Legislative

Members of the U.S. Congress on Sept. 23 passed legislation to require health insurers to give the same level of coverage for mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse treatment as for other ailments. Known as mental health parity, the legislation moved toward becoming law after a decade-long crusade by advocates for the mentally ill who say insurers often shortchange people with mental conditions ranging from depression to schizophrenia. The House of Representatives passed a bill for mental health parity, 376-47, and sent it for concurrence to the Senate. Just hours earlier, the Senate approved such legislation as part of a tax bill, 93-2. The White House supports mental health parity but Congress must send President George W. Bush a final bill approved by both chambers before he can sign such legislation into law, reported Reuters. Full Story

The American Psychological Association applauded the signing into law September 25 of the Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act, which clarifies the definition of "disability" to restore the original congressional intent. '"This is an important event, and will have a significant impact for years to come on the lives of people with and without disabilities," said Gwendolyn Puryear Keita, PhD, executive director of APA's public interest directorate. "As a result of judicial decisions, the scope of the original Americans with Disabilities Act had been significantly narrowed, limiting its protection for individuals with certain disabilities such as epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, HIV, psychiatric diagnoses and other mental health conditions. These people were routinely dismissed as 'not disabled enough' to warrant protection of the statute. We are particularly heartened by this change." Full Story

Policy

A committee of researchers and experts in educational and psychological testing has been appointed to revise the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (the Standards) - long considered to be the definitive source for information concerning sound test development and use. Designed to establish criteria for appropriate development, use and interpretation of tests, the Standards have been widely cited by states, federal agencies, private organizations, legislative bodies and even the U.S. Supreme Court. They are based on the premise that effective testing and assessment requires test developers and users to be knowledgeable about validity, reliability and other measurement issues. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced $36 million in new grant programs to 28 states to help older Americans and veterans remain independent and to support people with Alzheimer’s disease to remain in their homes and communities. Just over $19 million of this funding involves a new collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The new initiative builds on the similar missions of HHS and the VA with regard to caring for the populations they serve. In addition, Secretary Leavitt announced a $17 million investment to improve the delivery of home and community-based services to people with Alzheimer’s disease and their family caregivers. Full Story

Issues & Events

A new CDC report finds that in any 2-week period, 5.4% of Americans 12 years of age and older experienced depression. Rates were higher in 40-59 year olds, women, and non-Hispanic black persons than in other demographic groups. Officials also discovered rates of depression were higher among poor persons than among those with higher incomes and that approximately 80% of persons with depression reported some level of functional impairment because of their depression. Additionally, 27% reported serious difficulties in work and home life. Sadly, only 29% of all persons with depression reported contacting a mental health professional in the past year, and among the subset with severe depression, only 39% reported contact., reported PsychCentral . Full Story

The New York Times on the Web looks at the three basic principles that underlie the search for medical truth and the use of clinical trials to obtain it. Full Story

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) awarded the first round of grants to 15 junior faculty nurses from around the country to develop the next generation of academic nurse leaders and strengthen the academic productivity and overall excellence of schools of nursing. The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program will provide $28 million over the next five years to outstanding junior nurse faculty to promote academic careers and thereby address the nursing faculty shortage that contributes to the national nursing shortage. Full Story

Treatment

Individual and group cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in reducing depressive disorders, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder or other trauma symptoms in children and teenagers, according to an extensive review of dozens of studies conducted by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent group of scientists partially funded by the federal government. Full Story

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Memory Disorders Unit report in the journal Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders that combining two types of Alzheimer's drugs works better than giving none or one of the drugs alone to slow cognitive and functional decline. Previous clinical trials have compared the drugs with placebos in short studies of safety and effectiveness, but the MGH group says theirs is the first to look longer-term at patients in a real-world clinical setting, reported Boston.com. Their study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Full Story

APNA News

The four Co-Chairs of the Research Council have been hard at work this year and they want to hear from you! One of their accomplishments has been to create an interactive website for the Council and they would like to welcome you and find out who you are! They would like you to respond to the question, "How are you 'living with' research in your professional life as a psychiatric mental health nurse?" Click here for instructions on how to respond to the question and for other news from the Research Council.

Online registration for the APNA 22nd Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota ends Oct. 8. Click here for more information.