Center for Evidence to Practice working to improve behavioral health

The Louisiana Department of Health’s Office of Behavioral
Health and the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health are proud to say
the Center for Evidence to Practice is up and running.

Now, you’re probably wondering — what is the Center for
Evidence to Practice? This initiative serves Louisiana as a hub for training
and implementation of best practices for behavioral health services for
children, youth and families.

Behavioral health evidence-based practices are therapies
that have undergone the multiple, rigorous, randomized controls vital to
determine whether a practice has proven to be effective. While many behavioral
health therapies exist, only a handful are considered best practices.
Evidence-based practices in behavioral health are a nationally-recognized
strategy to seeing improved outcomes, and it’s something that’s been gaining
steam in Louisiana.

Resources at your
fingertips

One of the biggest achievements of the Center’s launch is
its website, laevidencetopractice.com.
If you’re a parent seeking help for your child, a behavioral health service
provider or any other kind of stakeholder in behavioral health, you will want
to check out this website.

There’s a statewide map that shows where to find specialized,
trained providers certified in evidence-based practices and providers currently
working toward certification. This map is continually being updated, so if you
find inaccurate information, just use the “Contact Us” function on the website
to report it so that it can be corrected.

Another feature is a calendar listing events and trainings for
behavioral health providers, sponsored by the Center and by other partners such
as state agencies and managed care organizations. Many of these trainings are
free of cost to providers who serve Medicaid-eligible youth.

You also will have the option to sign up for the Center’s
newsletter, Behavioral Health Buzz, which includes monthly updates on
evidence-based practice trainings and implementation.

Coming soon is E2P Learn, an online e-learning platform for
behavioral health provider agencies, practitioners and other stakeholders. This
platform will use videos and webinars to provide comprehensive support for the
implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices in Louisiana.

Find behavioral health providers certified in evidence-based practices using a map available
on the Center for Evidence to Practice website, laevidencetopractice.com

Best practices

So, what are these evidence-based practices? The Center
currently recognizes these 10 evidence-based practices in Louisiana:

• Homebuilders: A
  home-based intensive family preservation services treatment program that enlists
  families as partners in assessment, goal setting and treatment planning, with
  the aim of avoiding unnecessary placement of children and youth into foster
  care or other out-of-home placements.


• Functional Family
  Therapy (FFT): Home-based intensive therapeutic model for families with multiple
  risk factors, serving youth ages 10 to 18 in the context of their families. The
  goals are to reduce behavioral and emotional problems in youth through family
  therapy that engages and motivates the family to improve family functioning,
  and change behaviors such as truancy, aggression and substance use.


• Multisystemic Therapy
  (MST): An intensive home-, family- and community-based treatment serving
  youth ages 12 to 17, in the context of their families, who are exhibiting
  significant negative behaviors such as chronic or violent juvenile offenses.


• Assertive Community
  Treatment (ACT): An intensive home- and community-based intervention
  delivered by an interdisciplinary team, for individuals 18 and older with a
  severe and persistent mental illness, with the goal of promoting symptom
  stability, increasing the individual’s ability to cope and relate to others,
  and enhancing the highest level of functioning in the community.


• Functional Family
  Therapy – Child Welfare (FFT-CW): Home-based intensive therapeutic model for
  families of youth ages birth to 18, where there are issues of child safety/neglect/family
  violence. The goals are to address safety and risk factors, change referral
  behaviors, reduce child maltreatment risk and preserve home placement.


• Parent-Child
  Interaction Therapy (PCIT): Therapy that focuses on improving parent-child relationships,
  by coaching the parents of young children in specific skills to help establish
  a nurturing relationship with their child, foster positive behavior and
  discourage negative behavior.


• Child-Parent
  Psychotherapy (CPP): A parent-child therapy for children up to age 6, which
  addresses trauma with the caregiver and child, with the goal of supporting and strengthening
  the parent-child relationship as a vehicle for restoring and protecting the child’s
  mental health.


• Youth- and
  Preschool-PTSD Treatment (YPT and PPT): For children who have experienced trauma,
  a therapy that works with parent and child to acknowledge the trauma
  experienced, learn skills to cope with trauma reminders and reduce the severity
  of trauma-related symptoms.


• Triple P Positive
  Parenting Program (Triple P-Standard Level 4): Parenting skills program for
  parents seeking intensive training in positive parenting skills.


• Trauma-Focused
  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): For youth ages 3 to 18 who have experienced
  trauma, this therapy provides skills for relaxation, emotion regulation and coping,
  and helps both the child and the caregiver to understand and process the trauma
  experience, to reduce trauma-related symptoms and enhance future safety.

By identifying these evidence-based practices, Louisiana
behavioral health providers are able to apply the most appropriate therapy to
youth and families, helping them to heal and live full, healthy lives.

To learn more about the Center for Evidence to Practice,
visit laevidencetopractice.com.