CESSA Statewide Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 08/08/2022

Approved by Committee Members 09/12/2022

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA) Statewide Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes - Monday, August 8, 2022 - 1:00-3:00 pm via WebEx

  • Call to Order/Roll Call
    • Meeting called to order at 1:03pm by Secretary Grace Hou
    • Attendees:
      • Via Webex: David Albert (represented by designee Lee Ann Reinert), Ashley Theole, Shelley Dallas, Brent Reynolds, Andrew (Drew) Hansen, Alice Cary, Blanca Campos, Emily Miller, Pooja Nagpal, Curtis Harris, Christopher Huff, Erika L. Freeman, Richard Manthy, Jr., Cindy Barbera-Brelle
      • Absent - Jim Kaitschuk
  • Approval of Minutes
    • Motion to approve July Meeting Minutes made by Member Brent Reynolds, seconded by Member Drew Hansen
    • Motion Approved by all members present
  • State Updates
    • 988
      • Lifeline received over 96,000 calls, texts, and chats from 7/14-7/20
      • Most calls are not in need of mobile crisis response or additional response
    • Progress on Regional Committee Appointments
      • Ensure diverse representation
      • 351 respondents from the survey conducted in July
      • A supplemental survey is underway to identity additional participants
    • Subcommittees
    • Questions:
      • Blanca Campos - There is an expectation that MCRU will be dispatched when appropriate. If so, when should they be ready to be called?
        • It's tricky. When we funded 590, that's capacity money to support the existing structure and build upon it.
      • Christopher Huff - Can you clarify the relationship between the technical subcommittees, the expert groups, and SAC member groups? Are we meeting at the same time or separately, and what's the process of engagement?
        • It's one subcommittee. Experts are asked to join the meetings based on their specialities. There is one group.
      • Curtis Harris - What are the 590 committees doing throughout the state? Are they working on 988 or working on some committees for CESSA?
        • 590 is a program number for grant tracking at the state level. They received grants and started getting them in July of 2021. We have been working with them to increase the types of crisis services available in the community. Others aren't quite there yet.
      • Curtis Harris - Is it a stand-alone model?
        • Yes. It should be helpful to hear the presentation today.
  • Expert Presentation - Dr. Amy Watson
    • People with serious mental illnesses are overrepresented in police involvement
    • There is now more of a push for community-based involvement
    • Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Model
      • Strong evidence to its effectiveness
      • Strong partnership between law enforcement agencies, mental health providers, and advocates
    • Co-Responder Teams
      • Pairing of clinician and an officer to provide response. The goal is to reduce arrests and increase safety and linkages to community care. There is lots of variation in how this is implemented. There is also variation to what kind of calls they'll respond to. They are often not 24/7.
    • Community Responder and Mobile Crisis Teams; CAHOOTS
      • 2 person teams: crisis worker and medic
      • Services offered are more for lower risk calls
      • These teams have the ability to call for police support when needed
    • Denver Support Team Assisted Response (STAR)
      • Similar to CAHOOTS with some differences
      • Pairs mental health clinician with a paramedic or EMT
      • Respond to low-risk calls
      • ~14k calls in the first year w/ no need for police backup
    • Limited evidence on Mobile Crisis Teams
      • These have been around for decades and were not able to be dispatched through 911 rather through hotlines, and now, 988
      • They may request police backup when needed
      • Teams of clinicians that can be deployed without any law enforcement involvement
    • Potential difficulties of implementation
      • Triaging calls
      • Workforce issues
        • Which credentials should be required? What kind of training? Diverse workforce that mirrors each community
    • Focus on Equitable Access
      • The set up of this has to be carefully studied, focus on the risk assessments, to ensure that the created and expanded services will not only serve middle class white communities while continuing to exclude Black and Brown communities
    • Questions:
      • Chris Huff - Follow up regarding the difference between community responder and MCRT? Highlight the distinctions and overlap between the two
        • MCRT tend to be housed within mental health agencies, however this is changing with 988 and CESSA. Traditionally, they are accessed through a hotline.Whereas, community response teams have been traditionally accessible through 911 and deal with a broader set of calls, issues that may not have a mental health crisis component
      • Blanca Campos - The call matrixes from California and Virginia sound great. Is the expectation that something like that would be created prior to Mobile Crisis Response teams being dispatched?
        • Yes, that is the expectation and the work of this committee. We will have to make decisions on a local level.
      • Curtis Harris - You bring a lot of great expertise, and I learned a lot.
  • Public Comment
    • Finlon-Perhaps we want to look into how law enforcement got involved in 911 calls so as to not repeat history. How are involuntary commitments being handled because those are almost universally the burden of law enforcement.
    • Powers-I was wondering about the training of whoever is going to be doing this response. What kind of training are they getting for their own self-care? I'm also wondering about follow-ups from these calls.
  • Meeting adjourned at 2:43pm