Illinois Mental Health Planning and Advising Council Meeting-Minutes 05/05/2022

Illinois Mental Health Planning and Advising Council Meeting Minutes

(approved by Members 07/14/2022)

May 5, 2022 - 12:30pm

Co-Chair: Sue Schroeder

  • Call to Order/Introductions
    • Attendees: Amy Starin, Brock Dunlap, Chris O'Hara, Christina Ancira, Courtney Aidich, David Albert, Dennis Hopkins, Donell Barnett, Emily LeFew, Erin Grima, Irwin Kerzner, Isaac Palmer, Jim Wilkerson, Joan Lodge, Lee Ann Reinert, Lisa Betz, Marianne Bithos, Michael Davis Sr., Michelle Churchey-Mims, Patty Johnstone, Pearl Madlock, Rashad Saafir , Ray Connor, Ron Melka, Ryan Rollinson, Sarah Wiemeyer, Sarah B. Scruggs, Shane Hassler, Sharonda Giles, Shirley Davis, Sidney Weissman, Sue Schroeder, Thane Dykstra, Tracy Meinert
  • Approval of the Minutes
    • Sue Schroder asked for any additions and corrections to minutes from March 3rd; none stated. Sarah Wiemeyer motioned to approve. Mike Davis seconded. Minutes approved.
  • Committee Reports
    • Child & Adolescent Committee Report
      • Michelle Churchey-Mims: We'll be sending out invitations and reminders to committee members, looking forward to more joining. Meetings are third Friday of the month at 12:30.
    • Development Committee Report
      • Ron Melka: Held a meeting Thursday April 28th. Two members resigned, only three active members currently. This is the only committee chosen by the full council. We're limited to five total members. Would like to hold election at the June meeting. Discussed current committee members and search for two new members. Survey was sent out to look for interest, only two replies received. Two people also expressed interest in being officers. Everyone was encouraged to consider joining a committee. Also looking for candidates for the fall meeting to replace or extend members whose term is expiring.
    • Adult Inpatient Report
      • Dennis Hopkins: Meeting took place March 14th, only two attendees. Discussed 988 crisis program and its referral system. Need access to psychiatric beds 24/7. State hospitals may be poorly staffed during evening and weekend hours, leading to difficulties in admitting processes. The issue of client portion payment of insurance can become problematic. Answering funding questions such as this is pivotal for the 988 program.
    • Justice Committee Report
      • None - not currently operating
  • Division of Mental Health Report
    • Director Albert: We have a budget with a couple of exciting editions, including 988 Trust Fund seeded with $5 million, as well as critical rate increases for four services commonly used by community mental health centers. This increase will be permanent. Sarah Weimeyer asked about a COLA of 2% and Brock confirmed that did go into effect. The new rate increases are on top of that COLA increase. Amy Starin asked about family therapy rate not being increased. Director Albert cited the large amount of work that went into those increases and others. He will bring that up in future conversations. Brock welcomed Amy to advocate for this change. Sidney Weissman asked about the workforce crisis. Director Albert confirmed it is a significant issue. All the state and community hospitals are having staffing issues. We have worked hard to get funding to providers, including $22 million in sustainability grants just recently. We are also working on more long-term solutions, including the Behavioral Health Workforce Education Center. We will collect data to assist in making policy decisions and it will be an ongoing investment. We are working on student loan repayment programs to help providers recruit and retain staff. The first is launching this summer. We also launched the CRSS Success program in 11 institutions to train and certify individuals with lived expertise, to increase the behavioral health workforce. They are funded to cover tuition, internship stipend, and other barriers to success, such as childcare or interview clothing. We anticipate 500-600 people coming through the program across its lifetime. Donell Barnett agreed and added we are always looking for new ideas to increase the workforce. Sarah noted people are struggling with the high going rate for licensed professionals versus what community providers can afford.
    • Ray Conner motioned to support Amy's idea for a rate increase for family therapy. Sue noted that it's not on the agenda today, and Lee Ann noted that we need to complete the DMH report before moving into questions and answers, but that we can add this motion as a new item on the agenda for the next meeting, under new business. Ron confirmed that is the proper process.
    • Ron Melka noted HB 5465 passed, putting together a taskforce to evaluate residents who immigrated here to streamline transferring their qualifications to join the healthcare workforce. He proposes having a behavioral health representative on the taskforce to represent this group's interests.
