The Louisiana Medicaid program provides various behavioral health services. These include addiction services, crisis intervention, group psychotherapy, and psychosocial rehabilitation. The program also coordinates care between providers and conducts surveys to assess provider satisfaction and improve services. Sentinel events are rare medical errors that are investigated. Overall, the program aims to improve access and expand services to meet growing demand, while ensuring care is accessible to all.

1. Running Head: BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES 1
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES 9
The Louisiana Medicaid Program Behavioral Health services
Introduction
Louisiana Medicaid has provided health care to its members for
quite some time now. Mostly, the behavioral health system has
incorporated the consumers, the community and other health
care providers in the process of giving efficient services to the
members (Ortenberg & Roth, 2013). Their focus has been to
improve access to the treatment services that have become vital
to people. Additionally, the system ought to expand the services
that are being provided by the Louisiana Medicaid health
behavior systems. The demand for that service has grown, and
it’s the duty of the system to expand the services to meet the
request. Finally, it’s also the goal of the health behavior system
to provide care that is accessible to all at ease.
Description of Behavioral Health Services
The following are some of the services provided at the
Louisiana Medicaid behavior care
Addiction services- This includes the individual-centered
outpatient services. The health care provider provides
rehabilitation and recovery process to the patients. The health
care provider will help in the promotion of skills that are
responsible for coping with the current lifestyle. The

2. department will assist in the elimination of substance use
symptoms and behaviors that may prevent recovery.
Crisis intervention- The department is responsible for the
individuals experiencing a psychiatric crisis. When a disaster
occurs, victims may be affected by such occurrences may cause
psychological problems. Therefore, the crisis intervention
program will do a preliminary assessment then followed by a
crisis resolution. After that, the medical professional will then
do referral and linkage to the relevant community service for
further treatment processes.
Group psychotherapy- in this section, a group of individuals
with similar behavior challenges will have to sit together and
share their experiences. Apparently, they share personal coping
skills and practices. Typically, the session will help the patient
to identify which method works for them and open up to help in
the recovery process.
Psychosocial rehabilitation- The section mainly helps in the
elimination of behaviors or barriers that may prevent the
healing of the mental Illness. Such behaviors may be to stay
away from friends who smoke if the patient if fighting an
addiction of smoking.
Care conference- It involves a group of medical practitioners
meeting to discuss the treatment of a crisis.
Care Advocacy
The care advocacy in this field is very active and mainly
focusses of the various activities that promote all the
Medicaid’s members full stabilization after an illness or the
whole recovery process of the member. Apparently, the care
advocacy unit is concerned with ensuring that the members fully
participate in their care. Mostly, various integrated intervention
methods have been created that have been fully operational in
the member's services, evaluating the members who are at risk
and the assisting and delivery of the required care (Griffin,
Gooch, Beltrán, Sutherland, & Barsley, 2000). Some of the
services that they fully participate in include;
· Ensuring that the medical and behavioral care system is

3. incorporated. This is done through open communication
between all the parties that are involved.
· The care advocacy also reaches to members and educates,
assess the available risk and also provide care whenever it may
be needed.
· They also do medical consultations with the medical staff to
ensure that everything is up to date with the current healthcare
standards.
· The care advocacy supports members who seek treatment and
make a follow up for quality assurance.
Its availability
The service is available for business operations as from Monday
to Friday for 8 hours. However, they have increased their staff,
and the service is now available on a 24-hour basis including
the weekends, they are available to handle any emergency
situations, manage the crisis that may erupt from the members
and finally, they actively answer questions concerning the care
advocacy process.
Home and community-based service
The service is available to adolescents, the aged and other
members that may have a severe mental illness. They assist in
the recovery process by trying to bring back the quality of life
that they once enjoyed. The service uses network providers to
instill back several skills that may help the affected members
increase their capacity to thrive at home, or their work places,
the skills targeted are normally the ones that were lost when the
member was in that severe condition.
Peer services and support
The care advocacy has a department that supports community
service. In this unit, the various specialist uses their skills,
expertise, and training helping the community in achieving
recovery and prevention programs. Interestingly, these certified
specialist are not limited to the members only but also to the
members of the family or the member's guardians. Apparently,
their major role includes providing information on health care
and facilitation of access to medical services and resources.

4. Over the years, the department has achieved greatly as it makes
the society to be more connected and increase the people’s
engagement in search of better health care.
Assessment
Every member must be assessed of his or her behavior health.
The Louisiana Medicaid under behavior health ensures that all
members have their clinical records updated from time to time.
The clinical assessment has proved to be useful as the record of
members can be traced whether they seek the medical services
elsewhere. Typically, the records contain bio-psychosocial
history that contains all the information of the member (Ruble,
Heflinger, Renfrew, & Saunders, 2005). It included their
previous and current providers listing all the diagnosis that the
patient had to undergo. Additionally, the record will have the
development history, the education history, the cultural
background and the community resource that the member can
access. Mostly, the records have simplified the providence of
better health care as the specialist can know what diagnostic
method would work on a certain member depending on the
experience that they had with the other members.
Assisting with recovery
All the medical practitioners within the system are required to
help the members in all of their recovery process. Apparently,
they are supposed to give them all the information that requires
that may help in the decision-making process of the member.
The members always have the right to any information
regarding the health care provided to them. The information can
be useful as it helps in promoting participation of the member in
the whole recovery process. Additionally, the practitioners are
allowed to discuss all the possible treatment options with the
member. Besides that, they are required to outline potential
risks and benefits of a chosen recovery plan.
Coordination of Care
The coordination of care involves the communication between
the primary physicians and other professionals on the same field
related to the care of the member. The process was not easy

