Less than One Week Left to Vote
Don’t miss this opportunity to vote and shape the culture of your organization by choosing leaders who embody APNA’s core values: Empowerment, Inclusivity, Integrity, Collegiality, Innovation, Transparency, and Stewardship. Click here to learn more about each candidate. Click here to cast your vote by June 29th!

APNA Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute
Thank you to those who joined their colleagues earlier this month at the virtual CPI! Attendees, remember to complete your evaluations here by July 27th and please share your feedback with this quick survey. Session recordings from CPI will be available in the APNA eLearning Center in the coming weeks.

Going Virtual: APNA Annual Conference
While safety measures around the COVID-19 pandemic prevent us from gathering in person, rest assured that the APNA Annual Conference will go on. APNA is pulling together all of the details to ensure an engaging and rewarding virtual conference this September 30 - October 4. Note that the conference has been extended by one day to optimize your learning experience. More information will be shared as it is available and registration will open later this month, but in the meantime, mark your calendars!

Pulse on the Nation’s Nurses
You're invited to complete a brief 'pulse check' online survey on your mental health and wellbeing. Your responses will help the American Nurses Foundation, in partnership with APNA and several other national nursing organizations, better support you and your colleagues during COVID-19.

APNA Statement: PMH Nurse Protection During a Pandemic
The APNA Board of Directors has released a statement in support of psychiatric-mental health nurses providing essential services across the country having access to appropriate protective equipment. Click here to read the statement.

Access to a sufficient supply of PPE to care safely for patients with COVID-19 remains a top concern of nurses, according to new survey findings released June 3 by the American Nurses Association (ANA).  According to the findings, almost half of nurses say they have experienced a shortage of PPE. The vast majority of nurses, 79%, said they are required or encouraged to reuse single-use PPE, like N95 masks, and 59% said this made them feel unsafe. Additionally, more nurses reported that their facilities are decontaminating N95 masks, another practice that nurses said does not make them feel safe. Full Story

Mental health and well-being among nurses has declined significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, results of a recent study show. Trusted Health, an online jobs platform, in April conducted an online survey of 1,425 U.S. nurses to understand the impacts of the pandemic on the profession. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the respondents said they provide direct care to patients with COVID-19, reported Safety and Health Magazine. Using a scale of 1-10, nurses rated their current mental health and well-being at an average of 5.4, compared with 7.6 before the pandemic – a 29% decline. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is announcing awards totaling $107.2 million to 310 recipients to increase the health workforce in rural and underserved communities. Recipients across 45 states and U.S. territories received funding to improve the quality, distribution and diversity of health professionals serving across the country. Full Story

The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced the release of the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS), a nationwide plan to raise awareness about mental health, connect Veterans and others at risk of suicide to federal and local resources, and facilitate focused and coordinated research into suicide. The roadmap is the result of an Executive Order President Trump signed March 5, 2019, calling on the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services and several others to develop a comprehensive strategy for ending the national tragedy of suicide. Full Story

The call for applications for the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) 2020 Psychiatric Services Achievement Awards is now open. The Psychiatric Services Achievement Awards have recognized creative models of service delivery and innovative programs for persons with mental illness or disabilities. APA is looking for programs that have made a significant contribution to the mental health field and provide an innovative model for others to follow. Each award recipient will be presented with a monetary award, a plaque, recognition at the Institute on Psychiatric Services, and coverage in two APA publications. Click here for more information.

Ending the common, but unsanctioned, practice of long-term anticholinergic use to head off extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) associated with antipsychotic medications in patients with serious mental illness (SMI) is feasible, safe, and improves quality of life in this population, new research suggests. Investigators at the University of Pittsburgh also found tapering these medications, with the end goal of complete deprescribing, significantly improved anticholinergic side effects as well as memory, reported MedScape. Full Story

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced a challenge competition to highlight local innovations to improve postpartum mental health care for rural American families. The total prize pool for the competition is $175,000. The two-fold purpose of this challenge is to amplify innovative programs that rural communities already are implementing to address challenges to postpartum mental health diagnosis and treatment and elicit new solutions. Full Story

FDA approved Tauvid (flortaucipir F18) for intravenous injection, the first drug used to help image a distinctive characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain called tau pathology. Tauvid is a radioactive diagnostic agent for adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease. Tauvid is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the brain to estimate the density and distribution of aggregated tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), a primary marker of Alzheimer’s disease. Full Story

FDA is now permitting marketing of the first game-based digital therapeutic device to improve attention function in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The prescription-only game-based device, called EndeavorRx, is indicated for pediatric patients ages 8 to12 years old with primarily inattentive or combined-type ADHD who have demonstrated an attention issue. Full Story

A bill recently introduced in Congress aims to improve telehealth coverage for federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs), reported mHealthIntelligence.com. Introduced by US Reps. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and George Butterfield (D-NC), the Helping to Ensure Access to Local TeleHealth (HEALTH) Act of 2020 would, if approved, mandate Medicare coverage for telehealth services at these clinics and remove originating site facility and location requirements for distant site telehealth services delivered by them. The bill would make permanent connected health coverage included in the CARES Act, which only lasts as long as the COVID-19 emergency, and bring into the spotlight one of the most troubling barriers to widespread telehealth adoption. Full Story

The Massachusetts senate is poised to extend the governor’s emergency order on insurance payments for telehealth, while at the same time reviving controversial proposals related to the types of services different medical professionals can provide, reported CommonWealthMagazine.org. Senate leaders on June 18 released a health care bill, called the Patients First Act, which addresses telehealth, out-of-network billing, and scope of practice changes. Full Story  

The Joint Commission has issued a new Quick Safety titled “Promoting psychosocial well-being of health care staff during crisis.” The advisory shares information on how health care organizations and staff can remove barriers to seeking mental health care. Full Story

Click here to see letters APNA has signed on to as a part of its participation in coalitions that further policy for nursing and mental health.

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.