APNA 33rd Annual Conference Attendee Info
Click here to access a collection of information and resources to help you navigate the premier event for psychiatric-mental health nursing and have an inspiring experience.

Get to Know the 2019 APNA Annual Awards Recipients
This year's award recipients provide compassionate care to a stigmatized population, lead initiatives to establish one of the first psychiatric hospitals in the world with Magnet Designation, conduct extensive research into youth suicide prevention, and more. Each nurse's story represents the inspirational work psychiatric-mental health nurses do every day. Click here to read their stories.

Understanding the Brain-Behavior Connection
Introducing a new Certificate Program to assist RNs and APRNs in gaining an understanding of the biological basis for behavior. Click here to learn more and register.

Suicide Prevention Month and Recovery Month 2019
September is both Suicide Prevention Month and Recovery Month, so access two educational sessions free through 9/30. Click here to learn more.

Walmart is moving deeper into the primary care and mental health market, opening a new clinic called Walmart Health in Dallas, GA, reported CNBC. The Dallas location will give patients access to comprehensive and low-cost primary care, including for mental health issues. The clinic is in a separate building next door to a Walmart store to give a sense of privacy for patients. Full Story

The first medically integrated urgent care center with behavioral health in the country opened in Neptune, NJ according to Hackensack Meridian Health officials. The health network announced the urgent care center as part of its strategy to improve access and treatment for people with mental health issues and addiction, reported NJ.com. Full Story

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have achieved long-term recovery from opioid use disorder, according to an study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine. For the study, researchers from Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed data from the 2017 National Recovery Survey, which featured a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults who reported resolving an opioid issue. Full Story

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and PlatformQ Health, a provider of digital education for clinicians and patients across the therapeutic spectrum, announced a new initiative to elevate the way clinicians diagnose and treat mental illness, and empower the millions of Americans who personally face conditions like depression and bipolar to make the best choices for their lives. Full Story

A team of scientists led by Australia’s National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) examined the the benefits of nutrient supplements in assisting in the management of certain mental health disorders. Although the majority of nutritional supplements assessed did not significantly improve mental health, the researchers found strong evidence that certain supplements are an effective additional treatment for some mental disorders, supportive of conventional treatment, reported PsychCentral. Full Story

A Veterans Health Administration program that provides video-enabled tablets to veterans who live in rural areas, lack transportation, or face other barriers to care improves both access to mental health care and continuity of care, a study in Psychiatric Services in Advance has found. Tablet recipients had more encounters with mental health professionals regarding medications, were more likely to have participated in at least three psychotherapy visits in a six-week period (a measure of continuity of care), and missed or canceled a smaller proportion of their scheduled appointments than participants in the control group. Full Story

A medication that boosts the body’s own cannabis-like substances called endocannabinoids may offer a new way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study at the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience in Sweden. The scientists who carried out the new study examined whether fear extinction learning, the principle behind PE therapy, can be boosted by a medication, reported PsychCentral. Full Story

The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2019, H.R. 4194, introduced in August, would authorize states to collect a small fee to fund local crisis call centers across the U.S. If enacted, H.R. 4194 would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to designate 9–8–8 as the universal telephone number as the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system, which would operate through both the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Veterans Crisis Line, reported The Ripon Advance. Full Story

The Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee proposed a $350 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the 2020 fiscal year budget. The subcommittee also included $10 million in funding to implement the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (P.L. 115-406), legislation championed by the Alzheimer’s Association and its advocacy arm, the Alzheimer's Impact Movement (AIM) in the 115th Congress. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced more than $1.8 billion in funding to states to continue the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis by expanding access to treatment and supporting near real-time data on the drug overdose crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more than $900 million in new funding for a three-year cooperative agreement with states, territories, and localities to advance the understanding of the opioid overdose epidemic and to scale-up prevention and response activities, releasing $301 million for the first year. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded approximately $932 million to all 50 states as part of its State Opioid Response grants. By the end of 2019, Full Story

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.