LA Discretionary Funding Fiscal Year 2023

Claiborne Healthcare Foundation will provide the Claiborne Project AWARE program to improve mental wellbeing in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana through a coordinated community-wide plan that significantly increases the number of mental health literate community members who are able to proactively respond to the behavioral health issues of its rural community. There is a significant need for mental health awareness training for individuals who come into contact with both adults and children in need of mental health services. Our identified populations of focus are schools, law enforcement, firefighters and EMS, healthcare providers, and the faith-based community. Claiborne Healthcare Foundation has developed collaborative partnerships with multiple agencies/organizations who have committed to host/conduct trainings, assist with the response to mental health issues, and to improving the coordination of services to the populations of focus. The four goals of the project are 1) build community capacity to detect and respond to the mental health needs of the target population; 2) increase the mental health literacy of adults in Claiborne Parish; 3) reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness; and 4) increase access to resources and community-based mental health services. Claiborne AWARE will provide Mental Health First Aid (Rural/Fire and EMS/Law Enforcement; Youth Mental Health First Aid; teen Mental Health First Aid; and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills and Training (A.S.I.S.T.) to 2,800 unduplicated individuals over the 5 year funding period. In addition, a parish-wide multi-level social marketing campaign will be conducted to combat the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. The Claiborne Healthcare Foundation is confident that a culture of compassion around mental illness will be cultivated in the community through this project.

Mental Health First Aid is a public education program that teaches participants common risk factors/warning signs associated with a variety of mental illnesses, builds an understanding of their impact on a person's life, and orients learners to common supports that can be made available for persons in mental health crisis. Role-playing and simulations are utilized to demonstrate how to offer initial help to someone in a mental health crisis, and teaches how to connect persons in need to appropriate services. The Mental Health First Aid model teaches participants a 5-step action plan, called the ALGEE method: • Assess for risk of suicide or harm • Listen non-judgmentally • Give reassurance and information • Encourage appropriate professional help • Encourage self-help and other support strategies Not unlike CPR, Mental Health First Aid prepares learners to interact with a person in crisis and connect the person to help. Participants do not take on the role of professionals. They do not diagnose or provide psychotherapy services. Via the ALGEE method, laypersons can offer concrete suggestions for help and answer key questions such as “What do I do?” and “Where can I go?”. Mental Health First Aid was developed in 2001 by Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm in Australia. The model was introduced in the United States in 2008. In 2012, Youth Mental Health First Aid was introduced, and in subsequent years, adaptations for Veterans and First Responders have been developed. More than 2.5 million have been trained in Mental Health First Aid in the United States by a base of 15,000 certified instructors. Mental Health First Aid USA is managed and operated by the National Council for Behavioral Health, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based model of intervention that has withstood the scrutiny of empirical research. Numerous studies can be provided upon request that show the efficacy of the Mental Health First Aid model. Easterseals Louisiana proposes to make the Mental Health First Aid model available to interested parties for the purpose of providing front-line persons with a layperson-friendly, evidence-based strategy to assist people experiencing a mental health crisis; with a secondary goal of not having to utilize expensive resources such as law enforcement and/or Emergency Departments for people in crisis unless necessary. Easterseals Louisiana’s Mission is to assist children and adults with disabilities with achieving and maintaining independence. Easterseals Louisiana proudly serves some of Louisiana’s most vulnerable citizens that are challenged by intellectual, developmental, and/or psychiatric disabilities. We believe that if, by extension, we can help people outside of our agency assist some of Louisiana’s most vulnerable citizens in times of distress, that we are continuing to serve our mission. The strength of the Mental Health First Aid model lies in that it does not take a trained mental health professional to utilize the model. The model was developed for laypersons that find themselves at the front-line of working with a person in mental health crisis. The model has been developed for the benefit of First Responders, teachers/educators and other school personnel, parents, friends, employers, Human Resource professionals, hospital personnel, etc. Easterseals Louisiana will make Mental Health First Aid training available to any interested parties that want strategies to help people in a mental health crisis. Easterseals currently has a trainer certified in the Mental Health First Aid model, and we are poised to add certified trainers to our team should we be fortunate enough to be awarded this grant. We intend to provide this training to 2000 people over a 5-year period.

