Collaborative Leadership to Strengthen the Behavioral Health Community

In the fall of 2006, LPHI recognized community collaboration as a key component to help restore behavioral health services lost in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. With support from Baptist Community Ministries and Lloyd L. Fry Foundation, LPHI and a diverse group of community and governmental stakeholders launched the Behavioral Health Action Network (BHAN) during a time of significant political change, an influx of federal financial support and heightened awareness that a lack of access to mental health services was hindering the recovery of our community.

BHAN developed an ongoing collaborative effort to:

• Provide a forum for behavioral health leaders to present problems and find solutions in a post disaster environment with a focus on coordinating existing resources
• Encourage transparency and public accountability
• Facilitate and support organizational contributions to the mental health needs of the city, including social services, primary care clinics and the judicial system
• Sponsor evidence-based approaches to mental health policy and service delivery

Plenary meetings and workgroups convene regularly to address critical issues facing the behavioral health community. BHAN partners’ level of commitment and attendance exceeded expectations considering each member’s overwhelming duty to rebuild their own agencies following Katrina. An anonymous BHAN member notes that BHAN’s greatest accomplishment is its “valiant effort at regional coordination of behavioral health.” BHAN’s core values of openness, mutual respect and accountability help guide partners through difficult discussions toward the development of proposals designed to bolster the region’s system of behavioral healthcare.

Through this process, consensus was established to advocate for three specific priorities for the local behavioral health system:

• Crisis response services (including inpatient acute care) improvement
• Community-based programs such as Assertive Community Treatment and Crisis Intervention team training
• Workforce development, with an emphasis on recruitment and retention of behavioral health professionals

Recommendations drafted by BHAN workgroup members garnered the attention of the local and national press, the Gulf Coast Recovery office and Governor Jindal’s administration. An unexpected outcome of BHAN’s collaborative leadership approach in the 2008 session was widespread legislative support and Governor Jindal’s signature to enact new policies and funding in the state budget to provide services identified by BHAN partners to help fill critical gaps in the system of psychiatric crisis care.

Moving forward, BHAN will continue working to increase public awareness of behavioral health issues and provide an open forum to identify gaps in the continuum of behavioral health services toward the development of community-driven solutions.