President's Message: What a Time for Nurses Month!
Remember how 2020 was named the Year of the Nurse in honor of Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday? How appropriate that seems now. In the face of new challenges, nurses are rising to the occasion and continuing to provide quality health care, sometimes at great personal cost. Read More

Nurses in Action: Travel Nursing in the Time of COVID-19
When Mercedes Scott Stepp saw the impact of the pandemic on her fellow nurses, she knew she wanted to go where help was needed. Mercedes is currently working as a psychiatric-mental health nurse at a state hospital in Georgia. Hear from Mercedes about her experience, encouragement for other nurses on the frontline, and more.

Self Portrait of a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse
Susan J. Gray, APN reflects on being a psychiatric-mental health nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic: COVID-19 has hit. Hospitals are bursting at the seams, asking health professionals to give more and more of their time. I am a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, but always a psychiatric nurse for 40 years. I work 3 jobs caring for the psychiatric needs of patients. I love my work. It’s rewarding.... Read more from Susan.

Member News
Demaris Aragon and Melody Bemis discuss staying connected to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic; Barbarajo Bockenhauer steps forward as a volunteer to help with New Hampshire’s response to COVID-19; Rose Constantino receives 2020 American Nurses Association National Award; Karen Foli conducts research on the extent of psychological trauma induced by the COVID-19 pandemic; Nick Guenzel details the University of Nebraska Medical Center offering free mental health care for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic; Stephanie Swain named Acute Care Director of South Peninsula Hospital’s Homer Medical Center. Learn More

Featured Resource: Well-Being Initiative
To support the wellness and resilience of nurses as you face the unique challenges of a pandemic, APNA partnered with the American Nurses Foundation, American Nurses Association, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and the Emergency Nurses Association to introduce the Well-Being Initiative. Through the Well-Being Initiative, nurses can manage stress and mental health through virtual support systems, specialized tools, and more. View Now

Year of the Nurse: Stephanie Weatherly, MSN, RN-BC
During the Year of the Nurse, each newsletter will highlight a psychiatric-mental health nursing leader! Here is what APNA Tennessee Chapter President Stephanie Weatherly, MSN, RN-BC, has to share: "Embrace the moment where you fail – you will learn more from that failure than anything I could tell you. Look for every chance to learn – from webinars to mentors. Education is power! Invest in yourself, become an expert in your area of specialty, root yourself in evidence-based care, and learn to create systems to support your staff in succeeding."

Happy Nurses Month: Wellness Skills with Free Contact Hours
Access a free session on the Community Resiliency Model and strengthen your 'best self' through body-based approaches to reduce the impact of stress and trauma. Use these immediately accessible and enhanced wellness skills to cope with the unique challenges of nursing during a pandemic. Then, share these skills to help others self-regulate daily and during times of stress and dysregulation. View Now

APNA 18th Annual Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute
Registration closes June 10th for the virtual APNA Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute! Come together online with your psychiatric-mental health nursing community on June 11-14 for cutting edge updates and up to 23+ pharmacology contact hours. Register Now!

Resource Roundup

• COVID-19 Resources: Regularly updated collections of tools, webinars, and more for nurses:
  • General Resources
  • Policy Updates
  • Events & Webinars
  • Volunteer Opportunities
  • Tips for Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses
  • Managing Stress & Self-Care
• Grants & Scholarships: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announces funding opportunities to evaluate health system response to COVID-19 pandemic.

New Members: 880 New Members since March!

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has released its new Strategic Plan for Research. The new plan provides a framework for advancing research priorities that support the Institute’s mission: To transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure. Click here to access the plan.

As part of the Trump Administration’s comprehensive response to the needs of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing an emergency $40 million grant program to prevent suicide. The fiscal year (FY) 2020 COVID-19 Emergency Response for Suicide Prevention (Short Title: COVID-19 ERSP) grant program will award $40 million to 50 awardees to spend over a 16-month period. Full Story

A recent American Nurse article stresses the importance of making medications that treat addiction to alcohol and other drugs more accessible to persons seeking treatment or working on recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that grants have been awarded to increase access to and to improve the quality of community mental and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services through the expansion of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC). The Fiscal Year 2020 CCBHC Expansion Grants include $200 million in annually appropriated funding and $250 million in emergency COVID-19 funding. Full Story

Although the number of children showing up in U.S. emergency rooms has remained stable overall, visits involving kids with mental health disorders steadily climbed over a 10-year period, reported MedScape. The biggest increase was in visits for self-harm, which rose more than three-fold between 2007 and 2016, according to the results published in Pediatrics. During the same period, visits for any sort of mental health disorder rose by 60%. Full Story

A Veteran-to-Veteran connection can be a key step in engaging with a Veteran who may be unfamiliar with mental health conditions and treatment — and may not be thinking about treatment at all. The hundreds of authentic Veteran stories on the VA website, MakeTheConnection.net can help “fill that gap” when working with Veteran patients. The filter on the website can help find a video of a Veteran whose experience mirrors a patient’s — down to service era, military branch, gender, life events and experiences, and mental health signs, symptoms, and conditions. Full Story

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services expanded Medicare coverage for audio-only phone services during the coronavirus pandemic, including psychotherapy, health behavior assessment and intervention services, and other behavioral health services. Previously, Medicare recipients who wanted to take advantage of psychotherapy through telehealth could do so only via videoconferencing. This was a significant limitation for people without access or capability to use those technologies. Full Story

A bipartisan bill that would designate 988 as the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline number is closer to becoming law after the Senate approved it May 13, reported WSAW.com. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, S.2661, would require the Federal Communications Commission to designate 988 as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which would also include veteran-specific mental health support. Full Story

New York will waive all cost-sharing fees associated with mental-health services for front-line workers battling coronavirus, reported the Democrat & Chronicle. The state Department of Financial Services will require New York-regulated health insurers to waive cost-sharing, including deductibles, copayments and coinsurance, for in-network mental health services for New York's front-line essential workers. Full Story

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released Enhancing Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment, a practical guide that provides concrete strategies, implementation examples, tools, and resources to assist healthcare delivery systems, practitioners, and payers in expanding the use of MAT. Full Story

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.