The L-TEN project seeks to utilize the Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) Grant to implement a mental health awareness training program, using a national evidence-based program, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), and build robust localized referral systems in both rural and urban communities of Louisiana. In partnership with the state of Louisiana, Offices of Behavioral Health (LA OBH) and Community Development (LA OCD), Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), and Louisiana Rural Health Association (LRHA), L-TEN will implement 60 virtual and in-person Mental Health First Aid trainings across Louisiana, training 1,500 individuals. This program will focus on 11 Louisiana parishes (counties), which range from urban to rural and natural disaster-prone areas. One common thread ties these communities together, each prioritized area is home to an LCTCS main campus. Targeted parishes include: Bossier, East Baton Rouge, Rapides, Orleans, Ouachita, Terrebonne, Tangipahoa, St. Bernard, Webster, Ascension, and Calcasieu. Most of the targeted parishes are rural. The populations of focus include: LCTCS school personnel (administrative, security, coaches, instructors/faculty, program leads), and students; LRHA members, including rural health center (RHC) primary care providers, ancillary staff, administration and security, and individuals served. The LA OCD – caseworkers that serve populations affected by disaster and emergencies. Individuals served by these entities, include veterans and reserve officer training corps (ROTC), educators/teachers, and individuals impacted by disasters and emergency events, both youth and adult, and rural and urban. The goals of L-TEN are to increase capacity of individuals and partners to recognize signs and symptoms of mental illness and to safely de-escalate a crisis, to increase the number of MHFA training opportunities to individuals working in rural health centers, community and technical colleges, disaster caseworkers, and veterans, and to increase access to mental health and substance use disorder resources, support systems, and referrals in Louisiana. Project objectives include utilizing 8 Certified Adult MHFA instructors and up to 3 Youth MHFA instructors; train a minimum of 1,500 individuals in MHFA (200 in YR 1, 325 in YR 2, 325 in YR 3, 325 in YR4, 325 in Y5); track and assess the number of individuals referred to supportive and/or mental health services, and create and disseminate a mental health resource, service support, and referral information guide and materials.

Through the Louisiana 988 Cooperative Agreement, the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) will improve Louisiana's response to 988 crisis calls, chats, and texts originating in the state. The goals of this project are to: (1) ensure statewide 24/7 coverage for 988 calls, chats and texts, (2) strengthen OBH's oversight of Louisiana's 988/Lifeline services, and (3) ensure strong coordination between Louisiana's crisis response system, 988/Lifeline contact centers and 911 administrators. To achieve these goals, OBH will work closely with Louisiana's two Lifeline contact centers, VIA LINK and the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling (LACG), who will expand their capacity to ensure the in-state answer rate for Lifeline calls is maintained at 90% or higher. The contact centers will ensure their workforce receives training on working with populations at risk of suicide and awareness of referral options. Contact centers will also link veterans, service members, or their families to the Veterans Crisis Line. OBH will also form a unified platform workgroup to address responding to Lifeline chat and text requests by creating and adopting a timeline that includes costs, analysis of barriers, and addressing state-specific needs. This coordinated approach will ensure the state of Louisiana has the systems in place to respond to crisis calls, texts and chats statewide when 988 goes live on July 16, 2022.

The Loyola Center for Counseling & Education (LCCE) is applying for funding to support the proposed project Increasing Access for Early Childhood Mental Health Care Services. The LCCE is housed within the College of Nursing & Health at Loyola University New Orleans. Since its inception in 2019, LCCE has been committed to providing effective mental health counseling services on a sliding scale to underserved families, couples, groups, and individuals at every stage of life. In tandem with clinical services, LCCE supervises exemplary training for graduate students in Loyola University’s Department of Counseling. With support from the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Program, the LCCE aims to improve outcomes for children from birth up to 12 years of age by developing, maintaining, or enhancing infant and early childhood mental health promotion, intervention, and treatment services. Providing access to these services to this target population will be addressing a significant need in our community. The target population for this project includes children up to age 12 in need of access to mental health care who are unable to access these services with a provider that bills Medicaid or private insurance. There is a significant lack of available providers in the eight parishes of the Greater New Orleans area and the majority are either not taking new patients or do not accept Medicaid clients. The target population will be low-income and mirror the demographics of the Greater New Orleans area: White alone not Hispanice: 43%; African American: 33%; Hispanic: 11%; Asian, Pacific Islander not Hispanic: 3%; and Two or More Races: 4%. With grant funding, the LCCE will accomplish the following goals and measurable objectives: Program Goals: 1. Provide an additional access point for children of the Greater New Orleans area in need of mental health care services who are unable to secure treatment from other sources Measurable Objective: Serve 220 children up to age 12 over 5 years 2.Provide children with access to comprehensive screening and evidence-based therapies Measurable Objective:100% of clients will receive a risk & needs assessment at in-take and access to evidence-based Trauma-Informed Care and Child Centered Play Therapy 3.Create a community of early childhood educators and care providers equipped to recognize children in need of mental healthcare services Measurable Objective:Establish 20 partnerships with early care and education programs, child and family-serving professionals over five years to provide educational and training outreach services and provide 2 workshops per year 4. Provide specialized training for mental health clinicians in infant and early childhood mental health, including specific training in promising and evidence-based practices and models for prevention, early intervention, and treatment Measurable Objective: 52 graduate students will be trained and certified to use evidence-based Trauma-Informed Care and Child Centered Play Therapy over five years The proposed project will also collect all SAMHSA required data and program specific data, create a QI plan, and work with a Lead Evaluator who will monitor the effectiveness and quality of the services provided and the progress towards meeting the project goals and deliverables.

