LOUISIANA Community Mental Health Services Block Grant ...

CRITERION 5
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – EMERGENCY SERVICE PROVIDER TRAINING
AND EMERGENCY SERVICE TRAINING TO MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS
LOUISIANA FY 2011 - ADULT & CHILD/YOUTH PLAN
OBH makes available a variety of mental health training to providers of emergency services, as well as
emergency services trainings to behavioral health providers. LGEs and Regions have partnered with
and participated in numerous trainings with the Office of Public Health, FEMA, community agencies,
and local emergency command centers. Modifications to preparedness training have included better
delineation of responsibilities between offices, staff/ volunteer roles, locations of services, and other
technicalities. Evacuation procedures and plans have been more closely detailed in the event of a
crisis. Collaboration with other state agencies, non-profit agencies, and other organizations on parish
and local levels has occurred. Continuity of operations plans for all OBH facilities have been
developed and discussion with tabletop meetings conducted to determine feasibility of these plans.
Effective emergency management and incident response activities encompasses a host of preparedness
activities conducted on an ongoing basis, in advance of any potential incident. Preparedness involves
an integrated combination of planning, procedures and protocols, training and exercises. The Division
of Disaster Preparedness readies the Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) to respond rapidly and
effectively to natural and man-made disasters, whether it be an oil spill, terrorism, or a hurricane. A
variety of disaster related trainings are also offered to emergency service providers, as well as
emergency response trainings to behavioral health providers to support efforts to strengthen the state‟s
emergency response capabilities while reducing the psychological impact of a disaster statewide.
OBH regularly updates Call Rosters for pre-assigned personnel to staff medical special needs shelters
in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, and conducts routine training and drills activating
deployment procedures in these procedures. Additional required training for all OBH staff includes
FEMA sponsored National Incident Management System (NIMS) training. At a minimum, all
employees are required to take 2 NIMS courses. Each OBH agency has adopted plans to ensure
training compliance by new hires annually. Through ongoing collaboration with OPH, OBH key
emergency response personnel are engaged in activities and trainings to improve workforce readiness
and response operations in Medical Special Needs Shelters and state and local Emergency Operations
Centers (EOC).
The following documents activities by the Office of Mental Health and/or its affiliates. All trainings
are culturally competent and age/gender-specific to the population served.
Hurricane preparedness and Shelter-in-Place tabletop exercises are regularly conducted as a
training exercise with OBH hospitals and mental health clinics across the State. These drills
provide a learning venue for service providers to help them better understand the impact of
disasters on persons with mental illness and to increase their skill capability to respond to
emergencies in the behavioral health care community, including inpatient and outpatient
environments.
OBH jointly with the Office of Public Health and the Governor's Office of Homeland Security
and Emergency Preparedness provides ongoing training to parish level police/fire/EMS
workers charged with disaster response duties, i.e., critical incident management, mental health
disaster services, bio-terrorism preparedness, mental health response to mass casualties,
PART C LOUISIANA FY 2011 PAGE 161
SECTION III: ADULT & CHILD/ YOUTH PLAN – CRITERION 5
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – EMERGENCY SERVICE PROVIDER TRAINING