Winning Ideas!
Three first-place poster presentations from the APNA 37th Annual Conference offer a variety of PMH nursing insights. Get a peek at what they shared.

ANCC Proposed Initial APRN Certification Eligibility Criteria
APNA sent this organizational response to ANCC, based on feedback from members and review from APNA experts in psychiatric-mental health nursing education and practice. Thanks to the members who shared their feedback!

Presenting the APNA Annual Activity Report
Each year APNA provides its members with a report on the status and happenings of the association, which is distributed in hard copy at the Annual Conference. This document contains financial reports, Chapter activity, Council and Task Force activity, and more.  View the 2023 Annual Activity Report

Stay up-to-date with new MSUD course
This free course, MSUD: Medications For Substance Use Disorders – 2023, is jointly provided by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), and Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS). The course features 9 modules with content for nurses offering medication — including buprenorphine — for persons with substance use disorders. Learn more and Register

Championing Safe & Effective Staffing
Quality inpatient psychiatric care depends on sufficient staffing levels, as well as teams of staff with particular expertise and capabilities. APNA’s position, outlined in the updated position paper Staffing Inpatient Psychiatric Units, is that when PMH nurse staffing is appropriate, adverse events decline and overall outcomes improve, including cost outcomes. Read the Executive Summary, then explore the complete paper, recently published in The Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. 

Master Motivational Interviewing
Presented by Motivational Interviewing expert Carol Essenmacher, DNP, PMHCNS-BC, this newly redesigned training provides you with practical nursing strategies to incorporate this evidence-based approach into your practice. Through a case study exemplar and guided practice, you'll learn flexible, strategic interventions to form therapeutic interpersonal relationships and support healthy behavior change. Learn more and Register

APNA Annual Conference Reminders
Thanks to the PMH nurses who joined the conference to learn and connect! Remember to complete your evaluations and generate your contact hours certificate by November 14th. You will receive an email in the coming months when session recordings are available to you in the APNA eLearning Center.

The Food and Drug Administration published a new draft guidance to assist sponsors in developing treatments for stimulant use disorders. The guidance, Stimulant Use Disorders: Developing Drugs for Treatment, when finalized, will be the first to provide the FDA’s current thinking on the overall development program and clinical trial design to develop drugs and biologics to support treatment of moderate to severe cocaine use disorder, methamphetamine use disorder and prescription stimulant use disorder. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announced $206 million in grant awards towards youth mental health. Also, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make more Medicaid funding available for school-based health services in Virginia, improving health care access, including mental health services. Combined, these awards will help expand access to mental health services for students in schools, bolster the behavioral health workforce, and improve access to mental health prevention and treatment for children and youth in communities across the country. Full Story

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided to remove the national coverage determination (NCD) that limits patients’ ability to qualify for new drugs, giving people with Alzheimer’s disease symptoms a better path to treating the condition, reported FiercePharma.com. The policy means amyloid PET scans will no longer be limited and will give patients a better chance of being prescribed a drug like Eisai's Leqembi, which clears beta amyloid proteins from the brain to slow the advances of Alzheimer’s. Full Story

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), recently awarded $232.2 million in grants for suicide prevention and behavioral health care for at-risk communities, including more than $200 million in new funding for states, territories, and Tribal nations and organizations to build local capacity for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and related crisis services. Full Story

Adults with psychiatric illness experienced fewer disruptions in receiving psychotherapy following the transition to virtual psychiatric care that accompanied the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large study has shown. Over the entire study period, individuals with depressive, anxiety, or bipolar disorders were more likely to maintain consistent psychotherapy visits, whereas those with schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, conduct or disruptive disorders, dementia, or personality disorders were more likely to have a disruption in their visits, reported MedScape.com. Full Story

A new bill, the Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Act which is designed to combat the health care workforce shortage would, if passed, funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to provide scholarships and debt forgiveness for 20,000 health care workers, including mental health professionals. The additional funding would increase the amount currently allocated to the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) from $310 million to $950 million, reported Behavioral Health Business. Full Story

The federal government will extend COVID-era telehealth flexibilities until December 2024, dramatically extending the runway for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to establish new rules for using telehealth and controlled substances, reported Behavioral Health Business. Full Story

Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced the launch of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus. The Caucus is a forum for Senators and their staff to collaborate on and promote mental health solutions, hold events to raise awareness of critical mental health issues, and reduce stigma. Full Story

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing published a first-of-its-kind resource for community-based provider organizations and states working to leverage the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model to expand access to high-quality care. CCBHCs: A Vision for the Future of Community Behavioral Health Care outlines a national vision for excellence in community mental health and substance use care and describes how clinics can leverage their CCBHC status to transform the experience of accessing care. 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.