LOUISIANA Community Mental Health Services Block Grant ...

significantly reduced school drop-out rates, decreased hospitalization, and decreased recidivism
among at-risk youth.
Utilization of state hospital beds dropped significantly with the introduction of community-based
Mental Health Rehabilitation (MHR) services and the development of brief stay psychiatric acute
units within general public hospitals. Moreover, Louisiana and OBH have a network of services
that provide alternatives to hospitalization for children/ youth in Louisiana through a broad array of
community support services and consumer-run alternatives. Housing, employment, educational,
rehabilitation, and support services programs, which take into account a recovery-based philosophy
of care, all contribute to reductions in hospitalization.
In the event of crisis, hospitalization is a last resort, after community alternatives are tried and/or
ruled out prior to inpatient hospitalization in a state inpatient facility. Implementation of the
statewide Continuity of Care policy continues to enhance joint hospital-community collaboration
with the goals of improved outcomes post-discharge including reduced recidivism.
Another avenue of care that has shown to reduce hospitalization rates is the Mental Health
Rehabilitation (MHR) program that allows greater flexibility of services; and the ability to cover
additional services such as FFT and MST, that are consumer driven and recovery-focused. The
previously discussed move of the MHR program into the DHH Medicaid Office should improve the
availability of resources and flexibility to an even greater extent. Each OMH Region/ LGE also has
specific initiatives aimed at reducing hospitalization and/or shortening hospital stays.
Many other programs previously discussed have either directly or indirectly had an impact on the
utilization of inpatient services. For example the Louisiana Integrated Treatment Services (LITS)
model for persons with Co-occurring Mental and Substance Disorders has resulted in increasing
access to community services and reducing the need for hospitalization. The development of crisis
services throughout the state is another example of programming that has resulted in decreased
hospital utilization. The expanding use of telemedicine has also shown great promise and results.
Fiscal legislation passed in the 2009 legislative session allowed OMH to close one of its state
hospitals, New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (NOAH), and transfer the child/adolescent and adult
acute beds to Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH); and with the savings in operational costs,
allowed for the opening of two new community mental health clinics in locations convenient to
consumers in the New Orleans area. On March 11, 2010, Department of Health and Hospitals‟
Secretary Alan Levine joined fellow Louisianans in celebrating the opening of two new communitybased
outpatient mental health care clinics for children, adolescents and their families in the Greater
New Orleans area. The opening of Midtown and West Bank Clinics mark another milestone in the
state‟s creation of a robust, community-based mental health system statewide.
The Midtown and West Bank clinics will annually provide public outpatient mental health care for
1,200 children and adolescents from birth to 18 years of age, and their families. The clinics also
serve as a home base for other public mental health care services that can be delivered in homes,
schools and other locations throughout the community. Services include Multi-Systemic Therapy;
Dialectical Behavior Therapy; individual, group and family therapy; and medication management
services.
In addition to the two new outpatient clinics for children and adolescents, DHH‟s Office of
Behavioral Health works with Family Service of Greater New Orleans to provide 24-hour mental
PART C LOUISIANA FY 2011 PAGE 218
SECTION III: CHILD/ YOUTH PLAN – CRITERION 1
COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES -- SYSTEM OF CARE & AVAILABLE SERVICES