Congratulations to the 2021 APNA Annual Awards Recipients!
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 at the APNA 35th Annual Conference and in communications throughout the year. Click here to learn more about the recipients.

APNA Annual Conference Registration Now Open!
Pick the format that best suits your needs, preferences, and schedule: Register to gather together this October 13-16 in Louisville, Kentucky, or register to engage online with your colleagues this December 10-12. Either way, you will enjoy the same PMH nurse-driven presentations - just delivered how you want! Louisville Early Bird Deadline: August 30 / Virtual Early Bird Deadline: November 15 Click here to learn more and register.

APNA Motivational Interviewing Course Free Through 12/2021
Across the country, 21,000 nurses have participated in APNA's interactive educational program on Motivational Interviewing. Now through December 31, 2021, you can take advantage of this valuable education for clinicians, students, and more...at no cost. This 3-part on-demand program provides 3.0 contact hours and is designed to help nurses and nursing students learn the Motivational Interviewing approach and how to apply it in their practice. Learn more and register for the course here

Announcing the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge on Mental Health Awardees
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), together with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, announced that Nurse Leader Network and Nurse Disrupted have been selected as the awardees in Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge on Mental Health. Click here to learn more about the awardees.

Now Online: Secure Your Mask First: The Importance of Self-Care
In this Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association column, APNA President Matt Tierney underscores the importance of self-care in the current context and highlights resources to support nurse well-being. Read Now

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) announced the original research report, “The Needs and Experiences of Users of Digital Navigation for Mental Health Treatment and Supportive Services,” published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Mental Health. The study aims to quantify the experiences and user satisfaction of people living with mental illness and their caregivers with available digital navigation tools. Full Story

Alkermes plc announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LYBALVI (olanzapine and samidorphan) for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia and for the treatment of adults with bipolar I disorder, as a maintenance monotherapy or for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes, as monotherapy or an adjunct to lithium or valproate. LYBALVI is a once-daily, oral atypical antipsychotic composed of olanzapine, an established antipsychotic agent, and samidorphan, a new chemical entity. Full Story

Psychological interventions such as preventive cognitive therapy (PCT) or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can be delivered while a patient undergoes antidepressant tapering and may be an alternative to long-term antidepressant use, reported MedScape. Such interventions could be effective regardless of patient characteristics or the number of previous depressive episodes, suggest Dr. Claudi Bockting of Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands and colleagues. Full Story

Elevated levels of two inflammatory proteins were associated with slower cognitive decline in older adults, reported MedPageToday.com. Higher plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-12 p70 (IL-12p70) were associated with less cognitive decline in people with a significant burden of amyloid-beta, reported Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues. Elevated IL-12p70 levels also were associated with fewer tau tangles in these people. Full Story

AHRQ has developed a new tool to help primary care practices screen and refer patients to address their unmet social needs, such as access to adequate food and housing. The tool helps practices find resources on patient screening and referral, consider what approaches work best for their practice, and understand how to use collected information to address patients' social needs, tailor their care and maximize reimbursement. Full Story

FDA approved Aduhelm (aducanumab) to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease using the Accelerated Approval pathway. Aduhelm is the first novel therapy approved for Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. Additionally, Aduhelm is the first treatment directed at the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of amyloid beta plaques in the brain. Full Story 

Eisai Co. and partner Biogen Inc. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted breakthrough therapy designation to their experimental therapy, lecanemab, for patients with early Alzheimer's. The drug works in a similar manner to Biogen's Aduhelm, which was approved earlier this month. It removes sticky deposits of a protein called amyloid beta from the brains of patients in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's in order to stave off its impact, including memory loss and the inability to take care of oneself, reported Reuters. Full Story

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced the Promoting Effective and Empowering Recovery Services (PEERS) in Medicare Act of 2021 to expand access to peer support services for mental health and substance use disorders. The legislation would ensure that primary care physicians can bill peer support treatment to Medicare to make this service more accessible, reported the Bossier Press-Tribune. Full Story

U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX), both members of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation that would help states expand telehealth options for low-income Americans, especially children. The Telehealth Improvement for Kids’ Essential Services (TIKES) Act of 2021 would provide guidance and strategies to states on how to effectively integrate telehealth into their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs, and research how telehealth expansion can impact health care access, utilization, cost, and outcomes. Full Story

Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the Permanency for Audio-Only Telehealth Act, legislation to help ensure Medicare recipients who cannot access the video component during telehealth visits are able to access care through audio-only. Full Story

The Protecting Rural Telehealth Access Act (S. 1988), introduced by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Terry Moran (R-KS), reportedly aims to improve access to and coverage of connected health services in rural parts of the country. It would continue several emergency measures enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency, reported mHealth Intelligence. Full Story

Iowa governor Kim Reynolds announced several new education programs, including a $20 million initiative to offer additional mental health resources to Iowa schools, reported the Iowa Capital Dispatch. The Iowa Center for School Mental Health is a partnership between the Department of Education and the University of Iowa. College of Education Dean Daniel Clay said the center will serve three main purposes: training teachers and staff to recognize and support student mental health needs, researching best practices for school mental health, and providing a clinical service for educators to use in times of individual or collective stress. Full Story

Maryland governor Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) has allowed a bill to let minors as young as 12-years-old to seek mental and emotional health care without their parent or guardians’ consent to become law, reported Maryland Matters. The legislation takes effect on Oct. 1. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released awards totaling $3.3 million to 33 colleges through its Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Campus Suicide Prevention grant program. The GLS program, operated out of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services, promotes colleges’ development of comprehensive approaches to enhance mental health services for their students – including those who are at risk of suicide, depression, serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbances, and/or substance use disorders (SUDs). Other goals are to prevent mental disorders and SUDs, promote help-seeking behavior, reduce negative public attitudes and improve the identification and treatment of at-risk college students so they can successfully complete their studies. Full Story

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) launched a public comment period on five proposed National Priorities for Health that represent an ambitious approach to frame PCORI’s funding of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) in the years ahead. Public comment on the proposed priorities, which were developed with input from patients and healthcare decision makers, will be open June 28 through Aug. 27 on PCORI’s website. Full Story

A larger more diversified nursing workforce is needed over the next decade to better care for patients in different settings, address the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, break down structural racism, address the root causes of poor health, and better respond to future public health emergencies, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) noted in the report The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. The report identified priorities to meet the needs of the US population and the nursing profession including nurse practitioners along with recommendations for achieving these priorities, reported Clinical Adviser. 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.