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Current Reform Efforts for children and youth by State Office of Mental Health:
I. Positive Behavioral Supports
In 2003, Louisiana�s Juvenile Justice Reform Act (1225) required that |
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| Louisiana's Board of Elementary and Secondary
Education (BESE) formulate, develop, and recommend a Model Master Plan for improving
behavior and discipline within schools that includes the utilization of Positive Behavioral
Supports and other effective disciplinary tools. Each city, parish, and other local public
school board will be responsible for the development of local master plan that must be
approved by BESE. The master plan must include providing improved mental health services
in or through schools, with a focus on: |
- The identification of student's mental health needs,
- The matching of student's needs with available local resources including public, non-public and/or volunteer organizations, and
- The utilization of the pending inclusion of mental health services in the Medicaid Health Services Program.
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plan will also include the following: |
- Revising school zero tolerance policies to guarantee compliance with all applicable provisions of law to ensure that schools do not make inappropriate referrals to agencies serving children.
- Providing better assistance to parents in knowing about and accessing family strengthening programs.
- Improving the coordination of special education and agencies serving children.
- Improving classroom management using Positive Behavioral Supports and other effective disciplinary tools.
- Improving methods and procedures for the handling of school suspensions and the referral of students to alternative schools.
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II. Early Childhood Supports and Services
Early Childhood Supports and Services (ECSS), implemented in the fall of 2002 and currently operating in nine parishes throughout the state, identifies and mitigates the risks for young children, ages birth through five, who are exposed to risk factors such as abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, parental mental illness, prenatal substance abuse, poverty, and development disabilities. |
III. Louisiana Youth Enhanced Services for Mental Health (LA YES)
In 2003, the OMH formed a collaborative of interested stakeholders and obtained funding from SAMHSA for a System of Care project for children with serious emotional disturbances and their families in the amount of $9.5 million for six (6) years. In 2004, legislation was signed into law creating the LAYES Consortium to develop a comprehensive and coordinated community-based system of care for children with serious emotional and behavioral disorders, targeting youth who are at risk of placement or are placed in the Juvenile Justice System and/or the Child Welfare System. |
IV. Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint
In 2004, the OMH was awarded a $610,000 federal grant for the purpose of increasing the use of alternatives to seclusion and restraint in the child and adolescent inpatient facilities. The project is focusing on continuous improvement efforts in the areas of staff training, education, and evaluation in the use of best practices with children and adolescents age 6 to 18. The project implements the Child Welfare League of America's (CWLA) Best Practices in Behavior and Support. |
- Of the conditions seen at school-based health clinics, the mental health category was second only to general preventive Medicare (Louisiana Office of Public Health)
- Teen suicide is the 3 rd leading cause of death for adolescents (Louisiana Office of Public Health)
- Approximately 1,229 foster children or 18% annually of all children in foster care are placed in residential treatment facilities due to their complex mental health care needs
- Nearly 40% of the 500 youth placed in secure care have a serious emotional disturbance. (Office of Youth Services)
- Faq Currently 97% of individuals served by the Office of Mental Health are served in the Community by 60% of the OMH's budget and 72% of staff support the inpatient settings
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| What kind of outrage would there be if a child with asthma was told to "tough it out" no matter how bad their breathing got because they had already used up all of their benefits? |
LAFFCMH's dream is that every child's mental health would be treated just as importantly as any other illness. |
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