President's Message: Be The Superhero You Are
As fall begins and I prepare wrap up my term of president, I am getting more and more excited for the APNA Annual Conference this October. For me, the conference will represent a culmination of my year as president. Throughout this year I have communicated to you about how we can leverage our expertise and abilities to help change that fact that Americans whose mental health is threatened or who are living with substance use or mental illness symptoms do not have access to the same level of health care as people with other conditions. (Read More)

Nurses in Action: 2018 APNA Annual Awards Recipients
Last issue, we introduced the 2018 Psychiatric Nurse of the Year, Mary Moller, DNP, ARNP, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, CPRP, FAAN, and the 2018 Recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service, Michael Rice, PhD, APRN, FAAN. Now get to know the 8 other recipients before they are honored in person at the APNA 32nd Annual Conference by clicking here.

Member News
Dean Baker discusses Georgia College’s program to address shortage of psychiatric-mental health nurses; Ashley Martin helps expand new medical and psychiatric clinic to improve access to care; Bernadette Melnyk awarded Hillman Foundation Emergent Innovation Grant; Mary Moller, the 2018 APNA Psychiatric Nurse of the Year, profiled by Pacific Lutheran University; Andrew Penn authors blog on meditation retreats; Kathryn Puskar inducted to Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Research Hall of Fame; Roberta Waite appointed executive director of Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services Center; Barbara Wolfe honored with Yale School of Nursing Distinguished Alumna Award. Learn More

Ask the Experts: Alcohol and Opioid Use Research
Can't wait for APNA 32nd Annual Conference? Get one last session sneak peak with this Q&A! Presenter Khadejah F. Mahmoud, PhD(c), MSN, will join the hundreds of psychiatric-mental health nursing subject matter experts in Columbus, Ohio from October 24-27. Her session centers on her research on alcohol and opioid use. Click here for Khadejah's thoughts on the importance of this topic, nurses' readiness to address alcohol and opioid use, and more. (And don't forget, pre-registration for the conference closes on October 15, so register now!)

Free CE for Recovery Month and Suicide Prevention Month
Suicide prevention and recovery promotion play important roles in psychiatric-mental health nursing practice...And because September is both Recovery Month and Suicide Prevention Month, two sessions are being offered free of charge for everyone through September 30.

• What are your Recovery Resilience Innovations? Recovery Interactive Panel
  1.0 Contact Hours
• New York-Presbyterian’s Nursing Suicide Risk Inventory (NSRI): A Daily Nursing Suicide Risk Tool for the Inpatient Psychiatric Setting
  0.75 Contact Hours

The 2018 SAMHSA Voice Awards
Each year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hosts the Voice Awards, a celebration of consumer leaders and writers and producers of television and film who raise awareness and understanding of mental health/substance use disorders. APNA participated once again as a program partner. APNA members Kathleen McDermott, DNP, APRN, PMHNP BC, and Christine Costa, DNP, APRN, PMHNP BC attended this year's awards ceremony on our behalf. Read their recap here.

Resource Roundup

• Free CE: ANA Nurse leadership webinar designed for experienced RNs, November 13th at 1 pm ET
• Substance Use Resources: Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS) offers lessons learned in overcoming barriers to medication assisted treatment (MAT)
• Press Release: 30 Promising Nursing Students Awarded the 2018 APNA Board of Directors Student Scholarship; American Psychiatric Nurses Association Welcomes Members to Board of Directors and 2019 Nominating Committee
• Recovery Resources: Recovery to Practice presents psychopharmacology podcast series

Prepare for your ANCC Certification with ANA Review Courses!
The American Nurses Association Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certification Review Courses provide information relevant to current practice and review materials to prepare for the ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing and Psychiatric-Mental Health NP board certification exam. In addition, participants may earn continuing education contact hours, valuable study tips and information to be utilized in preparing for certification exams. Domains of practice in the workshop reflect the test content outline. Learn more by clicking here. APNA Member Discount Code: APNA-10OFF

New Members: 673 New Members since July!

