ClearHealth Quality Institute™ (CHQI) – a new accreditation organization that develops standards incorporating the next generation of quality and outcome measures – is establishing comprehensive accreditation standards to promote compliance with mental health parity laws. Parity means that health insurance plans must cover mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment the same way they cover treatment for physical health conditions. APNA Board of Directors Member-at-Large Michael Rice served on the advisory panel for the organization. Full Story

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently published Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. The report outlines the state of the science regarding prescription opioid abuse and misuse, as well as the evolving role that opioids play in pain management. Click here to access the report.

Fifty-one percent of all opioid medications distributed in the U.S. each year are prescribed to adults with mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, new research from the University of Michigan and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth shows, reported MLive.com. "Despite representing only 16% of the adult population, adults with mental health disorders receive more than half of all opioid prescriptions distributed each year in the U.S.," said Matthew Davis, lead author of the study and assistant professor at UM's School of Nursing. Full Story

The brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease appear to show both increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria compared to healthy brains, according to a new U.K. study which used DNA sequencing to evaluate the postmortem brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The new findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, support growing evidence that bacterial infection and inflammation in the brain may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, reported PsychCentral.com. Full Story

The pattern of brain activity in response to tests that examine emotional regulation could help identify which patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) would benefit most from a form of psychotherapy, and it may point to novel therapies, reported MedScape. In the first of two articles published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, investigators showed that in patients with PTSD who had the greatest response to exposure therapy, there was a significant difference in patterns of brain activation during the performance of two of three emotional regulation tasks. Full Story

Minocycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic frequently used to treat acne, may be a useful adjunct to improve global functioning and quality of life in people with major depressive disorder (MDD), reported MedScape. Full Story

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded more than $12 million to 23 states and the District of Columbia to support their responses to the opioid overdose epidemic. The funds will be used to strengthen prevention efforts and better track of opioid-related overdoses. CDC expects to announce additional funding awards for state opioid overdose prevention programs later in the summer. Full Story

NAMI announced the nationwide expansion of their flagship teen program, Ending the Silence, due to a generous gift from Former Second Lady of the U.S., Tipper Gore. The $1 million gift will enable NAMI affiliates throughout the country to adopt the early intervention program so that more middle school and high school students will have access to the program, that is designed to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness and help young people get the treatment they need. Full Story

A statewide education campaign is seeking to reduce suicide among middle-aged men in Massachusetts. Developed by the state Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts-based organization Screening for Mental Health, the campaign aims to increase help-seeking and awareness of suicide and mental health issues among men ages 25 to 64. The campaign website, MassMen.org, offers anonymous mental health screenings, educational information, a local resource directory, and stories of men who have experienced suicide and mental illness. Full Story

Nurse practitioners are more in demand than most physicians as states allow direct access to patients for these increasingly popular health professionals, reported Forbes. Only family physicians, psychiatrists and internists are more in demand than nurse practitioners, according to the latest snapshot into the U.S. healthcare workforce from MerrittHawkins. Full Story

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to transfer responsibility for the state's four state psychiatric hospitals, community-based mental health and addiction services, and other behavioral health programs from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Health this summer, reported Philly.com. The surprise move - which has triggered concern among some lawmakers and advocates - would involve the relocation of more than 200 state workers and $975 million in state and federal funding for the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). Full Story

The National Institutes on Aging engaged leading experts from academia, industry and non-profit foundations, working in Alzheimer’s and other complex diseases, in a strategic planning process to help ensure that the next generation of Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADCs) is poised to accomplish the goals of the National Alzheimer’s Plan. The 166 resulting recommendations, recently published, outline a roadmap for the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Program to leverage historical strengths and unique resources to transform the field of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias research. Full Story

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is launching a new initiative to address the nation’s escalating opioid epidemic. NQF’s National Quality Partners (NQP) will bring together experts from NQF’s membership and from across the nation to develop a practical resource to help healthcare practitioners better manage their patients’ pain while reducing the risk of opioid addiction. NQP will model the new Opioid Stewardship Action Team after other successful efforts to address national healthcare challenges. Last year, NQP issued a playbook to help hospitals strengthen antibiotic stewardship programs and released an issue brief to help providers, communities, and policymakers ensure that the preferences and values of individuals with advanced illness are at the center of their care decisions. Physicians, nurses, consumers, and other Action Team members, will build on current public- and private-sector efforts to address the opioid epidemic, focusing on improving clinicians’ prescribing practices. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration unveiled two new data reports on the state of quality assurance practices related to the workforce in substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities. The quality assurance practices include continuing education requirements for staff, regularly scheduled case review with a supervisor, and case review by an appointed quality review committee. 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.