About Louisiana's Coordinated System of Care (CSoC)

In Louisiana, we have developed the Coordinated System of Care (CSoC), an approach to offering behavioral health care services for children/youth and their families that is based on system of care values. Specific goals for CSoC include decreasing the number of youth in residential/detention settings, reduction in the state's cost for providing services by leveraging Medicaid and other funding sources and improving the overall outcomes for these children/youth and their caregivers.

This initiative creates access to care for families of children who have complex behavioral health needs and are either in or at risk of being in out-of-home placement (e.g. group homes, juvenile detention facilities, residential treatment centers) by combining resources of the State's four child-serving agencies: Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Education, Department of Health and Office of Juvenile Justice. 

Children with serious behavioral and/or emotional challenges often are involved with many state agencies, and CSoC brings all of these together into one coordinated network to offer the right services at the right time at the right level of intensity.

Families enrolled in CSoC will receive intensive, individualized services in their communities. In this process, the family and child partner with a team of people they choose and work together to develop a plan that meets their needs, rather than having other people develop a plan for them.

Combining all services into one coordinated plan allows for better communication and collaboration among families, youth, state agencies, providers and others who support the family. Initiatives like these are also more cost effective; encouraging sharing of resources across state agencies in Louisiana has resulted in the ability to leverage additional funding from other sources.

Louisiana's CSoC:

  • Incorporates a broad, flexible array of effective services and supports for a defined population
  • Is organized into a coordinated network
  • Integrates care planning and management across multiple levels
  • Is culturally and linguistically competent
  • Builds meaningful partnerships with families and youth at the service delivery, management and policy levels

Supports and Services

Children and families enrolled in CSoC will be eligible for all of the services available through Medicaid plus specialized treatment planning and services offered through CSoC. In particular, these families will be able to receive:

The goal of CSoC is to make sure that families who have children with severe behavioral health challenges get the right support and services, at the right time, for the right amount of time, from the right provider, to keep or return children home or to their home communities.