Behavioral Health

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals officials are encouraging Louisiana residents to look for warning signs in young people who may be in crisis as part of Yellow Ribbon Youth Suicide Awareness and Prevention Week.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine wrote to BP America requesting $28.9 million in funding to enhance mental health services through October 2011.

The Louisiana Commission on Addictive Disorders Report is an annual report to the governor and to the House and Senate Health and Welfare Committees detailing the activities of the commission and the office for addictive disorders for the previous year and recommendations as to future programs.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is holding two fairs in Grant Parish, April 24 in Pollock and May 1 in Colfax, to educate residents, provide health screenings and administer the H1N1 vaccine to local residents.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Secretary Alan Levine today celebrated the opening of two new community-based outpatient mental health care clinics for children, adolescents and their families in the Greater New Orleans area. Levine joined local and state officials in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one of the new clinics, the Midtown Clinic in New Orleans, to mark another milestone in the state’s creation of a robust, community-based mental health system statewide.

Regional leaders in Acadiana have taken the first steps towards the creation of a “human services district” for residents of the seven-parish area surrounding Lafayette, or DHH Region IV. The effort, supported by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, will allow local leadership to use continued state funding to deliver mental health, addictive disorders, developmental disabilities and public health services considered a priority by the local community.

Act 384 of the 2009 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature created the Implementation Advisory Committee and provided that it shall recommend to the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) a specific plan for implementation of the consolidated administrative functions of the Office of Behavioral Health (OBH).

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Planning Webinar

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine today announced Dr. Rochelle Head-Dunham will assume the post of interim assistant secretary of the Office for Addictive Disorders February 4, 2010, following the retirement of current Assistant Secretary Michael Duffy. Dr. Head-Dunham currently serves as medical director for the Office for Addictive Disorders, as well as a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Tulane University Hospital and Clinics and a physician consultant to Xavier University’s Institutional Review Board, Human Subjects Committee.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine and Children’s Hospital, New Orleans today announced an expansion of available inpatient mental health capacity for children in the Greater New Orleans area.