The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for Promoting Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care Grants totaling up to $110 million over the course of five years. The purpose of this program is to promote full integration and collaboration in clinical practice between primary and behavioral healthcare. The grants will also help promote services related to screening, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders as well as related physical conditions and chronic diseases. Full Story

The American Nursing Association's Committee on Nursing Practice Standards seeks public comment on its "Draft Recognition of a Nursing Specialty, Approval of a Specialty Nursing Scope of Practice Statement, Acknowledgment of Specialty Nursing Standards of Practice, and Affirmation of Focused Practice Competencies." This 2017 document will replace and reflects significant revision of ANA's 2010 "Recognition of a Nursing Specialty, Approval of a Specialty Nursing Scope of Practice Statement, and Acknowledgment of Specialty Nursing Standards of Practice." The closing date for submission of comments is midnight EDT April 24, 2017. Click here to access the document for your review. Then submit your comments by clicking here.

The American Nurses Association is currently accepting applications for the SAMHSA Minority Fellowship Program until April 30, 2017. Funding opportunities, through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), are available and designed to support the training of future nurse practitioners in behavioral health practice, education and health policy. If you have the potential to be a leader and are committed to a career providing behavioral health services or developing policy for ethnic and racial minority populations, click here to learn about the programs.

More than 4% of the world's population lives with depression, and women, youth and the elderly are the most prone to its disabling effects, reported Reuters. An estimated 322 million people suffered depressive disorders in 2015, a rise of 18.4% in a decade, as people live longer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report. Full Story

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease is growing. An estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease. Of the estimated 5.5 million Americans living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2017, an estimated 5.3 million are age 65 and older and approximately 200,000 individuals are under age 65 and have younger-onset Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Association's report 2017 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures. Click here to access the report.

The Alzheimer's Association announced new online resources to help those in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease or other dementias to live well. The Association's new LiveWell resources offer interactive tools, including video insights from those living with the disease, to help users navigate the personal and emotional challenges that accompany an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Full Story

Business Pulse: Opioid Overdose Epidemic, recently launched by the CDC Foundation, explores how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working to protect individuals from the widespread opioid overdose epidemic. This issue also features an interactive infographic that provides useful facts and links to CDC programs that help employers address this public health crisis. Click here to access the issue.

A rise in trafficking and use of illicit fentanyl may constitute a "third wave" of the opioid epidemic in the U.S., according to members of Congress and federal officials at a House hearing, reported MedScape. The number of opioid deaths attributable to synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, increased 72% from 2014 to 2015 — from 5544 to 9581 — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Full Story

Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) recently released findings of a new study called Prospective Post-Traumatic Stress disorder Symptom Trajectories in Active Duty and Separated Military Personnel, which examines Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in Veterans, compared with active-duty populations. “Knowing there are similarities in how PTSD affects service members and Veterans makes it easier to pinpoint which treatments are the best to control the condition,” said Dr. Edward Boyko, an epidemiologist and internist at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Washington state, and VA’s lead researcher on the Millennium Cohort Study. Full Story

A new review finds that people seeking help for mental disorders are more likely to refuse or not complete the recommended treatment if it involves only psychotropic drugs, reported PsychCentral.com. For all the studies reviewed, the average treatment refusal rate was 8.2%. Patients who were offered pharmacotherapy alone were 1.76 times more likely to refuse treatment than patients who were offered psychotherapy alone. Once in treatment, the average premature termination rate was 21.9%, with patients on drug-only regimens 1.2 times more likely to drop out early. Full Story

After years of development, Mental Health America (MHA) announced the creation of the MHA National Certified Peer Specialist (NCPS) credential. This national advanced certification lets peers – individuals who share the experience of living with a psychiatric disorder and/or addiction – show they have the highest levels of knowledge and experience to create new opportunities in public and private settings. Full Story

Wisconsin would need more than six times as many social workers, more than twice the nurses and nearly double its school counselors and psychologists to meet recommendations by professional organizations, an analysis by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin found. Gov. Scott Walker in his budget plan proposed spending $3 million on boosting the number of school social workers after a request from the Department of Public Instruction. Full Story

Pennsylvania Representative Jesse Topper (R-Bedford), re-introduced a bill that  would eliminate the requirement that nurse practitioners in the state get business contracts with doctors before treating patients on their own, reported WeareCentralPA.com. Last year, the state senate approved a bill to expand the role of nurse practitioners, but the issue  never came to a vote in the house. Full Story

The National Council for Behavioral Health urges lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives to reject proposed legislation that would repeal language protecting Medicaid recipients’ access to mental health medications (HB 986). Should this repeal be enacted, patients could lose access to lifesaving medications, with potentially devastating effects. Under the proposal, doctors would need to have approval from the state to prescribe certain drugs for mental illness. Full Story

To help improve the quality and safety of care for the homeless population, an “R3 Report” released by The Joint Commission addresses new behavioral health care accreditation standards for housing support services programs. The report stresses the need for facilitating access to behavioral health care, treatment or services. 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.