5. first, but with the help of the network providers, the process has
overwhelmingly been simplified. Firstly, the member has to
give written consent to the current physician allowing them to
exchange relevant information with other professionals being
involved. The process has made it easy for the coordination and
the management of care of the member. Communication
regarding the time of admission, during the treatment process
and at the end of the care must be provided as a member is
transferring to another professional.
The coordination of care accrues some various benefits to both
the member and the health care providers. Firstly, it helps in the
creation of a very comprehensive care plan that could be used
for a long time. Future health care providers would have smooth
time in determining the cause of a problem or a diagnostic
approach that would be required for a specific member.
Secondly, providing a clinical record to the inheriting medical
professional ensures that there are no adverse medical
interactions. It happens mainly on the psychotropic and the non-
psychotropic patients. Without a proper record, poor diagnosis
can be made on those patients. On the third point, coordination
of care provides for better and managed treatment, which will
then be supplemented with a follow-up. Finally, it helps with
the safe transition of the patients.
The communication process may sometimes be affected by
various challenges like when a member is not ready to give
consent of the exchange of these personal records. In such an
occurrence, the health care professional will have to record it in
the clinical registry, which will then be transferred to the next
physician. However, the network providers have devised some
means that will ensure the process of coordination of the
members care if effective and efficient (Gagnon, et al., 2009).
Essentially, there is the written consent of the member to
exchange relevant information as discussed earlier. Then, the
network providers have devised two critical standards that
would be followed to increase efficiency. First, the diagnosis
process must be put into the clinical records in case the patient

6. gets another physician. In the Louisiana behavior health, if a
patient had been to any physician, he would not be admitted to
the medical facility without the previous clinical records.
Secondly, an assessment should be made which will include the
member’s evaluation, the diagnosis itself and the recommended
treatment plan. Apparently, the many steps in the coordination
of care are to ensure that the member gets the best medical
attention for the behavior complications.
Sentinel Events
In some instances in the process of providing health care to the
members, a medical practitioner may make a grave or
unexpected mistake that may harm the patient seriously. They
may sometimes die or suffer serious injuries. In such a scenario,
the system has outlined procedures such as the formation of an
investigative committee that would conduct and investigate to
determine the cause of the problem. A member is supposed to
honor the investigations and wait for compensation by the
system. Sentinel occurrences ate considered accidental, in fact,
they rarely occur.
Provider Satisfaction Surveys
The behavioral health care system takes a sample of the
members to survey different satisfaction levels. The members
are required to answer some questions regarding the service
provided and on the areas that they would require an
improvement. Quality health care has been the primary goals of
Louisiana Medicaid; therefore, the surveys have been helpful in
improving health care providence. Additionally, the clinicians
responsible for taking the survey are supposed to be truthful and
professional in their duties.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Louisiana Medicaid behavior health system
has some departments that have enabled it to be effective and
efficient. The care advocacy department, for instance, has been
making follow up to the patients to ensure that a full recovery
process is put in place. Apparently, much effort has been put in
ensuring that the health care is accessible to all people.

7. Additionally, the system has been improving the providing of
the services depending on the survey reports that are provided
by the clinicians.
References
Gagnon, M. P., Légaré, F., Labrecque, M., Frémont, P., Pluye,
P., Gagnon, J., & Gravel, K. (2009). Interventions for
promoting information and communication technologies
adoption in healthcare professionals. The Cochrane Library.
Griffin, S. O., Gooch, B. F., Beltrán, E., Sutherland, J. N., &
Barsley, R. (2000). Dental services, costs, and factors
associated with hospitalization for Medicaid‐eligible children,
Louisiana 1996–97 . Journal of public health dentistry, 60(1),
21-27.
Ortenberg, J., & Roth, C. C. (2013). Projected financial impact
of noncoverage of elective circumcision by Louisiana medicaid
in boys 0 to 5 years old . The Journal of urology, 190(4), 1540-
1544.
Ruble, L. A., Heflinger, C. A., Renfrew, J. W., & Saunders, R.
C. (2005). Access and service use by children with autism
spectrum disorders in Medicaid managed care. Journal of autism
and developmental disorders, 35(1), 3-13.
Running Head: TERM PAPER OUTLINE 1
TERM PAPER OUTLINE 2
The Louisiana Medicaid Program Behavioral Health services

8. Term paper Online
1. Introduction
2. Description of Behavioral Health Services
a) Addiction services
b) Crisis intervention
c) Group psychotherapy
d) Psychosocial rehabilitation
e) Care conference
3. Care Advocacy
a) Its availability
b) Home and community-based service
c) Peer services and support
d) Assessment
e) Assisting with recovery
4. Coordination of Care
5. Sentinel Events
6. Provider Satisfaction Surveys
7. Conclusion
8. References