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 29th. You will receive an email in 2-3 months when session recordings are available to you in the APNA eLearning Center.

Novel IDEAS Moving Whole Health Forward
In his first APNA Board of Directors column for the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, APNA President Zim Okoli explores drivers of change for psychiatric-mental health nursing and whole health. Read More

2022 APNA Annual Awards Recipients
Discover the stories of this year's APNA Annual Awards recipients! As you read each inspiring profile, celebrate that you are a part of this PMH nursing community that brings hope and healing to those in need! Read the Stories

2022 APNA Annual Activity Report
APNA has published the 2022 APNA Annual Activity Report. The Annual Activity Report affirms that your organization of professionals continues to support who you are, what you need, and what you do. Thank you to the many dedicated members who gave their time, wisdom, and guidance to make these accomplishments possible. Read the Report

In a study of more than 100,000 emergency room visits and 95,000 mental health hospitalizations of youth and young adults with private insurance, less than half who visited the emergency room had follow-up care within 30 days and two-thirds of those hospitalized received follow-up care within that same time period. Among youth and young adults who visited the emergency room for a mental health reason, about 29% received follow-up within seven days and 46% within 30 days. Among those hospitalized, 43% received follow-up care within seven days and 67% within 30 days. Full Story

Eisai Co., Ltd. and Biogen Inc. announced positive topline results from Eisai’s large global Phase 3 confirmatory Clarity AD clinical trial of lecanemab, an investigational anti-amyloid beta (Aβ) protofibril antibody for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild AD with confirmed presence of amyloid pathology in the brain. Full Story

From 2020 to 2021, reported violence at Allegheny Health Network facilities fell by 20%, and reported cases of staff being struck by combative patients dropped by 29%, reported Jamie Elyse Malone, MSN, RN, during a presentation at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association annual meeting. These improvements are likely due to a series of strategies such as emergency response teams, the flagging of violent patients, and crisis intervention training, reported MedpageToday.com. Full Story

Rescue Biomedical has received a $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for its opioid overdose treatment, reported Drug Delivery Business News. The company developed a subcutaneous device that detects when a person is overdosing on an opioid and delivers naloxone to reverse the action. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) made several recent announcements:

• A new funding opportunity, authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), for states to develop and transform Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) to address the country’s mental health crisis. CCBHCs provide crisis services that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and serve anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay. In addition to the nearly $300 million awarded in September for new and existing CCBHCs, $15 million in additional funding is now being announced for CCBHC planning. This additional round of planning grants kicks off national CCBHC expansion under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and will expand access to planning grants for CCBHC’s to all 50 states. Full Story
• More than $100 million in funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to states and territories for mental health emergency preparedness, crisis response, and the expansion of 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline services. Full Story
• Awards of nearly $27 million to improve and expand mental health care for children. This funding will offer timely mental health support to children and adolescents by training pediatricians and other children’s health care providers in treating mental health conditions and by providing tele-consultation to bring mental health expert support directly to pediatric primary care providers. Full Story

The investigational agent xanomeline-trospium (KarXT, Karuna Therapeutics) achieves significant and clinically meaningful improvements in schizophrenia symptom scores without causing problematic adverse effects, new research suggests. Results from the phase 3 EMERGENT-2 trial, which included more than 250 patients with schizophrenia, showed that those who received xanomeline-trospium for 5 weeks achieved a significant reduction in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total scores of more than nine points compared with their peers who received placebo. In addition, the improvements started at week 2, reported MedScape.com. Full Story

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting the wellbeing, data, and privacy of children using online platforms. AB 2273 establishes the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, which requires online platforms to consider the best interest of child users and to default to privacy and safety settings that protect children’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Full Story

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience recently launched the National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being. The National Plan calls on multiple actors – including health care and public health leaders, government, payers, industry, educators, and leaders in other sectors – to help drive policy and systems change. Full Story

An international commission has developed a roadmap to end stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness by 2030, and calls on a massive response by governments, industry, the media, employers, and others, reported MedScape. The Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health recommends aggressive steps to address stigma, which authors say is often worse than the mental illness itself. Suggested actions include decriminalizing suicide, providing mental health training for healthcare staff, and developing guidelines for accurately depicting mental health in the media. Full Story

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released a report designed to help bolster efforts to monitor and prevent opioid-related deaths and overdoses, which have increased at an alarming rate since 2019. The report presents use cases, solutions to common barriers, and guiding principles for implementing Opioids and Behavioral Health Measurement Framework. Full Story

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has published a new report on the global mental health nursing workforce entitled Time to Prioritize and Invest in Mental Health and Wellbeing. Respondents to the ICN survey indicated that there are multiple reasons why there are insufficient numbers of mental health nurses, including poor planning and regulatory environments, limited incentives to pursue a career in mental health; inadequate education preparation; the lack of reward and recognition and the lingering stigma attached to mental health. Full Story

Mental Health America (MHA) released its annual State of Mental Health in America report, which ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 15 mental health access and prevalence measures. In this new report, using 2020 data, Wisconsin (1), Pennsylvania (2), and Massachusetts (3) were the top three ranking states. Arizona (49), Oregon (50), and Kansas (51) ranked at the bottom. 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.