President's Message
Our community of psychiatric-mental health nurses continues to grow! This month we hit an exciting milestone: over 8,000 PMH nurses have lent their voices and support to our association! Wow! It's thrilling that so many of us in PMH nursing are connected through APNA...and how many of us continue to be a part of this association of professionals - we have a member retention rate of over 85%!  More important than these numbers, though, is how busy and engaged we all are within our organization. (Cont'd)

Member Profiles
Ten years ago, APNA hosted the inaugural Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute, a conference designed for PMH nurses by PMH nurses. In honor of CPI's 10th anniversary, we are recognizing those who have served as CPI Program Committee Chairs and therefore played integral roles in shaping and ensuring the success of this conference: Sandra Talley, Barbara Wolfe, Susan Simmons-Alling, Mary Ann Boyd, Barbara Warren, Georgia Stevens. Each past Committee Chair, who will be awarded with an APNA Recognition of Service Certificate at this year's Institute, took a moment to share a bit about working on the conference and seeing it evolve over the years. (Cont'd)

Member News: Celebrating the Achievements of our Members
Kathleen McCoy will be inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in June and three members will be inducted as fellows into the American Academy of Nursing. Nursing Professor John Lowe has received two prestigious awards: University Researcher of the Year by Florida Atlantic University and South Florida Region Nurse of the Year by the Florida Nurses Association. Laurie Barkin's book has been named 2011 Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing and given a 2012 Nautilus Award. More Info

Continuing Education: Happy Mental Health Month!
We're celebrating Mental Health Month with a free podcast on incorporating mindfulness and reflection into nursing practice. With the opportunity to earn up to .5 contact hours, Mindfulness and Reflection: A Resource for PMH Practice is free for APNA members for the entire month of May - you only have a few days left to take advantage of this free CE! More Info

CPI: Just a few days left to save $50!
The CPI Early Bird registration rate of $395 for APNA members will expire on June 1st! Attendees will earn up to 23.25 contact hours (refers to ANCC Category 1 continuing education contact hours in pharmacology) during the four day conference, June 14 - 17 in Reston, Virginia. Register Now!

Elections
As an APNA member, this is your opportunity to exercise the privilege and responsibility of selecting the association's new board members and 2013 Nominating Committee. Your participation is what makes APNA a strong and effective voice for psychiatric-mental health nursing - take part in shaping our future by casting your vote in the 2012 election! More Info

Strategic Planning
This past February the Board met to develop a new strategic plan for APNA. This plan is what guides the Board of Directors in governance of the association and focuses our strategic decision-making and ongoing operational work. The planning process used during the meeting has been outlined in a two part series by President Marlene Nadler-Moodie for JAPNA. You can find the first part of this series in the March/April issue. This column summarizes how APNA has met the goals which were laid out in our 2009 strategic plan. Part Two will discuss the new plan and will appear in the upcoming May/June issue. APNA Strategic Plan  |  Read Strategic Planning: Part I

New Resources from HRSA
On April 30th, APNA President Marlene Nadler-Moodie and Executive Director Nicholas Croce joined representatives from various nursing organizations at a meeting with HHS Secretary Sebelius, Acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, and HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield. During the meeting, nursing's role in health care was discussed and valuable resources were shared. These resources, which address the nursing workforce, HRSA programs, and health care legislation, are featured in the APNA Resource Center: Resources from HRSA

New Members: 490 new members since March!

Compared with standard information, a guideline- and theory-based multicomponent intervention was associated with reduced physical restraint use in nursing homes, according to the results of a cluster randomized controlled trial published in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA. Nursing homes in the control group in Germany received standard information about restraint use. Those in the intervention group had group sessions for all nursing staff, additional training for nominated key nurses, and supportive material for nurses, residents, relatives, and legal guardians. These interventions were based on a specifically developed evidence-based guideline that applied planned behavior theory, reported MedScape. Full Story ( Free registration required)

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) released its first primary research funding announcements to support comparative clinical effectiveness research that will give patients and those who care for them the ability to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI will award $120 million this year for innovative projects that effectively incorporate patients and stakeholders in research teams and address the areas of focus of PCORI's National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for up to $35.78 million in Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration (PBHCI) grants over the next four years. The purpose of this program is providing for the provision of coordinated and integrated services by co-locating primary and specialty care medical services in community-based mental and behavioral health settings. The goal is to improve the physical health status of adults with serious mental illnesses (SMI) who have or are at risk for co-occurring primary care conditions and chronic diseases. The objective of this program is to: improve the health of those with SMI, enhance the consumer's experience of care (including quality, access, and reliability), and reduce and control the per capita cost of care. Full Story

As public funding for behavioral health care continues to dwindle, the number of psych facilities and providers can't meet the demand. Hospital & Health Networks magazine looks at what some hospitals doing to avert a growing crisis. Full Story

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Effective Health Care (EHC) Program has posted Treatment for Depression After Unsatisfactory Response to SSRIs to its website. To view this report, click here. (PDF file)

The St. Louis American recently profiled APNA member Bonnie Woods. As a Clinical Manager of in-Patient Psychiatry at BJC Health Care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Woods manages three areas of behavioral health at the main hospital campus, adult, geriatric and ECT, the electric convulsive therapy unit. Full Story

Four of the top five non-combat medical conditions sending troops to the hospital in 2011 were mental ailments, reported Time.com. "Substance abuse, mood, anxiety, and adjustment disorders accounted for 622 person-years of lost duty due to hospitalization, convalescence, and limited duty dispositions," the summary of military hospitalizations in the Pentagon's Medical Surveillance Monthly Report concluded. "Mental disorders accounted for more hospital bed days than any other morbidity category and two-fifths (40.1%) of all hospital bed days." Full Story

The latest National Healthcare Disparities Report released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) shows that access to health care was not improving for most racial and ethnic groups in the years 2002 through 2008 leading up to enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The data contained in the National Healthcare Disparities Report and the companion National Healthcare Quality Report predate the Affordable Care Act; however, some provisions in the new health care law are aimed at improving health care quality and addressing health care disparities. Full Story To access the report click here.

The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration has posted a set of frequently asked questions and answers on implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). Full Story

On May 15, 2012, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released an ambitious national plan to fight Alzheimer's disease. The plan was called for in the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA), which President Obama signed into law in January 2011. The National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease sets forth five goals, including the development of effective prevention and treatment approaches for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias by 2025. Full Story

National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) has published The Role of State Behavioral Health Agencies in Accelerating the Integration of Behavioral Healthcare and Primary Care to Improve the Health of People with Serious Mental Illness. Click here to download the report. (PDF file)

In what could prove to be one of their most far-reaching decisions, psychiatrists and other specialists who are rewriting the manual that serves as the nation’s arbiter of mental illness have agreed to revise the definition of addiction, which could result in millions more people being diagnosed as addicts and pose huge consequences for health insurers and taxpayers. The revision to the manual, known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., would expand the list of recognized symptoms for drug and alcohol addiction, while also reducing the number of symptoms required for a diagnosis, reported the New York Times on the Web. In addition, the manual for the first time would include gambling as an addiction, and it might introduce a catchall category - "behavioral addiction - not otherwise specified". Full Story

The comment period for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is open until June 15. This commenting period marks the third and final time DSM-5 draft criteria will be available for your feedback. Following this period the site will remain viewable with the draft proposals until DSM-5's publication. 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.