CESSA - Region 4 Committee Meeting Approved Minutes 12/13/2022

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA) Region 4 Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes- Tuesday, December 13, 2022 - 10:00-11:30 via Zoom

Meeting Minutes - Approved by Members 01/10/2023

• Call to Order/Introductions
  • Co-chair Julie Brugger called meeting called to order at 10:03

• Attendees:
  • Via Zoom: EMS Director Dr. Jeff Shafer, Peter Eckart, Megan Black, Cindy Wagner, James Hengehold, Randy Randolph
  • Absent- Dana Rosenzweig, Deborah Humphrey, Layla Simons, Tim McClain, Steven Johnson, Joseph Harper

• Open Meetings Act
  • Julie Brugger read the instructions regarding the Illinois Open Meetings Act

• Approval of Minutes
  • No comments or corrections to 11/16/2022 minutes
    • James Hengehold made motion to approve the minutes, Jeff Shafer seconded
    • Motion approved by all members

• Proposed Motion on Rules for Public Comment
  • Questions should be submitted one week before scheduled meeting, and those questions will be addressed in the upcoming meeting
  • Questions submitted during the meeting will be answered if answers are immediately available. If questions require consultation, they will be answered at the following meeting
  • Send questions to tjsaggio@chestnut.org
    • Cindy Wagner made a motion to approve, James Hengehold seconded.
    • Motion approved by all members

• Proposed Charter review & discussion
  • Julie Brugger turned discussion over to Jeff Shafer on topic of Deliverables about Protocols and Standards for the CESSA Charter
  • Dr. Jeff Shafer: the committee is tasked with developing a matrix to categorize callers with mental health issues into the low risk or not low risk category, lower risk being ones that law enforcement would not have to respond to; the State is working on guidance for that. Once completed, we will be approving any changes to scripts and protocols, for example, EMS and dispatch protocols. They will be brought to the Region 4 EMS Committee for review and approval, and then on to the State. Topic of response times will be at a later date, as well as training and education, communication, messaging to the public about how the system is going to work. There are more in details we will address as we go along but those are the initial deliverables that we have to work on.
  • Peter Eckart: I am on the Expert Consulting Group and I am the support for this meeting. I just wanted to make a couple points about the slide, these are the proposed deliverables related to the protocols, scripts and standards; these are listed here as they are the primary focus of CESSA. The other parts of the technical work, the technology systems, integration and data management, training and education, communications and public messaging; each of those has deliverables as well. Some of which are deliverables for your regional advisory committee and some are things that are more for the Statewide Advisory Committee. We will unpack these in the coming months as well. The reason these are called out on this slide as the standards and protocols are the heart of what you will be working on. Second point, I just wanting to encourage those who are new to this work, to use this time to ask questions and or raise any concerns about these deliverables. There is a lot here, but as we go along this will all begin to make more sense.
  • Jeff Shafer: I agree Peter, absolutely. Some of these things are down the road. The initial concerns are the ones we pointed out and everything else will follow suit.
  • Julie Brugger: we did get information that the legislature has proposed holding off on implementation of CESSA until July; so hopefully we have the next six months to work towards these things and create what we need.
  • Jeff Shafer: it's good that they have recognized this, as we have discussed previously we are not in a position to change anything at the current time based on our current knowledge and further research needs to be done. Does anyone have any questions on our work and goals here with these deliverables? No questions or comments.

• Motion to Accept Charter
  • Julie Brugger: with the slides that follow, is the proposed charter sent to us by the State. I would like for us to take a look at this to see what we are agreeing to and in determining what we are going to need to do. The Statewide Advisory Committee is to review and make recommendations regarding coordination of our 911, 988 systems and Mobile Crisis Response teams. What we are looking to do is the development and the best practices for our region, protocols that are consistent with the realities of our local communities with being in accordance with the SAC group and how it can all work together.
  • Julie Brugger: motion to approve charter? Jeff Shafer motioned to approve, Randy Randolph seconded. Motion approved by all members

