The Bureau of Family Health provides capacity-building consultation services to healthcare and social service providers regarding Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. The Bureau also links caregivers, families, and health professionals to community mental health resources to help mothers and young children.
Home Visiting
The statewide Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program pairs families with registered nurses or parent educators who provide personalized education, support and coaching, and referrals to services to empower families to reach their goals. Licensed mental health providers, called Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialists, are part of each home visiting team. They work with home visitors to increase their capacity to support families who experience mental health and parenting challenges.
Providers can refer patients to this program by contacting staff in their patient’s parish.
Mental Health Consultation Services for Providers
The Louisiana Provider-to-Provider Consultation Line (PPCL) is a no-cost telehealth consultation and education program that helps health care providers address the behavioral and mental health needs of pediatric patients (ages 0-21) pregnant and postpartum women and their caregivers. The program aims to increase the capacity to screen, diagnose, treat, and refer patients to supportive services by integrating behavioral health into clinical settings.
How It Works
A provider has a mental health-related question. If they’re not already, they will register for PPCL.
The provider calls (833) 721-2881 or requests a consult using this form.
A Licensed Mental Health consultant responds to questions about behavioral health and local resources, and, if necessary, connects the provider to an on-call psychiatrist. Once complete, the provider receives a summary report of the consultation via email.
PPCL also offers web-based clinical tools and on-site and virtual training, including a Pediatric Mental Health TeleECHO series.
Child Development and Mental Health
The Developmental Screening Toolkit was created to help medical practices implement the Louisiana Developmental Screening Guidelines (LDSG) and integrate developmental screening services into their day-to-day practice. The toolkit uses a quality improvement (QI) framework, which allows practitioners to improve the way health care is delivered to patients systematically. It contains step-by-step information contained in webpages, instructional videos, and downloadable worksheets. It is designed to house all of the information and tools you will need to put the LDSG into practice in one, convenient spot.
The Developmental Screening team can provide information and customized training on how your specific practice can implement developmental screening. Check out the toolkit’s Implementation Training and Support page to learn more about these offerings.
Other Helpful Links
- Zero to Three: Website with resources for families and healthcare, social service, and public health professionals on early development and well-being, early learning, parenting, and policy and advocacy.
- Learn the Signs. Act Early.: Program from the CDC to improve the early identification of children with autism and other developmental disabilities so children and families can get the services and support they need as early as possible.
- Vroom: Free mobile app to help parents turn shared moments into brain-building moments every day.
- Family Resource Center: Staff are available to assist families and providers in connecting families with young children to resources such as early intervention, childcare assistance, insurance, and disability support.