    • Lee Ann gave updates on Crisis Continuum planning. They should meet their launch dates for the statewide call center. Text and chat will still go to national backup for now. We also received the funding from SAMHSA for our existing call centers. We put out a NOFO for existing call centers with Lifeline contracts that would be eligible and submissions are under review. We want to ensure accountability from those centers and coordinate between them and the other parts of the crisis continuum. Members of the UIC team have started joining in the work of community engagement and public messaging. July 16th is still the 988 live date. We will soon be sending out invites to prior committee members to participate in public messaging. SAMHSA has created a new bureau for 988 so there is a website with lots of resources for it now, which was sent out in a Communication Alert. SAMHSA also released four playbooks for specific audiences with assessments and tools in them; those were also in a Communication Alert. CESSA requires us to coordinate 988 with 911 and we have been making progress; we met with the legislation sponsors to provide them with our plan and came up with a list of potential nominees; we are waiting on their feedback. We're also working on the regional committee structure, which was in the plan submitted to legislators. We approached committee creation with an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion lens. The survey will go out through Communication Alerts and several other means. Reminder that the Open Meetings Act training is back online and all members are required to complete it by law, so if you haven't done it yet, please do that ASAP. It only needs to be done once. Also, our annual training is open online and needs to be done, as well.
    • Ryan Rollinson provided an update on transition performance through the end of March. We are a little behind where we need to be for both consent decrees, but still an improvement from the past two fiscal years. Front door diversion is in full swing, 91% of offers accepted. There have been some hiccups in people learning a new system but they're being resolved. The court monitor has announced her resignation as of June and we are interviewing potential replacements. We are in the process of reviewing NOFO for Colbert & Williams transition programs for next year.
    • Chris O'Hara asked about long-term care facilities; are ombudsman positions being filled? Ryan is unaware of a current status on those positions. He will ask and follow up.
    • Sarah asked about front door diversion; Ryan gave a brief summary of the program, which intervenes when someone is being screened for admission to a SMHRF and explains the person's rights to live in the community with supports.
    • Lee Ann asked Lisa Betz to give an update on the DC 0-5 training, dealing with diagnostic assessment training for children under age five. There were so many interested parties that they had to add another training and it is also now full. We're submitting a Communication Alert about the process, as well.
    • Amy asked if there was any movement on evidence-based interventions. Lisa said they ask about interest in learning communities, and they are looking at the most common diagnoses they see and what EBPs are available to match those diagnoses.
    • Amy asked about David Jones and his new role. Lee Ann said that the idea was to have someone who looks across agencies and coordinate among them. For example the CCBHC SAMHSA grant opportunities include language about the state mental health authority creating a process that we don't have, so creating that will take coordination across HFS, SUPR, and DMH, so he's working on that and related efforts.
    • Amy asked about the CRSS Success program; is DMH planning on working on family support services in a parallel process. Lisa said she and Nannette have not discussed that, but they have looked at ways to expand individuals with lived expertise into youth and children services. They had talked about a youth endorsement to the CRSS credential, so they are investigating that possibility.
  • IHFS Report
    • Kristine Herman not present and did not reply to a message with any update to report.
  • New Business
    • Committee Memberships Survey - Sue stated it was filled out by 23 members and asked everyone else to please complete it. You can participate in more than one committee. We haven't had an Adult Community Services committee in a long time. We would like to get that up and running. It's been a couple of years since the Justice committee was up and running, as well. She will forward names who were interested to the relevant committees, and they were read in full and will be sent out to the group. Meetings and minutes are posted on the website.
    • Lee Ann reminded the group about the earlier motion from Ray. Ray repeated his support for the council to get behind a rate increase for family therapy. Ron clarified that it has to be put on the public agenda for the next meeting so that the public has the opportunity to comment. For the council to take a formal position on an item, the public must have that opportunity. Thane will make sure it's on the agenda for the next meeting on July 14th. Courtney noted that there is a different WebEx link for that meeting since it falls on a different day than the usual recurring meeting.
  • Public Comment
    • A muted phone-in line was unmuted to ask if they have any comment. It was Pearl and she did not have a comment.
  • Ron Melka motioned to close the meeting, and Amy Starin seconded, with no one opposed. Sue closed the meeting.