President's Message: PMH Nurses: Bringers of Hope
We recently hit the one-year mark of this global pandemic. As JAPNA Editor-in-Chief Geri Pearson noted in her recent editorial, more awareness and discussion around the concept of COVID fatigue and its effect on nurses is emerging. It is clear: we must take care of ourselves as we would care for others. Read more

Member News
Deborah Drumm discusses the impact of the pandemic and isolation on mental health; Charlene Niemi defends virtual education and training for medical professionals; Andrew Penn reflects on the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in a new blog; Mamilda Robinson shares tips on managing children’s mental health during the pandemic; Sara Robinson details the role of the PMH-APRN in addressing the shortage of mental health care providers; Judy Sheehan explores options to address bed shortages in inpatient hospitals; Briana Snyder shares her experience of witnessing nurse burnout during the pandemic. Learn More

Nurses in Action:  Exploring Quality Indicators of Inpatient Psychiatric Hospitalization
Members of the APNA Council for Safe Environments surveyed their fellow council members working in inpatient settings about care quality indicators. In their published findings, which were approved by the APNA Board of Directors, they share common best practices from thought leaders in the field and state the need for standardized quality metrics. Read More

Enhance Your Clinical Practice at the APNA Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute
Register now for the APNA 19th Annual Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute! Earn up to 21 contact hours at the virtual conference, to be held virtually on June 10-13. Hear from titans of mental health like the heads of NIMH and NIAAA and PMH nursing experts to enhance your clinical nursing practice. Browse the Program  |  Register Now

Featured Resource: Motivational Interviewing
APNA is currently offering the online interactive educational program Motivational Interviewing for free through June 30, 2021. Hear from Saghi Tehran, RN, BSN, MPH, who recently completed the program, about what she learned and what she wants to share with other nurses. Learn More

APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship: Apply Now!
Are you a nursing student? Find your future in PMH nursing with the APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship! 30 pre-licensure/undergraduate and graduate nursing students will receive exposure to the profession and kick start their leadership development with these scholarships. Learn more and apply by April 13.

Celebrate Nurses Shaping the Future of Care
Submit a nomination for the APNA Annual Awards! Honor a PMH nurse you know for their contributions to leadership, practice, innovation, education, research, and more with an award nomination. Learn more about the awards here, then submit your nomination by April 20.

Submit a Proposal for the APNA Research Grants
Launch your research career with an APNA Research Grant! To support new researchers' investigations of evidence-based practice changes, quality improvement projects, or research studies, grants range from $1,000 to $10,000. Learn more & submit your proposal by May 18th.

New Members: 825 New Members since January!

Exercise, mental stimulation and massage are among the drug-free therapies that are as good or better than medication in treating depression in dementia patients, according to a new study. Medications alone were no more effective than usual care in treating depression in these patients. But 10 therapies were more effective than usual care, according to the study published in the BMJ. Researchers reviewed 256 studies that included a total of more than 28,000 people with dementia with or without major depression, reported HealthDay.com. Full Story

The pandemic continues to take a toll on nurses’ mental health, particularly those early in their career, according to the results of a new American Nurses Foundation survey of 22,000 nurses nationwide. Among nurses aged 34 years and younger, 81% report feeling exhausted, 71% report feeling overwhelmed and 65% report being anxious or unable to relax. While nurses 55 and older reported some strain on their mental health, less than half reported feeling exhausted (47%), overwhelmed (37%) or anxious or unable to relax (30%). Full Story

A new article in the March 2021 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, “Staff Emotional Support at Montefiore Medical Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” details how Montefiore Medical Center (MMC) implemented various mental health services to mitigate and treat psychological distress among staff. Full Story

More than half of those with confirmed COVID-19 show symptoms of major depressive disorder up to four months after infection, a study published Friday by JAMA Network Open found. Those who suffered from serious illness due to the virus had a five-fold higher risk for major depressive disorder than people who had mild illness or no COVID-19 symptoms at all, reported UPI. Full Story

