Officials to U.S. Corps: Use sediment for coastal restoration
October 18, 2006Opening this Friday, Oct. 27
October 22, 2006ANDREA CARLSON
State health officials are asking for help; even before Katrina and Rita tore across the Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, quality mental health care was remote. After the storms, the need for care has become critical.
In an attempt to rebuild the states system Gov. Kathleen Blanco is meeting the need head on, one of her many after-storm initiates, to provide what Louisiana needs most: Recovery.
Blanco and the Dept. of Health and Hospitals are teaming up with the Children’s Cabinet, holding public forums around the state to access what are the foremost needs of the people right now.
Tri-parish residents will have the chance to offer their thoughts during a Nov. 2 community meeting in Thibodaux. The forum will be held on Nicholls State University’s Powell Auditorium from 3:30-6:30 p.m.
“Once we compile all stakeholder input, we are going to develop a strategic plan and a road map for moving forward. We anticipate that we will have a roadmap to change the way that we provide mental health care here in Louisiana,” said Dr. Roxane Townsend, deputy secretary of the DHH. “There will be action steps identified to move forward so we can change the way we do things.”
Officials will gather community residents, health care professionals and stakeholders to create a list of ideas to be presented to Blanco and the DHH. Discussion will revolve around five goals of the DHH, produced by A Road Map for Change research. Supported by MacArthur Foundation grants, researchers made 15 suggestive resolutions, which were condensed for more manageable discussion.
“We will take those recommendations from A Road Map for Change that identified gaps in service, things that we were doing right, but to also help us learn specifically what we were not addressing well in the arena of mental health,” said Sylvia Andrews of the Children’s Cabinet. “We are asking for those people who are interested in quality mental health to help us develop strategies and objectives and measures to be able to achieve those goals.”
The numerous meetings already held around the state have provided a successful start. Townsend adds that each community offers unique feedback, personalized by diversity of each area.
Mental health is an initiative of Children’s Cabinet, directly effecting family life and child growth and development.
A Road Map for Change was initiated before the summer of 2005. Katrina and Rita put the plan on hold, meanwhile, exacerbating the need for care in their wake.
“Even prior to the storms, all of our behavior health care in the state was not able to meet the needs. Now, post-hurricanes, the needs are even greater and so it becomes more critical and more urgent but the need was there even before the storms,” said Townsend.
The DHH and Children’s Cabinet encourage people to make it to these meetings, which were arranged specifically for the people.
Andrews found the Hammond and Jefferson meetings to be interesting in comparison to one another.
More practitioner participation during the Hammond community meeting produced lists of recommendations much different than the consumer based contingency during the Jefferson meeting.
Both produced useful information, and the Road Map for Change will continue throughout the state until after Thanksgiving. The finalized Louisiana Plan for Access to Mental Health Care is scheduled to be released spring of 2007.
For more information or to RSVP for the Thibodaux community meeting visit www.dhh.louisiana.gov.
