Mobile youth crisis team asks Lafayette schools for MOU to provide on-campus clearances and follow-up

Natalie Duff, program manager for the Extra Mile youth mobile crisis program, told the Lafayette Parish School Board the team offers 24/7 crisis response for people up to age 20 and is seeking a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to allow on-campus assessments and clearance back to school.

"Right now, we send out a team of two people, a clinical responder who is a licensed clinician and a peer support specialist that has lived experience...so they go out as a team to provide crisis assessment and intervention," Duff said. She described the program as a state initiative funded by Medicaid and the Louisiana Office of Behavioral Health and said the objective is to keep young people out of emergency departments and unnecessary inpatient stays.

Duff provided usage figures from her program: 225 calls from July to June last year, and about 80 calls in the two or three months since the school year began; she said the program has seen 16 Lafayette Parish students this school year and that six of those went to emergency rooms. "It's free to the kids. It's free to the families. That takes away the ER visit," Duff said, arguing on-campus access would allow the team to include school counselors and administrators in crisis safety plans.

Duff told the board she is drafting an MOU and has been in talks with district administrators for months. She asked for further conversations to permit in-school assessments and better coordination so that follow-up and school-based safety planning can occur when clinically appropriate. The program's crisis number was shared with the board: 337-362-8899.

Board members thanked Duff for the presentation and said they would circulate the materials that were emailed to committee members. No formal board motion or vote was requested at the meeting; Duff asked to continue discussions about an MOU to enable on-campus response and coordination.