Deputy Secretary
Kathy Kliebert currently serves as the Deputy Secretary. Kliebert previously served as assistant secretary of the newly-formed Office of Behavioral Health where she has overseen the transition of combining the offices of mental health and addictive disorders to better serve Louisianians in need. Prior to that appointment last year, Kliebert served as assistant secretary for the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities (OCDD) since 2004 where she successfully led a multi-year transition to move individuals out of institutions into more effective and appropriate community-based services, reducing the institution population by more than 26 percent.
Prior to taking her role as assistant secretary of OCDD, Kliebert served as diversification director of the Metropolitan/Peltier-Lawless Development Centers in New Orleans and Thibodaux where she led the expansion of community-based options for people with developmental disabilities. She has 17 years of experience as a licensed clinical social worker and has a master's degree in social work. She serves on the Children's Cabinet Advisory Board and with the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
The Deputy Secretary serves as the chief operating officer of DHH and acts as spokesperson for the department in the absence of the Secretary. The Deputy Secretary is the coordinator for DHH's Human Services Interagency Council (HSIC) and is solely responsible for direct supervison over the following major offices:
Office for Citizens With Developmental Disabilities provides or directs the provision of supports and services for individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities.
Office of Behavioral Health is a newly-created office that combines the Office of Mental Health and the Office of Addictive Disorders to provide the most complete and appropriate care for individuals with both mental illness and one or more addictive disorder.
Office of Public Health develops, provides and assures public and environmental health services to protect and enhance the health of Louisiana citizens.
Office of Aging and Adult Services administers nursing facility admissions and develops new long-term care program, as well as implementing other health care reform recommendations. This office brings together all of the long-term care program that serve aging adults and people with adult-onset disabilities.
Louisiana Commission for the Deaf - The Louisiana Commission for the Deaf provides accessibility services for persons whom are deaf, deaf-blind, or have hearing loss or speech impairment to gain equal access to any public or private service.
Community Human Services Statewide Framework provides a statewide planning process towards the establishment of a statewide framework to govern the state and local delivery of addictive disorders, developmental disabilities, and addictive disorders services funded by appropriations from the state. It also provides for the development of a state human services plan, vision and mission statement, definitions of eligible and priority services populations, core and targeted services to individuals and families, standards for the geographic scope of service delivery and client intake process, and access for institutional and community based systems. Framework will employ the use of “best practices” to build statewide strategies for service delivery.
