President's Message
My theme as APNA President is advocacy—each and every one of us needs to become an advocate for our specialty. For many, advocacy simply means an active engagement in dialogue with governmental legislators and regulators. While this is true, it is only the tip of the iceberg. More importantly, our message needs to be delivered to a much wider audience than a handful of legislators or regulators. We as psychiatric nurses know that language influences thought.  How many times have we heard others describe mental health professionals as psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers? We are not in their thoughts, because we are not in their lexicon. We must be ever ready to remind others to include psychiatric-mental health nurses in their description of the behavioral health provider team. When we go...Cont'd.

2010 APNA Elections
Voting is now open for the 2010 APNA elections!  Vote online or click here to download a paper ballot.

Please mail paper ballots to: 
APNA Elections
13945 Marblestone Drive
Clifton, VA 20124

This is an exciting time of year—all it takes is a moment to vote and in so doing impact APNA's direction over the coming year. The positions up for election this year are: President Elect, Treasurer, two Members-at-Large on the board and  three elected seats on the 2011 Nominating Committee.  Browse our Online Election Guide for an introduction to the candidates! 

CPI - Programming Highlight!
Do you want to be able to discuss the clinically significant psychotropic drug interactions with your colleagues and clients?
Can you differentiate pharmacokinetic from pharmacodynamic psychotropic drug interactions?
Would you like to learn how to better evaluate your patients' medication profiles to minimize drug interactions?
Join us for Psychotropic Drug Interactions, a session to be presented by Dr. Mary Gutierrez at this year's Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute.  Take a look at all of the terrific topics that will be covered at CPI and then Register Now!

Recovery to Practice
We are excited to report that APNA has been chosen as one of five national participants in a SAMHSA initiative to transform the concepts of recovery from a set of beliefs to recovery-oriented nursing practices. As part of this five-year project, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and peer specialists will research current activities in recovery-oriented care and develop strategies on how best to implement recovery components into mental health provider education and practice.  Click here to read SAMHSA's press release about this exciting project.  SAMHSA is also offering a FREE Webinar, Implementing Recovery-Oriented Practices 1: Emerging Trends in Program and Workforce Development, on June 8th.  For more information, download their Save the Date Flyer.

Hawaii Passes APRN Model Language
No doubt you have heard that Hawaii has passed an act relating to nursing practice. APNA Executive Director Nick Croce wrote to our friend Wailua Brandman and asked for his reaction. Click here to see what Wailua had to say and for further information on this legislation.

RVS Update Committee (RUC) 
The RVS Update Committee (RUC) is in the midst of re-evaluating psychiatric reimbursement rates. This committee has made numerous recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that have significantly affected the Medicare provider payment schedule. Most importantly, the committee has done so by giving providers a voice in the shaping of Medicare relative values....(More)

DSM-V Draft
Earlier this month APNA submitted its formal response to the DSM-V Draft Criteria. The response was put together by our Institute for Mental Health Advocacy and incorporated comments submitted by members.  Read our response.

Mental Health Parity
As a member of the Mental Health Liaison Group, APNA worked with a number of other organizations to comment on the Interim Final Rules for the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which was published in the February 2, 2010 Federal Register. The liaison group has worked tirelessly over many years to pass federal legislation that would end health insurance discrimination against persons who need coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services. We were therefore anxious that the Interim Final Rules implement the Act to ensure parity at all levels of coverage. Read the Mental Health Liaison Group's comments on the Interim Final Rules here.

Let's Discuss!
You've probably noticed a lot of new activity on Member Bridge, not to mention a new daily email in your inbox.  We recently re-launched the All-Purpose Discussion Forum on Member Bridge in order to give you what you've been asking for:  a place to discuss anything and everything related to psychiatric mental health nursing with fellow members. Several interesting discussions are already in progress and if you haven't yet visited the forum, please do!  Maybe you'll find that you can help other PMH nurses by answering questions they've posted in the forum or that another member has found a solution to an issue with which you've been struggling.  Log in now!

