Key staff members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) visited CAHS, Aug. 7, to hear about a model program that has successfully blended physical and behavioral health care to serve 400 new individuals in the last six months.
“Our Total Health and Wellness Clinic offers a wide array of essential physical health services, which allows us to offer comprehensive care in one place at our Wooddale location,” said CAHS Executive Director Jan Laughinghouse, PhD, LCSW-BACS, LAC, CCS.
The clinic, located at 2751 Wooddale Blvd. where CAHS also provides behavioral health and addiction recovery services, is known as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). It is one of only six such clinics in Louisiana and was among the first to be funded in the U.S.
In November 2022, CAHS was awarded a $3.9 million, four-year federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to establish the clinic.
Since that time, CAHS has been assembling a team of doctors, nurses, other health professionals, and support staff. The clinic had a “soft opening” last year to ensure smooth operations and integration with the behavioral health operations.
Today, Total Health and Wellness is fully operational, offering on-site lab services along with annual wellness exams, health screenings, chronic disease management, pap/pelvic/breast exams, case management, social services, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases and infections (STD/STI).
CAHS Director of Business Operations Karla Lee-Muzik, who manages the clinic along with Maria Bates, RN, said CAHS was one of the first agencies to offer integrated physical and behavioral health care.
Lee-Muzik said clients who visit CAHS for behavioral health services are often not aware of underlying health issues, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, infections, and more.
“Since December alone, we helped 400 new clients and delivered 2,300 services to individuals who likely would have gone without physical health care completely,” said Lee-Muzik who noted that one of CAHS’ screenings detected cancer in a woman who had no idea she was sick.
Holly Besse, LPC-S, who serves as the CCBHC Project Director, and CAHS Certified Peer Support Specialist Dustin Englehart, MBA, both spoke about the importance of case management and the identification and coordination of health and community resources for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and for persons who are being treated for substance misuse.
Englehart, a veteran himself, represents CAHS at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison where he helps connect inmates to behavioral health and community resources prior to their release.
“These individuals in jail lost their jobs, many lost their homes, cars, and much more. We help them get reestablished so they have better chances of being productive in society and not returning to crime,” said Englehart.
The Senate Committee staffers visited CAHS at the invitation of Committee Chair U.S. Senator William “Bill” Cassidy of Baton Rouge. The staff members complimented CAHS’ efforts, toured the clinic, and gathered information they said will be helpful as the U.S. Congress considers funding — and possible expansion — of programs that provide quality health care in cost-effective ways.