Psychiatric visits increased significantly during 2020 compared with 2019, but there was a decrease in new patients seeking care, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The researchers found that psychiatric visits increased significantly in 2020 compared with 2019, with the majority being telephone/video-based (+264%). There was a 7% increase in psychiatric care volume overall, with the greatest increases seen in addiction, behavioral health in primary care, and adult psychiatry clinics (+42%, +17%, and +5%, respectively), reported HealthDay.com. Full Story

An international panel of mood disorder experts has published guidance on how to safely and effectively use ketamine and esketamine to treat adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), reported MedScape. To provide clinical guidance researchers synthesized the available literature on the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of ketamine and esketamine for TRD. The evidence, they note, supports the rapid-onset (within 1–2 days) efficacy of esketamine and ketamine in TRD. The strongest evidence of efficacy is for intranasal esketamine and intravenous ketamine. There is insufficient evidence for oral, subcutaneous, or intramuscular ketamine for TRD. Full Story

Eli Lilly and Company's experimental intravenous drug donanemab could slow the cognitive decline of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to early clinical trial results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study included 257 patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease; 131 received donanemab, while 126 received a placebo. The researchers found donanemab slowed the decline of cognition and daily function in Alzheimer's patients by 32% after 76 weeks, compared to those who received a placebo. Full Story

The Alzheimer’s Association has launched a new training program with certification exam aimed at educating care professionals in long-term and community-based care settings — such as, nursing homes, assisted living and in-home care — on current evidence-based, person-centered practices to care for people living with dementia. Full Story

Researchers have developed a proprietary computer adaptive screening tool that may help emergency departments more accurately predict suicide attempts in adolescents, according to a recent study in JAMA Psychiatry. The computerized adaptive screen for suicidal youth (CASSY) had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87 in an independent validation cohort that predicted an adolescent suicide attempt within 3 months, reported MedScape. Full Story

Rhode Island's first emergency unit completely dedicated to substance use and mental health issues opened at Roger Williams Medical Center, reported WJAR. The specially designed locked unit -- part of the hospital's $18 million expansion of its emergency department - features all private rooms, where patients get care from nursing staff who specialize in behavioral health. Full Story

The Biden Administration will provide nearly $2.5 billion in funding to states and territories to address the nation’s mental illness and addiction crisis, which has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will direct $1.65 billion in Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant funding and $825 million in Community Mental Health Services Block Grant funding to states and territories. Full Story

Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Lisa Murkowsky (R-AK) introduced S 660, which would require private health plans to cover mental health and substance use disorder services regardless of whether they’re provided in person or via telehealth, reported mHealthIntelligence.com. Full Story

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces a 45-day extension of the public comment period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. The proposed changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule include strengthening individuals’ rights to access their own health information, including electronic information; improving information sharing for care coordination and case management for individuals; facilitating greater family and caregiver involvement in the care of individuals experiencing emergencies or health crises; enhancing flexibilities for disclosures in emergency or threatening circumstances, such as the Opioid and COVID-19 public health emergencies; and reducing administrative burdens on HIPAA covered health care providers and health plans, while continuing to protect individuals’ health information privacy interests. Full Story

A recent JAPNA issue features the article, Improving Access to Integrated Behavioral Health in a Nurse-Led Federally Qualified Health Center. For psychiatric advance practice nurses, this quality improvement effort provides evidence that a consultative role can be effective in supporting primary care providers. Full Story

CMS released a Medicare Learning Network Connects newsletter with updated billing guidance. Important updates on the new physician fee schedule payments for office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes are detailed. These changes became effective January 1, 2021. CMS has issued a fact sheet on the changes. The agency provided updated guidance on COVID-19 clinician codes that will be accepted with the cost-sharing (CS) modifier. Click here for more information.

Beginning in 2021, NPs are included in the Open Payments Program. CMS has provided a number of educational materials on the Open Payments Resources webpage.

Click here to see letters APNA has signed on to as a part of its participation in coalitions that further policy for nursing and mental health.

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.