• Review of tasks
  • Julie Brugger: after reviewing these goals and deliverables, as this was kind of a template sent to us by the State, does anyone have any questions regarding this? Does anyone feel that we need specific changes for our region that is different from others?
  • Cindy Wagner: I have a question, you mentioned the transfer to 988 from the answering point, is that correct?
  • Julie Brugger: yes
  • Cindy Wagner: what about vice versa, has that been discussed?
  • Julie Brugger: it is not on here but I agree with you Cindy, the transfer of 988-to 911. I think this is absolutely something that we need to know, and our 988 call center answerers need to know; when will they need to call 911 to elicit additional help.
  • Cindy Wagner: there is a lot of confusion with that even now. I think this certainly needs some work and needs clarified, going both ways.
  • James Hengehold: I can't agree more with Cindy. We would want a standard to know what we would expect as 911 dispatchers, what we are going to get from 988. I guess regionally we can determine how we expect it to come in. I don't know if the Statewide has a standard. We as an agency built our own phone line for 988 specifically to call, that way it shows differently than any other call that is coming into our dispatch center. Since they are not coming in via the 911 systems, so we are going to be stripped of any ally information and all other data that we would normally get on a 911 call. It's only going to come in as a voice line. I think this is one of the stumbling blocks of the entire 988 system.
  • Cindy Wagner: I agree with that. I was given an example this morning. They really never did locate the caller because they did not have this information.
  • Julie Brugger: yes, the location data is so important, often times, the caller hasn't known where they were.
  • Megan Black: are the 988 numbers regional centers or one place answering these calls? If it was regional, example Madison County, the person answering the call might know the location they are being given, if it were regional, they might be able to relay that information to a dispatch center?
  • Julie Brugger: there are six 988 call centers in the State of Illinois. PATH Crisis in Bloomington is who answers the calls for our area. PATH is also the backup for the entire state.
  • James Hengehold: Megan, from my understanding, the 988 people take the information it's going to be based on what the caller is telling them and then they have a transfer list so if it is at a level to send out EMS, they would look through the list for the city/area, to get that PSAP in order to get the right responders
  • Julie Brugger: do we have any more questions or comments in this area? No comment .

• Committee members open discussion
  • Julie Brugger: topic of Membership Appointment, does anyone have any questions or comments at this time? No comment.
  • Julie Brugger: topic of Expert Consultation, does anyone have someone in mind in an area of expertise that we might invite to seek their knowledge regarding our establishing what is needed in our charter? No comment.
  • Julie Brugger: topic of Subcommittees, we need to determine if we also need subcommittees for our group or do we want our entire group working on each of these things?
  • Randy Randolph: I think the whole group should work together and if we identify a particular topic that can be broken off and we would do that at that time; James Hengehold seconded
  • Julie Brugger: any comments or questions on Committee Meetings? No comment
  • Julie Brugger: any questions comment on Authority? No comment

• State Updates
  • Peter Eckart: Concerning the six month extension, it still needs to be signed but there is no reason to think it will not be approved. Our team at UIC is trying to gather as much expert advice, experience, data and examples to be given to you for the deliberations you are being asked to do. Currently three of the State level subcommittees, Protocols and Standards, Technology Systems Integration and Data Management, Public Messaging and Communications are meeting. These meetings are intended to gather information from all around the country. There are important presentations happening especially at Protocols and Standards Committee. Per your conversation concerning the relationship between 911 and 988, we are supporting a process where the 988 system is developing a processes about their relationship with 911 and the PSAPs.

• Open for Public Comment
  • The floor was opened for public comment and there were none brought forth

• Schedule of subsequent meetings
  • Peter Eckart: meetings are expected to be posted the next six month meetings to encourage public participation
  • Julie Brugger: meetings scheduled the second Tuesday of each month at 10:00-11:30 via Zoom
  • No objection to the schedule of meetings: second Tuesday of each month, meeting time from 10:00 a.m. -11:30 a.m.

• Adjournment
  • Dr. Jeff Shafer- made a motion to adjourn, James Hengehold seconded, all in favor, meeting dismissed at 11:18