A total of 40 state, local and tribal health departments representing 23 states will participate in the second cohort of an eight-month Behavioral Health Training and Technical Assistance program for State, Local and Tribal Health Officials, the National Council for Behavioral Health announced. The program includes webinars, tailored in-person training, peer support, a toolkit of additional informational materials and a digest of innovative behavioral health resources. The health officials will attend the National Council’s 2017 Annual Conference and convene prior to the Conference to be trained in Mental Health First Aid and to take a deeper dive into their jurisdiction’s most pressing behavioral health needs and concerns. Full Story

Recognizing the shortage of mental health professionals in Wisconsin, primary care doctors and nurses are stepping up to help their patients with some mental health challenges when they can't find specialists. The Wisconsin chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics is inviting primary care clinicians to a conference about youth mental health on March 2. The education for clinicians goes hand in hand with a new consultation line that allows doctors to consult with psychiatrists remotely about their patients' mental health needs, reported the Daily Tribune. Full Story

A new effort was able to decrease the number of US military veterans receiving risky opioid prescriptions, reported The America Journal of Pharmacy Benefits. This initiative reduced high doses and potentially harmful drug combinations that were prescribed to veterans, and may have the potential to do so in other large health systems. In the study, the researchers observed the effects of the Opioid Safety Initiative (OSI) created by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which was implemented in all of the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. During this program, the VHA developed a dashboard tool that allows VA leaders to review opioid prescribing through electronic health records (EHRs), and provide feedback. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for up to $5.6 million for grants implementing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. The purpose of this program is to support states in implementing the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) goals and objectives focused on preventing suicide and suicide attempts among adults age 25 and older in order to reduce the overall suicide rate and number of suicides in the U.S. nationally. Full Story

Kent State University is accepting applications for the DNP Scholar Award, which will support a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) while earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). The applicant who is selected must provide evidence of ability to plan and implement a scholarly project that has practical application to create sustained, transformative change in mental health care. The recipient will receive a grant of $30,000 over two years—$15,000 for tuition support and $15,000 to supplement income while completing the degree. Click here for more information.

Six new articles published in an Online Journal of Issues in Nursing topic, discuss the concept of full RN scope of practice, resulting from the work of the American Nurses Association Professional Issues Panel, Barriers to RN Scope of Practice. Full Story

On June 1, 2016, changes to the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) certification renewal requirements became effective. ANCC is seeking feedback about the changes via a short survey about each renewal requirement category and the relevance for nurses engaging in lifelong learning and maintaining competence. Although an overview of the changes are included in the survey, the 2016 certification renewal requirements can be accessed by clicking here.  To begin the survey, click here.

The American Nurses Association announced a new online course discussing an evidence-based, practical review of the pharmacotherapy for bipolar disorder. APRN Pharmacology Today: Treatment of Bipolar Disorder will provide information on available drug treatments for bipolar disorder, current clinical practice guidelines, standards of care, and therapeutic options for patients whose first-line treatments fail. Click here for more information.

Investigators from the University of Maryland have developed a blood test that could help doctors more quickly diagnose schizophrenia and other disorders. The researchers believe a chemical test that could detect oxidative stress in the blood — a state commonly linked with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders — could be invaluable in helping to diagnose schizophrenia more quickly, reported PsychCentral.com. Full Story

Six Northeast Florida health-care systems have donated $900,000 to the University of North Florida’s Brooks College of Health to start a doctoral program to train mental health nurse practitioners, reported The Florida Times-Union. Full Story

The ANA Enterprise announced that Sage Products is the first corporate sponsor of its Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation (HNHN) Grand Challenge, a national movement designed to transform the health of the nation by improving the health of America's 3.6 million registered nurses. The HNHN Grand Challenge will launch in May 2017. The Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ Grand Challenge aims to connect and engage individual nurses, employers of nurses, state nurses associations, and specialty nurses associations to take action to improve nurses' health in five key areas: physical activity, rest, nutrition, quality of life, and safety. Full Story

A key Kansas lawmaker says the state doesn’t have the money to fix problems in its mental health system, which a new report says are getting steadily worse. The report, the second from a task force created in 2015 to advise the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, says the system has continued to deteriorate. The task force’s first report, issued about 18 months ago, concluded the system was “stretched beyond its ability to provide the right care at the right time in the right place,” reported KCUR.org. Full Story

The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) today submitted recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for 74 performance measures under consideration for use in 16 federal healthcare programs. These measures are critical building blocks for national pay-for-performance and public reporting programs, which affect 55 million Americans enrolled in Medicare and their healthcare providers. This is the sixth consecutive year that MAP has submitted guidance to HHS on standardized performance measures. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is Accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.