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) and its Crisis Now partners have launched the #CrisisTalk website, sparking much-needed dialogue on behavioral health crises. The new publication provides a platform for diverse experts and people with Lived Experience to exchange thoughts, knowledge, and innovations. Each article shares a person’s perspective, whether that’s an emergency department doctor who tells her story, revealing the challenges emergency physicians experience when faced with a patient in crisis, or a student who was having suicidal ideation and his university chose legal self-protection over doing what was best for him. The objective says Brian Hepburn, Executive Director of NASMHPD, the lead organization for Crisis Now, is to facilitate conversations about mental health crises, including missed opportunities, gaps, tools, and best practices. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited with distinction as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.