Behavioral Health

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.

Baton Rouge – Secretary Alan Levine of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals today announced appointments to the Office of Behavioral Health Implementation Advisory Committee. Created by Act 384 following this year’s regular legislative session, the Office of Behavioral Health will consolidate the existing Office for Addictive Disorders and Office of Mental Health. The committee also held their first meeting today in Baton Rouge.

NEW ORLEANS— As part of its ongoing plan to bolster and transform the public mental health system in the New Orleans area and the state, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals will soon open two, new community-based clinics in the city; add new, high-end child/adolescent outpatient services to its network; and move inpatient services from a state hospital in Uptown to one in St. Tammany Parish.

BATON ROUGE— Gov. Bobby Jindal today signed into law HB 837, which will improve and strengthen the planning and delivery system for mental health and addictive disorder services. House Bill 837 creates the Office of Behavioral Health within the Department of Health and Hospitals by merging two existing offices, the Office for Addictive Disorders and the Office of Mental Health.

Children in Crisis: Promising Strategies, Promising Solutions

Baton Rouge – A 2008 study conducted for the Department of Health and Hospitals revealed as many as 100,000 Louisiana citizens struggle with problem gambling every day.

This report summarizes the findings from the 2008 Louisiana Caring Communities Youth Survey (CCYS), a survey of 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students conducted in the fall of 2008 and January of 2009.