Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Louisiana Emergency COVID-19 Project - The Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) proposes to implement the Louisiana Emergency COVID-19 Project in order to reach all citizens impacted by this unprecedented event. OBH will focus on the following populations: 1) children with severe emotional disturbance (SED), 2) adults with serious mental illness (SMI), 3) adults with substance use disorders (SUD), 4) adults with co-occurring SMI and SUD, and 4) adults with mental disorders less severe than SMI, including healthcare professionals. The goals of this grant is to 1) increase access to behavioral health treatment services through safety supports for infectious control and educating referral sources on how to access EBPs; 2) Expand access to care using telehealth and telemedicine; 3) Provide recovery resources through a Peer Warm Line to prevent crisis; and 4) Provide training and technical assistance for the use of telehealth. Through this grant, OBH will enhance accessibility to treatment services and protect the health and wellness of the community as well as persons seeking behavioral health treatment services. As a state, our goal is to implement creative methods to continue providing a full continuum of care for behavioral health residential/inpatient services, while minimizing risks for COVID-19 transmission. To reach the goals, this request will require a combination of strategies. Louisiana aims to provide supports such as personal protective supplies that will enable and indirectly allow providers to continue behavioral health services for persons with behavioral health conditions and complications. In addition, the state will make COVID-19 screening tests readily available to behavioral health residential providers to facilitate increased safe admissions and to detect any presumptive or positive COVID-19 cases for proper isolation and quarantine. Without these necessary protective supports for providers and their non-COVID-19 residents, providers will continue to turn presumptive or COVID-19 positive populations away. In addition to supporting safety measures and mitigating exposure to the COVID-19 virus, the state will provide telehealth/telemedicine supports and training for twenty five evidence based behavioral health providers across the state. This approach will enhance the ability to sustain treatment services and evidenced based practices for persons with mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. Louisiana will implement a Peer Recovery Support Warm Line, which aims to be a highly accessible, low-threshold recovery support resource that individuals can use to seek support before they have reached the crisis point. The intent is to provide supports to avoid, prevent or intercept a crisis later. This Warm Line will target persons with behavioral health conditions and complications and professionals that work in the health care industry. The program will provide targeted outreach and engagement to Louisiana's isolation sites, homeless sites and medical shelters and minority populations, specifically African Americans. Finally, OBH will support the transition of existing evidence-based providers to the use of telehealth technologies, connect new referral networks as previous sources are not operating, and assist in the support of its healthcare professionals as they work and exist personally within this crisis response.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).