Panel looks at mental health-The Daily Advertiser

Panel looks at mental health
Care, funds for housing examined
Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com

Changing the concept of long-term care for the chronically mental ill and funding for supportive housing for them when they’re out of crisis treatment are just a few of the things the state needs to fix in its behavioral health services, according to mental health professionals who met Thursday.

Thursday’s meeting held in Lafayette was one of several stakeholder meetings in the state to help the state reform its access and mental health services.


“The governor recognized even before the storms that we didn’t have adequate access to mental health services — if anything, it exacerbated the problem,” said Dr. Roxane Townsend, DHH deputy secretary. Townsend said the information gathered at the meetings — 11 held throughout the state — will be used to formulate the state’s plan for reform.
Nearly 50 professionals attended the meeting.

One problem that agencies and counselors face when trying to work with a client is knowing which services they’ve already received, said Willie Young, a licensed addiction counselor.

“There’s no cohesiveness in the system,” Young said. “That client has to go to place 5, 6 and then 7 before getting the services they need and then when he comes to me I have no way of knowing which services he’s received.”

An integrated database between the Offices of Addictive Disorders and Mental Health would help make that happen, said Steve Creadeur, program supervisor of UMC’s First Step Detox program.

Once patients are in care, many don’t have the means to stay on their medication, said Val Jones, a licensed clinical social worker.

“Even those on Medicare, some specific prescriptions may not be covered,” Jones said. “We also need to increase funding for supportive housing opportunities for the mentally ill. This is a dire problem we face in mental health. There’s no where for them to go. They can’t go home.”

The state should reinstate longer term care, said Todd Dugas, director of programs at Acadiana Outreach Center, which provides transitional housing to the homeless and those in recovery.