Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Consumer Advocate Eric Arauz Named Champions of Psychiatric Nursing by APNA
At the APNA 26th Annual Conference, Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Consumer Advocate Eric Arauz were honored with the APNA Champion of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Award. This award honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to and demonstrated tremendous support of the psychiatric mental health nursing profession and the field of mental health. Click here to read more.

Resources for the Upcoming CPT Changes
Over the past two and a half years, a group of APNA members and staff have been working with ANA on changes to the AMA Current Procedural Code (CPT) and the associated relative values used by the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) in setting reimbursement fee schedules. These changes become effective January 1, 2013.

To help psychiatric-mental health nurses prepare for the changes, APNA and ANA are producing a webinar that will be available in mid-December. In the meantime, to help you prepare, we received permission from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to share a link from their web site that contains an excellent resource on CPT codes and the upcoming changes. Click here to view the resource.

Congrats to the APNA Pennsylvania Chapter!
Just a couple of weeks ago at the Annual Conference, the APNA Pennsylvania Chapter received the 2012 APNA Award for Innovation - Chapter right on their home turf in Pittsburgh. Chapter members, as part of the Local Arrangements Committee, helped to make this year's conference a blast. Throughout the conference they ran a silent auction, featuring items such as gift baskets, Chapter conference registrations, and local artwork. The auction was a great success, raising almost $5,000 for the APN Foundation! The chapter also helped plan Friday evening’s event at Heinz Field, home to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Over 800 attendees and their families showed up in their team colors and enjoyed tours of the stadium as well as a live band. Special thanks to the APNA PA Chapter for all of their hard work! Read more about the chapter here.

Two groups of researchers working from entirely different starting points have converged on a mutated gene involved in the immune system’s role in protecting against Alzheimer’s disease. The mutation is suspected of interfering with the brain’s ability to prevent the buildup of plaque, reported the New York Times on the Web. The discovery, researchers say, provides clues to how and why the disease progresses. The gene, known as TREM2, is only the second found to increase Alzheimer’s risk substantially in older people. Full Story

The National Council has issued a new report which highlights behavioral health needs of veterans. Click here to read the report.

Nurses Service Organization (NSO) in collaboration with CNA Healthpro has published Nurse Practitioner 2012 Liability Update: A Three-part Approach. The report contains an analysis of nurse practitioner malpractice claims over a five-year period, which identifies current nurse practitioner liability patterns and trends most likely to affect NP practices. In addition to the claims analysis, the report also explores claims involving licensing board actions brought against NSO insureds, as well as selected highlights from NSO's work profile survey examining the relationship between key workplace factors and professional liability exposure. Click here to download the report.

PCORI released a funding announcement to support research that addresses methodological gaps in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). PCORI will award $12 million for up to 14 contracts that collaborate with patients and stakeholders advance address knowledge gaps and advance the field of comparative clinical effectiveness research. Click here for more information.

Researchers report a sharp decline in the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to aid individuals with severe depression, reported PsychCentral.com. ECT is considered the most effective treatment option for patients with severe depression who cannot find symptom relief through antidepressant medications or psychotherapy. However, researchers found a sharp decline in the availability and use of ECT in general hospitals across the U.S. The findings were published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Full Story

Controlling depression in patients with heart failure can improve health status, social functioning and quality of life, according to a study. Although depression has been known to worsen a variety of diseases, the study is one of the first to show that reducing symptoms of the mental health condition can benefit physical health, reported Nurse.com. "The improved endurance measurements were especially striking," Glen Xiong, MD, the study’s lead author and an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis, said in a news release. "I think clinicians will be more motivated to both screen and treat depressive symptoms in people with heart failure because of the significant functional improvements." Full Story

Six Hawai'i nurses have recently received national honors and appointments from national professional nursing organizations, including APNA members Niddhi Chabora and Allen Novak. Full Story.

Three papers discussing the results of the DSM-5 field trials were posted October 30 by AJP in Advance. These papers describe the methods and results of the 23 diagnoses that were assessed. In these first analyses of data from the field trials, 14 of the 23 adult or child psychiatric diagnoses had “very good” or “good” reliability. Among these were autism spectrum disorder and ADHD in children and posttraumatic stress disorder and binge-eating disorder in adults, reported Psychiatric News. Full Story

A key recommendation of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health is to have nurses achieve higher levels of education, with a goal of 80% of nurses holding a bachelor’s degree or higher by 2020. Now, a new study identifies the factors that best predict whether nurses will return to school to earn those degrees. According to the study - part of the RN Work Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - there are a variety of motivators, from desire for advancement to job dissatisfaction, that influence registered nurses (RNs) to pursue a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree or higher. Full Story

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is publishing a proposed rule to implement several key provisions of the Affordable Care Act to prevent insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and protect consumers from the worst insurance company abuses. Full Story

New Jersey’s advanced practice nurses would be able to prescribe medication on their own, without needing a formal agreement -- or joint protocol -- with a consulting physician, under a bill that's being introduced into the Legislature. The measure (S-2354) would make it easier for advanced practice nurses, or APNs, to establish their own practices. It also would eliminate the difficulty of finding a doctor who's willing to sign a joint protocol, reported NJSpotlight.com. Full Story

The National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has endorsed 10 quality measures focused on behavioral health, addressing issues such as alcohol and tobacco abuse, antipsychotic medication adherence, and post care follow-up after hospitalization for mental illness. Full Story

Now that the voters have spoken, what’s next for Congress and President Obama – and what does it all mean for behavioral health? MentalHealthcareReform.org editor Rebecca Farley sits down with the National Council’s Linda Rosenberg, President & CEO and Chuck Ingoglia, Senior Vice President for Public Policy, to learn more. Click here to read the interview.

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