The share of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is expected to more than double by 2060 as people increasingly survive into older adulthood, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 5 million older adults had Alzheimer’s or a related dementia in 2014, and by 2060 that figure is expected to rise to 13.9 million, or about 3.3% of the U.S. population, according to the study, which evaluated health claims data for more than 28 million Medicare beneficiaries. Click here to access the study.

Treatment with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) may decrease symptoms of anxiety in patients with a range of conditions, including borderline personality disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), new research suggests. In a systematic review and meta-analysis, both placebo-controlled and non-placebo-controlled trials showed that omega-3 had at least some effect on patients with anxiety. This treatment may provide a safer option than "highly addictive" anxiolytics in some patients, lead author Kuan-Pin Su, MD, PhD, vice dean and professor, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, told Medscape Medical News. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The annual survey comprises highly anticipated data that help provide a statistical context for the country’s opioid crisis and other behavioral health matters. According to the study, significantly more people received treatment for their substance use disorder in 2017 than in 2016 (e.g., for illicit drug use disorder, 9.2% in 2016 to 13.0% in 2017); this was especially true for those with heroin-related opioid use disorders, from 37.5% in 2016 to 54.9% in 2017. Full Story To access the report click here.

NACNS has opened its third biennial census of Clinical Nurse Specialists. The data collected about those in this field will be used to inform policy and practice agendas. It is the only source of workforce data on the CNS. If you were educated as a CNS, whether or not you practice under this job description, you are strongly encouraged to participate in the 2018 CNS Census.  To take the survey, click here. Key findings from the 2016 CNS Census, are available by clicking here.

The Alzheimer’s Association is launching an innovative pilot program aimed at enhancing the care people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias receive in assisted living facilities. Modeled after Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) – a “telementoring” program that uses videoconferencing technology to share information – the new pilot will connect dementia care experts with leaders from assisted living communities across the country. The six-month program will combine bi-weekly presentations with interactive case studies to help enhance person-centered, high quality dementia care in community-based settings. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded over $1 billion in opioid-specific grants. The awards support HHS's Five-Point Opioid Strategy, which was launched last year. Click here to learn more about the grant announcements.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Cassipa (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual film (applied under the tongue) for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence. This action provides a new dosage strength (16 milligrams/4 milligrams) of buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual film, which is also approved in both brand name and generic versions and in various strengths. Full Story

A $2.5 million grant to the University of Arizona College of Nursing to fund projects aimed at testing two approaches to mental healthcare for cancer patients and their family caregivers. The project will test precision mental healthcare, or the ability to connect patients with different types of mental healthcare and to adjust that care throughout the course of treatment. Researchers will use Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial, or SMART research methods, reported Patient Engagement HIT. Full Story

The Mental Health Liaison Group wrote to Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker of the House Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi in support of Section 1003 of H.R. 6, the Demonstration Project to Increase Substance Use Provider Capacity Under the Medicaid Program, which would help states address urgent workforce shortages and expand access to needed substance use disorder care. Click here to read the letter.

A bipartisan group of senators want Congress' final opioids package to lift a decades-old restriction on Medicaid funding for substance abuse treatment, reported The Hill. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced a proposal to allow states to use Medicaid money to pay for coverage at addiction treatment facilities for people with diagnosed substance use disorders for up to 90 consecutive days — something prohibited under federal Medicaid law. Full Story

The first ballot question in Massachusetts this November will ask voters whether to adopt new staffing standards for hospitals around the commonwealth. WAMC radio spoke to both sides of the hotly contested issue. Click here to read or listen to the discussion.

On Sept. 20, US Surgeon General Vice Adm. Jerome Adams released Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Spotlight on Opioids. The Spotlight on Opioids assembles opioid-related information from the Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health into one document to better inform the general public, especially family and friends of people with an elevated risk of opioid overdose, opioid misuse, and/or opioid use disorder. Click here to access the resources.

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