LOUISIANA Community Mental Health Services Block Grant ...

into ten equal amounts (i.e., 1/10 th of the funding would go to each Region/ LGE). The Assistant
Secretary approved the proposal, and these changes are being phased in over a three year period,
beginning with the 2011 Block Grant.
The Office of Behavioral Health Workforce Development Bureau has provided the OBH staff with a
variety of best practice/ continuing education opportunities. The goal of these activities is to
ultimately enhance the quality of services provided to clients. The Workforce Development Bureau
has continued to serve in the role of strengthening community-based services by enhancing capacity,
and utilization of best practices. The Bureau has accomplished several trainings each year. The
Bureau also works to provide OBH staff with continued education. There is a mechanism in place
for Psychologists, Social Workers, and Licensed Professional Counselors to earn Continuing
Education Units for appropriate workshops and learning experiences in order to maintain licensure by
their respective licensing boards.
Inequitable opportunities for continuing education and learning have lead to the initiation of a
learning management system, Essential Learning. The system provides online training, provision of
continuing education credits and a learning management system to track training. Essential
Learning, while originally funded through the Co-Occurring State Incentive Grant (COSIG), has
been maintained for ongoing use. It has been utilized by staff members wishing to obtain the
Certified Co-Occurring Disorder Professional credential offered by Louisiana Association of
Substance Abuse Counselors and Trainers (LASACT). Another major project utilizing Essential
Learning was the online registration and evaluation for the Level of Care Utilization System
(LOCUS) training provided in 2009. Skills development, credentialing, and competency reviews are
seen as important for the continuing development and expansion of an effective, efficient workforce.
Emphasis is on the implementation of evidence based practices within OBH.
A continuing critical gap is in the level of crisis response services for adults, children, youth and their
families. It has long been recognized that this basic service component needs to be further
augmented to meet the demand. The unprecedented recent crises that have occurred in Louisiana
have drawn further attention to this need, and measures have been taken to improve the available
services and emergency response. Each community region has maintained the basic elements of a
twenty-four hour crisis response system in the form of hotlines, crisis evaluation, and regional acute
inpatient units. However, resources are not at a sufficient level to meet the need, and mobile crisis
response services are very limited or unavailable. The capacity to respond to bio-terrorism and/or
disasters of any type is inadequate, but has improved substantially with the initiation of several
training programs that have been offered to OBH employees. In addition, the State has administered
the Louisiana Spirit Crisis Counseling Program (CCP) under the Hurricane Katrina/ Rita and
Hurricane Gustav, CCP grants. OBH is now providing services to the communities along the Gulf
that are impacted by the oil spill resulting from the explosion of the British Petroleum Deepwater
Horizon oil rig.
National Incident Management System (NIMS) training has been made a requirement of employment
by OBH. OBH maintains a registry of appropriately credentialed behavioral health professionals
who are able to provide assistance in disaster mental health, stress management, and multiphase
response to disaster incidents. This registry includes both OBH employees and health professionals
from the private sector.
PART C LOUISIANA FY 2011 PAGE 85
SECTION II: ADULT & CHILD/ YOUTH
IDENTIFICATION & ANALYSIS OF SERVICE SYSTEM’S STRENGTHS, NEEDS, & PRIORITIES
UNMET SERVICE NEEDS & PLANS TO ADDRESS UNMET NEEDS