Regions psychiatric healthcare facility opens in Houma

The shortage of mental health resources in the Gulf Coast region post-Katrina has reached epic proportions. But the arrival of Regions Community Behavioral Center in Houma should provide some much needed relief.

The Baton Rouge-based firm is located at 746 Louisiana Highway 182.

The Terrebonne area’s adult, geriatric and child psychiatric services are underserved, said Helena Richard, a registered psychiatric nurse with Regions Community.

From her experience as a psychiatric healthcare professional,Richard calculates about 30 percent of the Houma’s population can benefit from the services Regions provide if people simply acknowledge they need some form of psychiatric help.

“There is a lot of shame associated with admitting that you need psychiatric help and that’s why so many people fail to get treated,” Richard said. “We are here to help people find the place in their life where their strengths outweigh their problems.”

Richard is the director of business development at Regions CBHC of Houma. She is a former psychiatric registered nurse at Compass Psychiatric Specialties in Houma.

Regions CBHC is a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), which offers comprehensive psychiatric services that focus on individual patient needs. This includes partial hospitalization, outpatient services, 24-hour on call assistance and admission screenings to state inpatient facilities.

The program is voluntary. It serves as a preventive outpatient counseling facility designed to prevent inpatient hospitalization and a post-care facility to further stabilize patients as they are discharged from inpatient hospitalization.

“Our main goal is to prevent patients from being admitted into the hospital for psychiatric help,” she said. “And, if they are admitted, we try to work with them after they are released in an effort to keep them from going back into the hospital.”

Individual, group and family therapy is under the direction of a psychiatrist and provided by qualified social workers, counselors and registered nurses.

Richard said the three main components of Regions CBHC are medication management, education – both provided by a psychiatrist and registered nurses – and psychotherapy, provided by a licensed clinical social worker psychotherapist.

Don Airhart, LCSW, a former psychotherapist with TECHE Action Clinic in Houma, will serve as the center’s program director. Dr. Victor Gonzales, the medical director of Leonard Chabert Medical Center and TECHE psychotherapy units, will serve as the facility’s psychiatrist.

Former Region 3 mental health director Albert Steib, LCSW, will serve as the facility’s psychotherapist. Jane Jones, former director of nursing at Community Care Intensive Outpatient Psychotherapy program (IOPP) in Raceland, will serve as the registered nurse manager.

The staff divides the clients into three tracks during the program: severe, mild and moderate. The length of stay for the clients could be six weeks to six months depending on the individual’s need or the doctor and caseworker’s assessment.

In 2003, a group of health care professionals banded together to create Regions Community Behavioral Health Center in Baton Rouge because there was a growing need for a preventive psychiatric healthcare facility in Southeast Louisiana.

Regions’ senior Vice President Steven Richardson is serving as the regional manager for the Baton Rouge Regions CBHC.

Soon after the behavioral healthcare facility moved into the New Orleans area opening the client-base to another demographical area. However, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina forced the New Orleans facility to close, sending all the patients to the Baton Rouge center.

In 2006, Regions’ senior Vice President Chad Brouillette reopened Regions of New Orleans in its new location, 2200 Jefferson Highway in Jefferson. The center is being housed on the backside of one of the local nursing homes.

A year later, Richard said the New Orleans facility is doing better than ever.

In addition, clients receive free lunch and transportation.

Client assessments are done within 24 hours of being admitted into the program. Each client must have a weekly doctor visit.

For more information, contact Richard at (985) 852-2273.

From right, Don Airhart, Albert Steib, Vice President of New Orleans Regions Community Behavioral Healthcare Center Chad Brouillet, Helena Richard and Jane Jones.