Rehabilitative Behavioral Health Services (RBHS) are available to all Medicaid beneficiaries with a behavioral health disorder. RBHS provides services to help students who are having behavioral or emotional problems. RBHS helps students learn better ways of responding, appropriate social skills, strategies for self-management, and independent living skills. RBHS can provide counseling, behavioral support in the classroom, character education classes, and family support depending on what a student needs.

• Tamala Robinson – Clinical Counselor

• Hannah Mullinax – Licensed Master Social Worker

The purpose of this face-to-face intervention is to assist the beneficiary in improving his or her emotional and behavioral functioning. The clinical professional assists the individual in identifying maladaptive behaviors and cognitions, identifying more adaptive alternatives, and learning to utilize those more adaptive behaviors and cognitions. Individual Therapy (IT) is an interpersonal, relational intervention directed towards increasing an individual’s sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experience. IT may be psychotherapeutic and/or therapeutically supportive in nature. IT involves planned therapeutic interventions that focus on the enhancement of a beneficiary’s capacity to manage his or her emotions and behaviors through effective decision making, developing and acquiring coping skills, making better choices and decisions regarding co-occurring substance abuse, achievement of personal goals, and development of self-confidence and self-esteem.

The purpose of this face-to-face service is to assist beneficiaries in the restoration or strengthening of skills needed to promote and sustain independence and stability in their living, learning, social and working environments. RPS is a form of skill building support. The beneficiary should be offered RPS in a manner that maximizes the beneficiary’s responsibility, control, and feelings of self-worth and encourages ownership in the rehabilitation process. RPS includes services provided individually or in small groups based on the assessed needs and level of functioning of the beneficiary and includes activities that foster growth in the following areas:

• Basic Living Skills Development

• Interpersonal Skills Training

• Therapeutic Socialization

• Consumer Empowerment

The purpose of this face-to-face, or telephonic, short-term service is to assist a beneficiary, who is experiencing a marked deterioration of functioning related to a specific precipitant, in restoring his or her level of functioning. The goal of this service is to maintain the beneficiary in the least restrictive, clinically appropriate level of care. The clinician must assist the beneficiary in identifying the precipitating event, in identifying personal and/or community resources that he or she can rely on to cope with this crisis, and in developing specific strategies to be used to mitigate this crisis and prevent similar incidents. A crisis can be defined as an event that places a beneficiary in a situation that was not planned or expected. Sometimes, these unexpected events can hinder the beneficiary’s capacity to function.

The purpose of this face-to-face service is to enable the family or caregiver (parent, guardian, custodian or persons serving in a caregiver role) to serve as a knowledgeable member of the beneficiary’s treatment team and to develop and/or improve the ability of families or caregivers to appropriately care for the beneficiary. Family Support (FS) is a medical supportive service with the primary purpose of treatment of the beneficiary’s condition.