Charter for the CESSA Technical Subcommittee on Protocols and Standards
Approved by Members 10/20/2022
The Technical Subcommittee on Protocols and Standards has responsibility for providing guidance and recommendations to the Statewide Advisory Committee, as a whole, and to the Regional Advisory Committees in the following areas:
- Negotiated protocol and script adjustments with Illinois 911 dispatch vendors including Priority Dispatch, PowerPhone and APCO and independent PSAPS creating their own scripts and protocols;
- Guidelines for all dispatch protocols statewide to include any best practices on risk stratification methodologies and matrices that guide decisions about entities dispatched given specific types of call incidents;
- Guidelines for dispatch protocols when a call reportedly involves a person presenting with psychiatric symptoms who is allegedly involved in committing a non-violent misdemeanor offense;
- Toolkits to develop standard response times for Mobile Crisis Response teams given specific types of call incidents ;
- Elements of relevant standards and protocols that should be consistently applied across jurisdictions to reduce confusion associated with disparate operational protocols in geographically proximate locales. These standards may apply to all 911 PSAPS, EMS systems, law enforcement agencies, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline centers and DMH Mobile Crisis Response teams;
- Identification of any existing agencies, boards/commissions that have pre-existing regulatory authority and process for coordination with these entities.
Deliverables:
- Approval of vendor scripts and protocols;
- Matrix(ces) for risk attribution for incident types and dispatch priorities based on national best practices in the form of toolkits for the regions. This will involve characterizing all incident types for consideration in the matrix;
- Toolkit for determining dispatch priorities given jurisdictional resource realities including availability and capacity of mobile crisis response teams locally. To the extent possible, data will be used to inform these discussions, thus, organizing local data for the regions is preferred;
- Toolkits for determining standard response times for incident types and toolkits for determining dispatch priorities given jurisdictional realities. To the extent possible, data will be used to inform these discussions, thus, organizing local data for the regions is preferred;
- Determination of which standards/protocols should be standardized across all counties and/or EMS region.
- List of agencies, boards/commissions with regulatory oversight for any aspects of this work and process maps and procedures for interfacing and/or coordinating with these entities to assure compliance.
Protocols and Standards Meetings:
The Protocol and Standards Technical Subcommittee shall meet virtually twice monthly (first and third) from 2:30 - 4 pm or as often as agreed to by members through January 1, 2023, or at any other time determined by the Chair and Co-Chairs. All members are expected to be prompt and prepared to fully participate in the proceedings.
All meetings of this Technical Advisory Subcommittee shall be held in accordance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act (5 ILC 129/1) requiring official minutes of proceedings, posted agendas and time for public comment.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Citizens are invited to provide public comments to the Committee as designated at the time noted on the agenda. Subcommittee meetings are open to the public but are not meetings of the public. The purpose of the meetings is to conduct the business of the Subcommittee and to provide the members an opportunity to discuss issues with each other and with those scheduled on the agenda. Attempts will be made for thirty (30) minutes to be reserved at the end of each meeting for public comment to ensure equitable time for each speaker and to ensure scheduled Committee business can be completed in a reasonable time.
DECISION STRUCTURE:
Protocol and Standards Technical Subcommittee members agree to strive toward consensus on issues that may require a decision. When there is a disagreement, a vote will be conducted, and simple majority will rule. Only Committee members can vote and when a substitute is attending on behalf of the primary member, the substitute may vote by proxy. A quorum, defined as a simple majority, must be present for any votes necessary to conduct the business of the Committee.
