Behavioral health services:
Finding care for patients
The Level of Care Assessment Tool, or LOCAT, is a resource for behavioral health doctors, hospitals and other providers.
LOCAT determines levels and types of behavioral health care for your patients needing:
- Evaluation and treatment
- Placement in facilities or units
How it's used
LOCAT helps evaluate a patient's symptoms by:
- Identifying and scoring seven areas -- or dimensions -- that affect behavioral health
- Narrowing the dimensions into subsets, for a more detailed picture
7 dimensions
The tool helps a doctor evaluate symptoms in seven areas:
- Dangerous symptoms
Assesses warning signs of:- Suicidal intent
- Self-injury intent
- Homicidal intent
- Irritability/aggression
- Functional impairment
Determines how severely functioning is impaired, evaluating:- Social isolation
- Nutritional impairment
- Sleep disturbance
- School or work impairment
- Mental status/cognitive factor
Looks at a patient's internal and external states, including:
- Appearance
- Speech
- Affect
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Thought content
- Behavioral/neurovegetative
- Orientation
- Substance use/abuse/dependence
Considers substance abuse as a factor, evaluating:
- Scope of use/abuse
- Patterns of use/abuse
- Withdrawal potential
- Medical illness
Looks at whether medical illnesses are contributing to behavioral health symptoms
- Environmental stress
Examines outside influences that can affect a patient:
- Family stress
- Non-family member stress
- Housing
- School or job
- Support system
Measures support available to a patient from:
- Family
- Friends
- Social agencies
Please note:
- The LOCAT does not replace medical judgment, where a doctor believes that a different level of care or course of treatment is necessary.
- Treating doctors are solely responsible for medical advice and member treatment.
Find the tool and
scoring information.