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Working through the joint efforts of law enforcement, the med-
ical and other clinical staff and administrators in local public
and private emergency departments and hospitals, local jails,
emergency transportation, emergency call centers, coroner's
offices, mental health and addiction specialists, mental health
lawyers and advocates, and housing specialists, the
Behavioral Health Emergency Services Collaborative devel-
oped the “Community Specific Plan to Address the Needs of
Increasing Numbers of People in Behavioral Health Crisis in
the Greater Baton Rouge Area.”
Factors such as the hurricanes of 2005 and their impact on
the mental health of the pre-existing population and the relo-
cated evacuees, the loss and disruption of the housing and
healthcare infrastructure in the New Orleans area, and the
loss of emergency departments and inpatient psychiatric beds
in the greater New Orleans area, contributed to the 30 percent
increase in the number of adults presenting in psychiatric cri-
sis to local public and private emergency departments in the
capital area. This increase was the impetus for the formation
of the collaborative. The capital area community continues to
struggle with a greatly increased population suffering with
mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness. The col-
laborative concluded early on that without a continuum of
services to prevent and address the demand for ongoing
behavioral health treatment and crisis services, there would
never be an appropriate, successful response to the needs of
the population.
The components of the continuum developed by the collabo-
rative are as follows:
1.Standardized screening and assessment tools & training for
use in all Emergency Departments
2.Access Service: Immediate public mental health/addictive
disorders clinic screen/assessment/treatment or referral.
These clinics currently receive over 47,000 calls annually
3.Interagency Services Coordination: Development of an indi-
vidualized plan by local providers for citizens with high lev-
els of recidivism
4.Crisis Intervention Team: Specially trained law enforcement
officers who can better engage/assess/de-escalate/refer cit-
izens in crisis
5.Mobile & Assertive Community Treatment Team: Publicly
funded mobile teams to provide preventive and treatment
interventions/ongoing treatment at alternative settings
healthcarejournalbr.com | July / August 2008 Issue |
Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge
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