APNA Highlights

REGISTRATION is now open for the APNA 29th Annual Conference!
The APNA Annual Conference, October 28-31, 2015 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL, features more than three days of continuing education in psychiatric-mental health nursing. This year's program will offer up to 28.5 continuing education contact hours on-site and the opportunity to earn 100+ additional contact hours online after the conference. A gathering of more than 1,600 nurses, the APNA Annual Conference is a rare opportunity to collaborate with colleagues who share your passions and advance your practice with the latest psychiatric-mental health nursing clinical topics, research studies, education strategies, and best practices...not to mention have a little fun at a lakeside resort! Register by September 15 and save $75 with the early bird rate! Click here for more information.

2015 APNA Annual Awards Winners Announced
The APNA Annual Awards recognize APNA members who demonstrate excellence in psychiatric-mental health nursing practice, education, research, leadership, community efforts, and more. This year's recipients will be recognized in person at the APNA 29th Annual Conference, online and in communications throughout the year. Click here to view the winners.

APNA 13th Annual CPI Online Evaluations
Earlier this month more than 500 colleagues gathered in Baltimore, MD for four days of updates and continuing education in psychopharmacology. Thanks to all who joined us! CPI Attendees: Remember to complete your evaluations by July 24, 2015 in order to earn contact hours. Click here for more information.

APNA 2015 Board of Directors and Nominating Committee Elections
Let your voice be heard by casting your vote for the new leaders of your association!
You can familiarize yourself with the candidates by clicking here. Click here to cast your vote.

The FDA is currently evaluating a test to predict which antidepressant might be appropriate for a particular patient. The test was developed by Brain Resource, Ltd, San Francisco, CA, and purportedly could help personalize the management of depression. Medscape recently spoke with Evian Gordon, MD, PhD, founder and CEO of Brain Resource Ltd and adjunct associate professor at the University of Sydney Medical School in New South Wales, Australia, about this test and the future of personalized psychiatry. Full Story

A recent article, "Proactive Psychiatric Consultation For Hospitalized Patients, A Plan for the Future," examines the role of the Yale Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT), a proactive, multi-disciplinary psychiatric consultation service for all internal medicine inpatients at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The goal of the team, which includes nurses, social workers, and psychiatrists, is to shift from a “reactive” to a “proactive” paradigm of psychiatric consultations on hospital inpatient medical floors. The team screens for, identifies, and removes/mitigates behavioral barriers to the effective receipt of health care among hospitalized medical patients, especially among those with co-occurring mental illness and/or substance abuse, reported Health Affairs Blog. Full Story

Using data from electronic health records, Department of Veterans Affairs and National Institute of Mental Health researchers were able to identify VA patients with very high, predicted suicide risk that were not previously flagged by clinicians. According to researchers who developed a suicide-risk algorithm by studying the VA patient population from fiscal years 2009-2011, these methods could help prevent civilian as well as veteran suicides, reported Health Data Management. Full Story

Nurse practitioners are earning more, and more are earning that income as salaried employees, reported MedPage Today. A survey from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) found a 6% jump in average base salary since 2011 and a 10% hike in total annual income over the same period. Full Story

Students using the recreation center at Drexel University in Philadelphia now will be able to monitor their mental well-being as well as their physical fitness. As part of a pilot program initiated by Screening for Mental Health Inc., a nonprofit organization, and the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health & Intellectual disAbility Services, Drexel has installed a MindKare mental health kiosk in the lobby of the recreation center. The kiosk enables users to conduct simple self-assessments to gauge their risk for mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and alcohol or eating disorders. Full Story

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

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), along with co-sponsor Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), introduced a new version of his 2013 legislation Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 2646, reported Modern Healthcare. Murphy says it would break down barriers to care, clarify privacy standards, expand behavioral health parity and reform outdated programs. Full Story

The House Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved a historic $300 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research as requested by Alzheimer’s Association advocates. If this increase becomes law, it will be the largest annual increase in federal Alzheimer’s research funding to date. Full Story

In Minnesota, a wide range of mental health services will see funding increases totaling $46 million in the next two years. That’s the largest investment of new funding in mental health in state history and will go a long way toward establishing something that’s been lacking - an integrated system of services that can respond appropriately to mental illness, whenever or wherever in Minnesota it appears, reported The Star Tribune. Full Story

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Chicago released a white paper which looks at the condition of the public mental health system in Illinois and puts forth recommendations for how the residents of Illinois can be better served through an evidenced based and fiscally responsible system of care. Over the past several years, the mental health system has continually suffered from a loss of funding. It is estimated that less than half of the over 2 million Illinois residents living with mental illness are receiving needed mental health care. Governor Rauner’s proposed budget will further limit access to care for individuals living with a mental illness in Illinois and increase spending in Illinois. Click here to read the white paper.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is Accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.