President's Message: Feed Your Brain!
A brain teaser: Where do you get updates on how the brain develops, how it operates, and how we care for it? Linda Beeber explains why she turns to CPI for the latest in brain science.

Nurses in Action: Tari’s Tips for the ANCC Certification Exams
Sattaria "Tari" Dilks, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, FAANP, is the recipient of the 2017 APNA Award for Excellence in Education. With ANCC Certification Exams a hot discussion topic on Member Bridge, Tari shares 10 tips to help you prepare for your test, whether it's the PMH-RN or PMH-NP exam.

Member News
Edward Herzog discusses school threats; Teena McGuinness and George Peraza-Smith to be made Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners; Patti Nelson calls for Medicaid expansion in response to the opioid epidemic; Andrew Penn blogs about the importance of self care through personal psychotherapy; Shirley Smoyak nominated for Beacon of Light Award; Linda Stanley serves as a panelist at the Janet Rodgers Lectureship; Edilma Yearwood, Cynthia Handrup named Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice Board Members. (Learn More)

Many mourn the loss of Eric Arauz, recipient of the APNA Special Recognition Award for his contributions as a consumer advisor to the development and delivery of APNA educational programs and other efforts. Eric C. Arauz MA, MLER was an internationally recognized theorist, speaker, trainer and a national award winning author for his book An Americans's Resurrection: My Pilgrimage from Child Abuse and Mental Illness to Salvation. Many psychiatric-mental health nurses and those to whom they provide care have benefitted, and will continue to benefit, from his work in trauma-informed practice and recovery-based psychiatric treatment. Click here to view his obituary.

Step into Your Psychopharmacology Comfort Zone!
At the APNA 16th Annual Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute, you'll earn 22 pharmacology contact hours and get updates on military psychiatry, shared decision making, brain connections in substance use disorders, and more. New this year, the Program Committee will hold an Outcomes Panel each day to help you connect what you learned to your practice. Register Now  |  Program

Help to Meet National Standards is Here
As you strive to meet national requirements, you want to stay current about resources that will assist and improve your ability to provide quality care in an environment that is safe for you and your patients. In this article, find examples of national requirements from The Joint Commission linked to resources available to you through APNA.

Get Involved with APNA
Make the most of your APNA membership with one of these open calls to action:

• APNA Annual Awards: Email inform@apna.org to get started on a nomination for your unsung hero of PMH nursing. (Deadline: April 23)
• APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship: Undergraduate/pre-licensure and graduate nursing students are invited to apply to receive a year complimentary membership, a trip to the APNA 32nd Annual Conference, and more. (Deadline: May 7)
• APNA Board of Directors and Nominating Committee: Make an impact by submitting a nomination for the 2018 APNA Board of Directors and/or 2019 Nominating Committee. (Deadline: May 21)

Responding to Mass Violence
After the recent repeated incidents of mass violence in our communities, APNA is pursuing a course of action in response. Click here to take a look at the beginning steps of that action.

A New Institute for Accelerating & Sustaining Evidence-Based Practice
In 2016, the Ohio State University College of Nursing received a $6.5 million gift from the Helene Fuld National Health Trust to create the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare. Hear from Patricia Cunningham, DNSc, APRN-BC, who represented APNA at the Fuld Institute's inaugural conference, about the new institute. (Read More)

Resource Roundup

• Substance Use Data & Statistics: SAMHSA 2016 National Survey on Drug Use & Health, Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States, Receipt of Services for Substance Use and Mental Health Issues among Adults, and State Reports from the 2016 NSDUH
• Graduate Programs: East Carolina University MSN and Post-Master's-Certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health
• Substance Use Resources: SAMHSA's Treatment Improvement Protocol 63: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
• Grants and Scholarships: Best Nursing Degree Scholarship
• Self Care Resources: National Academy of Medicine's Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience; National Academy of Medicine's Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub
• APNA Advocacy: Letter to explain the role of psychiatric-mental health nurses; Letter in support of a bipartisan National Commission on Mass Shootings; Mental Health Liaison Group letter in support of mental health and substance use prevention in omnibus spending package; Nursing Community letter in support of the Gun Violence Research Act
• Child and Adolescent Resources: An Overview of Minors' Consent Law

New Members: 239 New Members since January!