LA Voz de la Comunidad, a community coalition focused on improving the quality of life in the Latinx communities of Louisiana, proposes to partner with multiple agencies representing multiple sectors of our Latinx communities in the Greater New Orleans Area to conduct Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and link Latinxs in need to existing mental health services. LA Voz will train 1250 Latinxs in MHFA over the 5 years and will increase the number of Latinxs accessing mental health services as measured by NSDUH, CCYS and the LA Voz MHAT survey.

NAMI St. Tammany Mental Health First Aid Training Program for Youth, Public Safety, Veterans and Behavioral Health Service Providers requests funds from SAMHSA for the Mental Health Awareness Training to fill gaps in a fragmented mental health system in the Greater New Orleans Northshore area by educating community members about mental illness and substance use disorders. We will provide Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety, and Mental Health First Aid for Veterans courses for at least 2,375 individuals over the five-year grant period. Individuals to be trained in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) USA curricula include: community behavioral health center staff from Florida Parishes Human Service Authority; teachers, office staff, principals, vice-principals, and coaches in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System; police officers, emergency first responders, corrections officers, sheriff’s office staff, probation and parole officers, and 911 dispatch staff from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office; and law enforcement, probation and parole officers, and courthouse staff from the 22nd Judicial District Courts. Targeting individuals in different sectors of the community with MHFA USA training will increase mental health literacy, decrease stigma, and increase the capacity for those without a clinical background to assist individuals in crisis or with developing mental health problems. Directions towards appropriate professional care and social supports necessary for recovery will be provided. NAMI St. Tammany will impact individuals at risk for developing mental health or substance use disorders, youth aged 13-18, veterans, and individuals who encounter law enforcement. Through MHFA USA programs, NAMI St. Tammany intends to: 1) increase the capacity for public schools to recognize and respond to behavioral health problems in youth; 2) increase the capacity for human services authority staff to respond to developing mental health problems and crises in clients; 3) increase mental health literacy and awareness, by introducing a recovery-focused model for understanding mental illness; 4) decrease rates of incarceration for individuals with mental illness by equipping law enforcement with language and strategies to use when responding to mental health crises. Trainees will be educated about community resources available for individuals with mental illness. At least 2,375 individuals will complete MHFA, YMHFA, MHFA for Public Safety, or MHFA for Veterans training by September 2026: 250 in year one, 325 in year two, 500 in year three, 600 in year four and 700 in year five. At least five individuals will be certified to deliver MHFA training and five individuals will be certified to deliver YMHFA training by September 2026. At least three individuals will be certified to deliver MHFA for Veterans training, and at least five law enforcement officers will be certified to deliver MHFA for Public Safety training by September 2026. NAMI St. Tammany plans to track a rate of at least an 85% increase in content knowledge and confidence in assisting someone in the target population for participants in all courses.

The Coalition for Compassionate Schools (C2S) draws upon long-standing local partnerships between city agencies, the NCTSN Project Fleur-de-lis, Tulane University, and community organizations to support transformative change in New Orleans schools through the implementation and sustainment of a healing-centered, multitiered trauma-informed schools service approach to improve the psychological, behavioral, and educational outcomes of youth exposed to trauma and to prevent new exposure in schools. The C2S will address critical gaps in the trauma-informed schools service approach by integrating social justice and racial equity into our training content, tools, and implementation strategies; employing a multi-year strategy grounded in implementation science to increase the capacity of the K-8 education workforce in the TIS-SA; and expanding our approach into afterschool programs and other youth service systems. We will partner with the NCTSN Center for Safe Supportive Schools (Maryland) and the NCTSN Cullen Center (Ohio) to disseminate and replicate our implementation model, filling the need for a schools-focused NCTSN Category II Center in the Southern/Central region of the US. Our goals are to: 1) Increase the capacity of New Orleans K-8 public schools to implement and sustain a TIS-SA to improve outcomes for youth exposed to trauma and prevent new exposure in schools; 2) Expand implementation of TIS-SA to afterschool programs and coordinate training and consultation across service systems to support service providers and youth affected by traumatic events; and 3) Develop additional products to support a TIS-SA and provide training, consultation, and implementation support for the replication and dissemination of our TIS-SA to schools across the country.