Leading Forward Together

For psychiatric-mental health nursing to thrive, we must make our contributions visible, strengthen connections across our work, and invest in conditions that sustain progress. Are you the nurse who protects dignity during distress, the educator who prepares the pipeline, the PMHNP who opens access where care is scarce, the scientist who asks a question that changes practice, the administrator who creates safer conditions, or the nurse who uses your voice when policy decisions do not reflect what patients and communities need?

PMH nurses fight for outcomes because behind each one is a person who trusts us, and that trust calls us to lead. No change is too small when thousands of us make one together, and as one profession together we will carry our legacy forward and raise the standard of mental health care. Whatever your title, role, or duties, you change lives every day. As I begin my year as President, I invite you to take note of how you make an impact and then own it, as our collective power advances psychiatric-mental health care.

The Call for Abstracts for the APNA 41st Annual Conference will open soon, and my theme, Leading Forward Together: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses Shaping the Next Era of Mental Health Care invites all your successes, innovative approaches, and surprising discoveries. Share how you have influenced care by submitting an abstract! Your psychiatric-mental health nursing community will be poised to shape the next era of mental health care with the collective knowledge of hundreds of nurses like you.

Eugenia Flores Millender, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, FAANP
President
American Psychiatric Nurses Association
Published November 2026