The Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner Provides New Path to Treatment
Hands of Heartland, like many organizations operating in the mental health and treatment industry, has traditionally maintained a part-time or contractual relationship with our Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioners. This is dictated largely not by preference in the industry, but rather by necessity due to staffing shortages and financial considerations. However, because of the role these individuals play in the ongoing health and treatment of those under our care, the leadership at Hands of Heartland has chosen to bring aboard Angela Naujoks, a highly experienced LIMHP with significant relevant experience in the health and human services field, on a full-time basis.
In this post, we’re going to explore the position of the LIMHP, what role they play in the overall care of our patients, and how having Angela Naujoks aboard as a full time employee is absolutely beneficial to our success moving forward.
Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner Role in Conducting Consultative Assessments
The LIMHP will spend much of the time in role providing consultative assessments in the form of conducting functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and using them to flesh out and establish behavioral support programs (BSPs). Let’s dig deeper into each of these job tasks and explore how they help our team improve the lives of our patients.
Functional Behavioral Assessments
Individuals with IDD and others under our care can sometimes have behavioral issues that require special care and oversight. Assessing these behavioral assessments either in person or via telehealth observation techniques. The assessment identifies specific behaviors that could be of concern when providing care or when the individual is socializing with others in group housing environments. The purpose of the behavior is identified, and the LIMHP determines possible alternative suggested behaviors as well as ways to address the problem behavior itself. The LIMHP documents these behaviors during the assessment stage, and then begins to translate these assessments into a treatment plan.
Behavioral Support Programs
Assessments are used by the LIMHP to craft a positive behavior support plan that is in turn used to teach and train the individual and the individuals ISP team, as well as other supports, in the best methods of addressing the problem behaviors identified in the assessment stage.
The Argument for Consistency
Hands of Heartland has found over time that contractual and part-time individuals acting in this role have through no fault of their own developed inconsistent BSPs due to different methods of assessment and differing approaches to care. By placing Angela Naujoks into this role as a full-time LIMHP, patients will benefit from her singular vision and approach to treatment and team training.The team will be able to have a more consistent level of engagement with the clients, resulting in improved levels of care and behavior management. Patient care across all of our service offerings should improve greatly from this staffing change, and we are excited to welcome Angela to the Hands of Heartland family.