The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare commends U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) for championing the fight against postpartum depression by authoring the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act, signed into law as part of health insurance reform. The MOTHERS Act will establish a comprehensive federal commitment to combating postpartum depression through new research, education initiatives and support programs. Under the new law, local community organizations, hospitals or even state or local governments can apply for grants to provide education and services for the diagnosis and management of postpartum depression. Full Story

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's plans to hire outside contractors to run some of the state's inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities would face stumbling blocks, if lawmakers agree to a proposal backed by a House committee. The bill would give lawmakers the ability to review, and reject, any privatization contracts involving the state's mental hospitals, including two the Jindal administration proposes to privatize in the upcoming budget year that begins July 1, reported Behavioral Health Central. Full Story

Congressional Democrats unveiled the outline of a bill that would delay a 21% cut in Medicare reimbursement to physicians until 2014 and increase rates for the rest of 2010 as well as 2011. Reimbursement rates would not decrease in 2012 and 2013, and they could increase even more in those years if the growth of Medicare spending on physician services is "within reasonable limits," according to a summary of the legislation released by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI). Rate increases would be higher for primary and preventive care, reported Medscape. Full Story (Free registration required)

From 1998 to 2008 there were marked changes in some patterns of substance use treatment admissions according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Although the concurrent abuse of both alcohol and drugs has remained widespread, the proportion of treatment admissions for the co-abuse of these substances has declined gradually yet significantly during this period from 44% to 38%. At the same time there has been a steady rise in the proportion of treatment admissions attributed to drug abuse alone from 26% in 1998 to 37% in 2008, while the proportion of admissions attributed to alcohol alone fell from 27% in 1998 to 23% in 2008. Full Story

Trend analysis in the new 2009 NAPHS Annual Survey shows strong demand for behavioral health services. Inpatient hospital admissions, for example, increased 3.5% from 2007 to 2008 (to an average of 2,700) in facilities reporting in both years. Hospital occupancy in facilities reporting both years increased 1.8% (to an average of 74.2% in 2008). Trended residential treatment admissions in the same time frame increased 1.5% (from an average of 206 in 2007 to 209 in 2008). Trended residential treatment center occupancy increased 2.1% (to an average of 79.5%). Full Story

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is drawing a brand-new blueprint for studying and understanding mental disorders that will fully integrate behavior, the brain, and genetics, reported Psychiatric News. The initiative, known as Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), has been established to carry out one of the goals in NIMH's strategic plan: "to develop, for research purposes, new ways of classifying mental disorders based on dimensions of observable behavior and neurobiological measures." Full Story

Universal Health Services, Inc. will acquire Psychiatric Solutions, Inc. for approximately $2.0 billion. Including the assumption of approximately $1.1 billion in PSI net debt, the total transaction consideration is approximately $3.1 billion. PSI is the largest standalone operator of owned or leased freestanding psychiatric inpatient facilities with 94 facilities in 32 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Today, UHS owns or operates 25 acute care hospitals and 102 behavioral health care facilities and schools located across 32 states, as well as in Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. Full Story

St. Elizabeths Hospital, one of the nation's oldest psychiatric facilities, begins another phase of its long history in a thoroughly modern new building. Each residential unit consists of a 27-bed "neighborhood" that not only houses patients but also serves to model the behavior and rhythms of the outside world in preparation for patients' return there, reported Psychiatric News. Full Story

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is calling on Congress for greater scientific research, mental health grants to offset massive state budget cuts and an end to a backlog in the processing of Social Security disability claims. NAMI Executive Director Michael J. Fitzpatrick outlined the needs of adults and children living with serious mental illness during "public witness day" before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-and Education Appropriations, noting that the direct and indirect costs of untreated mental illness exceed $80 million annually. Full Story

APNA member Mary Ellen O'Keefe was selected by the Association of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses to receive the AAPPN Nurse of the Year for 2010 award, reported Behavioral Health Central. Full Story

The National Quality Forum has endorsed two inpatient psychiatric measures that focus on quality improvement in psychiatric hospitals and general hospitals with psychiatric units. The endorsed measures address the use of restraints and seclusion and complement psychiatric medication management measures recently endorsed by NQF. Full Story

In light of the recent passage of healthcare reform legislation, the Tri-Council for Nursing has issued a timely consensus statement calling for all registered nurses to advance their education in the interest of enhancing quality and safety across healthcare settings. The Tri-Council organizations, including the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives, and National League for Nursing, are united in their view that a more highly educated nursing workforce is critical to meeting the nation's nursing needs and delivering safe, effective patient care. Full Story (PDF file)

President Obama and Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), announced the release of the Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy. Aimed at reducing drug use and strengthening prevention, treatment and law enforcement, the strategy calls for a 15% reduction in the rate of youth drug use over 5 years and similar reductions in chronic drug use and drug-related incidents such as drug deaths and drugged driving. Click here to read a summary of the strategy. (PDF file)

The Bazelon Center, in partnership with five communities across the country, is conducting a three year Performance Improvement Project (PIP) designed to reduce reliance on law enforcement officers in responding to psychiatric emergencies. The goal of the PIP, launched in January 2010, is to help community mental health systems to take responsibility for meeting the needs of consumers at risk of arrest or incarceration. The PIP builds upon local reform efforts and pinpoints areas where additional system change is required. Full Story