In 2016, hospitals in Georgia saw more than 51,000 patients with mental illness, according to the Georgia Hospital Association. Yet, many hospitals don’t have psychiatric providers in their ERs, especially in rural areas of the state. A recent NPR story looks at how the state is trying to address this issue. Full Story

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released an online statistical resource that for the first time provides county-level comparisons of hospitalization rates for substance use, including opioids, alcohol, stimulants and other drugs. While statistics show that alcohol-related hospitalizations ranked first in most communities, opioids and stimulants ranked second or third for hospitalizations in nearly all of the more than 1,600 counties and two cities that provided data in the analysis. Full Story

For the second consecutive year, total payments to care for individuals living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias are projected to surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars ($277 billion), which includes an increase of nearly $20 billion over last year, according to data reported in the Alzheimer’s Association 2018 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures. Full Story

A panel of 26 metabolites that appear in the blood and brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease point to a potential new biomarker path to be pursued as future therapeutic targets. A team of researchers from the NIA’s Intramural Research Program (IRP), led by Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, Chief of the Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Unit of the NIA IRP, sought to clarify, with the use of advanced machine learning techniques, if brain metabolites associated with Alzheimer’s pathology could also be detected in blood and were related to progression of the disease. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for the Healthy Transitions: Improving Life Trajectories for Youth and Young Adults with Serious Mental Disorders grant program, which will provide up to $16.8 million over the next five years. The purpose of this program is to improve access to treatment and support services for youth and young adults, ages 16-25, who have a serious emotional disturbance (SED) or a serious mental illness (SMI). Full Story

A new Swedish study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that lithium remains the gold standard for helping individuals with bipolar disorder avoid hospitalization. The new study investigated the long-term effects of different drugs for bipolar disorder. Long-acting injections of antipsychotics were also effective, reducing the risk of rehospitalization by 30% compared with their oral counterparts, reported PsychCentral.com. Full Story

With a focus on improving access to mental health care for Veterans living in rural areas, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a pilot telehealth program that will give rural Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remote access to psychotherapy and related services. VA’s Office of Rural Health, in partnership with VA's Quality Enhancement Research Initiative, is supporting the Telemedicine Outreach for PTSD (TOP) program to deliver therapy and other care through phone and interactive video contact. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Cohen Veterans Network, Inc., (CVN) announced a new partnership to increase Veterans’ access to mental health resources to reduce Veteran suicides. The partnership will allow VA and CVN to work together to advance and improve Veterans’ mental health and well-being and expand and promote community collaboration to increase Veterans’ access to mental health resources. Full Story

Hackensack Meridian Health and Carrier Clinic have signed a letter of intent to explore a partnership to deliver behavioral health care to the New Jersey region served by the organizations. The letter of intent starts the process to create a seamless system featuring 24-hour access to care ranging from outpatient, to urgent care, residential and inpatient care for mental health and addiction needs for adolescents and adults. A multi-disciplinary team of experts including primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and advanced practice nurses would closely coordinate all needs – addiction treatment, routine care, mental health issues - to provide optimal treatment. Full Story

President Donald Trump spelled out in new detail several steps he favors to fight a U.S. epidemic of opioid abuse, reported Reuters. Trump said that he was working with Congress to find $6 billion in new funding for 2018 and 2019 to fight the opioid crisis. The plan will also seek to cut opioid prescriptions by a third over three years by changing federal programs. Full Story

The president signed into law a $414 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Kevin and Avonte’s Law, important legislation to protect those who wander. With this increase, Alzheimer's and dementia research funding by the federal government is $1.8 billion. Full Story

Michigan lawmakers approved legislation that would upgrade mental health resources in hospitals and schools as part of a slew of reform bills moving through the state House. One of the five bills passed in Lansing would create an electronic database for the state's inpatient psychiatric bed registry. Another bill would require all public schools in Michigan to adopt a mental health first-aid course for teachers, reported UpperMichigansSource.com. Full Story

A recent article in McKnight's Long-Term Care News looks at seven strategies for treating psychiatric patients in skilled nursing facilities. 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.