President’s Message: A Little Help from My Friends
We did more than just get by this year – we got going! Throughout another year influenced by the pandemic, the APNA community has been an oasis of social connection, practical nursing wisdom, and professional inspiration for me and so many others. Read More

Member News
Deborah and Gregory Jones highlighted for their shared career paths; Nadia Charania published article on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nursing Education; Paula Alexander-Delpech named Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Frontier Nursing University; Vincent Guilamo-Ramos received an AAN Edge Runner award; and Rebekah Cook, Tammy Miller and Valeria Reiser recognized with DAISY Awards. Learn More

PMH-NP Programs & Psychotherapeutic Skills – New Research
Psychotherapy is a core part of the PMH-APRN role – but how are current graduate programs ensuring that students acquire skills in this area? Research spearheaded by APNA members and published in JAPNA investigates. Find Out More

#PMHCon Welcomes APNA Memorial Scholarship’s First Recipients
Meet Christina Dynamite, BSN, RN-BC, NC-BC, and Heidi McNeeley, BA, RN, BSN who received the inaugural APNA Memorial Scholarships. They’ll be honored at the APNA Annual Conference next month. Learn About Christina & Heidi

Am I within my scope?
One key part of safe and effective care, as well as protecting yourself as a health care professional, is ensuring you practice within your scope of practice. Here’s Info to Help

The PMH Nursing Workforce, as Brought to Light by an APNA Task Force
The APNA 2022 Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Workforce Report is the first in a series of publications on the workforce, summarizing data collected through the APNA PMH Nursing Workforce Survey. Read more

Suicide Prevention Month & National Recovery Month Resources
Get support from a range of helpful education and resources on suicide prevention and recovery curated by APNA nurses. Start Exploring

APNA’s Journal has a New Associate Editor
Following a search and interview process conducted by the JAPNA Associate Editor Search Committee, the APNA Board of Directors has named Michelle DeCoux Hampton, RN, PhD, MS, as the incoming Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (JAPNA). Learn More

There’s still time to register for the APNA 36th Annual Conference!
Receive updates on PMH nursing, connect with colleagues, and earn SO MANY contact hours at the APNA Annual Conference. Register today!

A new study, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety (JQPS), “Spreading a Strategy to Prevent Suicide After Psychiatric Hospitalization: Results of a Quality Improvement Spread Initiative,” provided programmatic support to implement Brief Intervention and Contact (BIC) locally to six U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers serving large rural populations with low to moderate performance on a VA quality measure of mental health postdischarge care. The measure assesses the proportion of discharged patients who complete a required number of visits. Full Story

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the SAINT Neuromodulation System for the treatment of refractory depression in adults. SAINT is an innovative form of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that combines MRI-guided selection of the targeted brain region with an accelerated stimulation regimen involving multiple short TMS sessions every day for five days, reported Psychiatric News. Full Story

Some cases of Alzheimer’s disease may be driven by the genetic risk factors that can underlie depression, according to an NIA-supported data-mining study by researchers at Emory University School of Medicine. The results, published in Biological Psychiatry, suggest that the activity of at least seven genes may help explain why depression appears to increase the chances one may experience Alzheimer’s. Full Story

From 2011 to 2019, the number of psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners increased 162%, compared with a 6% relative decline in the number of psychiatrists, according to a study published in Health Affairs. During this time, annual mental health office visits per 100 beneficiaries decreased 11.5% from 27.4 to 24.2. This was due to a 29% drop in psychiatrist visits being offset by a 111.3% surge in visits with psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, reported FierceHealthcare.com. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is awarding more than $1.6 billion in investments for communities throughout the country addressing the addiction and overdose crises. The investments made through SAMHSA’s State Opioid Response (SOR) and Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grant programs and HRSA’s rural communities opioid response programs will help communities looking to leverage every tool at their disposal – from prevention to harm reduction to treatment and recovery supports for people in need. Full Story

Unarmed mental health professionals responded to more than 3,300 911 calls in Minneapolis over the first six months of a pilot program meant to reduce the need for police or ambulances for people experiencing mental health crises, reported Axios.com. Full Story

Researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) published a paper in NEJM Catalyst showing that telehealth can be used to expand mental healthcare services to nursing home residents. Researchers examined data from 29 nursing homes that implemented the program before the pandemic. They found that between 2017 and 2019, antipsychotic use among long-stay residents in the facilities decreased by 37%. During the pandemic, the program was expanded to 53 nursing homes. Antipsychotic use among long-stay residents in these nursing homes also decreased, reported mHealthIntellegence.com. Full Story

The Joint Commission has released Speak Up™ At Your Telehealth Visit, a new patient safety campaign designed to educate healthcare consumers on how to navigate virtual healthcare as it changes the way patients and providers can interact. Full Story

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) announced the launch of LaSaludMental.org, a website dedicated to hosting Spanish-language information and resources on mental health and substance use disorders that are culturally competent and evidence-based. The new site features resources on five of the most commonly searched conditions related to mental health: depression, domestic violence, stigma, substance use disorders and suicide. LaSaludMental.org will also develop and host information on additional mental health conditions over time. Full Story

Almost a quarter of all young adults received mental health care treatment last year, according to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The number of adults aged 18 to 44 who received mental health care in the past 12 months saw the biggest increase from 2019, rising from 18.5% to 23.2%. The percentage of all adults who received mental health treatment also increased from 19.2% in 2019 to 21.6% in 2021, reported The Hill. Full Story

The Improving Care and Access to Nurses (ICAN) Act introduced by Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) would remove barriers to practice under the Medicare and Medicaid programs by increasing access to health care services provided by advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), reported ClinicalAdvisor.com. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced approval of the Oregon Health Authority’s proposal to cover community-based mobile crisis intervention services in Medicaid. Made possible by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the new first-in-the-nation Medicaid State plan amendment will allow Oregon to provide community-based stabilization services to individuals experiencing mental health and/or substance use crises throughout the state by connecting them to a behavioral health specialist 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Full Story

California governor Gavin Newsom recently signed the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act. It would let family members, first responders and others ask a judge to draw up a treatment plan for someone diagnosed with certain disorders, including schizophrenia. Those who refuse could be placed under a conservatorship and ordered to comply, reported MedScape.com. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration (Roadmap), which details policy solutions that would help to better integrate mental health and substance use care into the larger health care system and other systems. Full Story

A recent $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will enable the American Academy of Pediatrics to establish a National Center of Excellence on Social Media and Mental Wellness, which the AAP has named Center of Excellence: Creating a Healthy Digital Ecosystem for Children and Youth. Full Story

A new report from the National Quality Forum (NQF) offers five recommendations for using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to effectively facilitate, measure, and improve care communication and care coordination across multiple healthcare settings. The recommendations also are intended to promote greater accountability. Better use of EHR-sourced data is critical to measure and improve the quality of care in general, and also essential to promoting equitable health outcomes. 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 as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.