Register by May 16th to Save on CPI Registration
Want to earn 20.5 contact hours in psychopharmacology and build your professional network? Join us June 9-12 in Baltimore, MD for a psychopharmacology conference planned for nurses by nurses. Attendees will leave with a state-of-the-science understanding of psychopharmacologic nursing practice across the lifespan through content tailored specifically for psychiatric-mental health nurses. Register before May 16 to save $75.

Now Accepting Applications for the 2016 APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship
This scholarship, which recognizes graduate and undergraduate/pre-licensure nursing students committed to psychiatric-mental health, includes: Registration, travel, & lodging expenses to attend the APNA 30th Annual Conference, October 19-22 in Hartford, CT; 1-year complimentary membership in the APNA; networking opportunities with psychiatric-mental health nurses from around the world! New this year, up to 30 graduate and undergraduate/pre-licensure students will be awarded scholarships. The application deadline: is May 9, 2016. Click here to learn more and apply.

Remembering Grayce Sills
On April 3rd, psychiatric-mental health nursing lost one of our most spirited leaders. Grayce Sills, PhD, RN, FAAN was a pioneer in our specialty and a champion for improving care for persons with mental health conditions. One of APNA's founding members and a former APNA President, Grayce always had a discerning eye turned towards encouraging enthusiasm, creativity, and success in others. We are collecting pictures of Grayce to share with the community. If you have any pictures that you would like to contribute, please email them to APNA Director of Communications Meaghan Trimyer by June 1st at mtrimyer@apna.org or via surface mail to: Meaghan Trimyer / American Psychiatric Nurses Association / 3141 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 625 / Falls Church, VA 22042

APNA Education Council Survey
The Continuing Education Branch of the APNA Education Council has developed a survey to discover members' priorities for continuing education. Please take 2 minutes to give us your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you - your responses will help us ensure that our programs meet your needs! Click here to take the survey.

Advocacy group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing sent separate letters to both the Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, asking them to change pain management requirements that they say help to “foster dangerous prescribing practices.” The group of docs specifically wants CMS to quash three questions about pain that are included in patient satisfaction surveys, and it’s urging the Joint Commission to re-examine its pain management standards, reported Hospitals & Health Networks. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for Targeted Capacity Expansion: Medication Assisted Treatment-Prescription Drug Opioid Addiction (MAT-PDOA) grants totaling up to $33 million over three years. This program aims to provide funding to states to enhance/expand their treatment service systems to increase capacity and provide accessible, effective, comprehensive, coordinated care, and evidence-based medication assisted treatment (MAT) and recovery support services to individuals with opioid use disorders seeking or receiving MAT. Full Story

The Alzheimer's Association announced a new $4.3 million research grant for a new phase of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) known as DIAN-TU Next Generation (NexGen). This award will accelerate the testing of new potential Alzheimer's therapies and a new diagnostic approach in people with genetically based, younger-onset Alzheimer's disease using an innovative trial design that is being applied to Alzheimer's for the first time. Full Story

As part of the national Million Hearts initiative, the Health Behavior Expert Panel’s Million Hearts Committee of the American Academy of Nursing is asking nurses to complete a brief 15-minute anonymous online health survey. This survey will launch during nurses’ week in May and stay open through the end of June, 2016. The survey seeks information on the current health and healthy lifestyle behaviors of nurses in order to gain a perspective of how best to improve their cardiovascular health and wellness. As a thank you for completing the anonymous survey, nurses will be given access to a free online Million Hearts educational module that is focused on improving healthy lifestyle behaviors. The online educational module contains 5 dynamic and evidence-based lectures on improving health plus multiple interactive ways to encourage healthy lifestyle practices. Nurses will be able to access the survey by clicking here. The organization will also be presenting a national webinar entitled Healthy Nurses/Healthy Patients: Key Strategies for Self-Care and Promoting Heart Health on May 9, 2016, at 12:00 pm EDT.  To participate in this webinar, please RSVP by clicking here.  You will receive direction and the URL for the webinar the week prior.

People living with schizophrenia use digital technology generally as much as the rest of the population, and in ways that help them cope with the effects of their condition, according to results from a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) survey. Full Story

New research finds that a commonly used drug class to prevent and treat delirium may not make much of a difference, reported PsychCentral.com. Pharmacological therapy often includes the use of neuroleptics such as haloperidol, a high-potency antipsychotic, or risperidone a new antipsychotic with fewer side effects. In the new review, researchers examined data from 19 different studies that included several thousand hospitalized patients. They reported that, when looking at all the causes of delirium, antipsychotic medications did not lessen the number of new cases of delirium, and that using antipsychotic medication may not make much difference to the duration, severity, hospital length of stay, or mortality associated with delirium. Full Story

For children aged 4 to 18 years, mental health diagnoses and psychotropic medication prescribing vary across practices in the U.S., according to a review published online in Pediatrics. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric Service Award is presented to innovative programs that deliver services to the mentally ill or disabled, that have overcome obstacles, and that can serve as models for other programs. For more information about submitting an application for the 2016-2017 Psychiatric Services Achievement Awards click here.

The Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program funded an initiative by El Futuro, Inc. to build capacity for patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) within community behavioral health organizations serving Latinos. Click here to learn more about the project.

Click here for the April State Legislative Activity Report, made available as a part of APNA's legislative tracking system.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule to strengthen access to mental health and substance use services for people with Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage, aligning with protections already required of private health plans. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 generally requires that health insurance plans treat mental health and substance use disorder benefits on equal footing as medical and surgical benefits. Full Story

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal to ban electrical stimulation devices (ESDs) used for self-injurious or aggressive behavior because they present an unreasonable and substantial risk to public health that cannot be corrected or eliminated through changes to the labeling. Full Story

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a proposal to allow qualified physicians to prescribe the opioid use disorder treatment medication buprenorphine to an increased number of patients. The proposed change is designed to strike an appropriate balance between expanding access to this important treatment, encouraging use of evidence-based medication-assisted treatment (MAT), and minimizing the risk of drug diversion. Full Story

Saying it is an urgent matter for both patient and worker safety, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is calling on lawmakers to make a $177 million investment in mental health treatment centers and psychiatric lockups across the state, reported KARE11.com. Full Story

Every dollar spent on better treatment of anxiety and depression produces a return of $4 in better health and ability to work - a big boost for countries' development and economic growth, the World Health Organization announced recently. These disorders cost the global economy $1 trillion a year, according to a study led by the WHO which estimates for the first time both the health and the economic benefits of spending more on treating the most common forms of mental illness, reported Reuters. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM) jointly released a report that reviews the current scientific evidence for integrated care, specifically the Collaborative Care Model, and provides recommendations for advancing use of the model. Integrated care refers to programs in which mental health care is delivered in primary care settings. Collaborative Care is a specific type of integrated care involving a multidisciplinary team, led by a primary care provider, providing scientifically proven treatments and focusing on patient outcomes. Significant research over the past three decades has proven the Collaborative Care Model to be effective. 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.