CESSA - Region 2 Committee Meeting Approved Minutes 03/08/2023

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA) Region 2 Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes- March 8, 2023 - 1:00-2:00 via Teams

Meeting Minutes - Approved by Members 04/12/2023

  • Call to Order/Introductions
    • Call meeting to Order by Dennis Duke at 1:02 PM
    • Attendees:
      • Via MS Teams: Dennis Duke, Allen Haeffner, Luke Tomsha, Zachary Gittrich, Ryan Beck, Sarah Stuepfert, Latricia Seye, Travis Noyd, Darren Gault, Jamal Simington, Meghan Moser, Jodi Mahoney, Rhonda Flegel, Anthony Walraven, Donald Miskowiec, Michael Lau proxy for Sarah Scruggs, Julie Lewis, Matthew Jackson
    • Absences
      • Michael Barr, Sarah Stasik, Brian Murphy, Sheila Stokowski, Todd Noe, Christopher Watkins, Jake Herbert, Imad Khan, Chris Rogers, Wayne Gallops, Michael Daley, Steve Delis
    • Guests:
      • Gabriela Vo, Mike Epping, Sarah Stalter, Amanda Hartley, Zachary Haeffner, Bobby Leebold, Tisha Anderson
  • Open Meetings Act - Read and notified meeting is being recorded.
  • Approval of Minutes
    • Correction/addition noted to the February 15, 2023 Minutes - No corrections noted - Minutes approved as submitted.
      • Motion by Member Jamal Simington, second by Member Darren Gault
      • Motion Approved by all members present
    • Next RAC Region 2 meeting will be April 12, 2023 at 1:00 PM
  • Overview: The Continuum of Law Enforcement/Behavioral Health Responses
    • Discussed previously the continuum of the crisis response and once the draft risk matrix is available, we'll be able to discuss further. It was noted the response will be dictated by what resources are available.
    • CESSA does not prohibit law enforcement from participating in resolving certain situations and Co-responder models and CIT training remain valuable assets in the continuum.
    • There are 4 levels of response:
      • Traditional Law Enforcement Only Response
      • Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
      • Co-Responder Models
      • Mobile Crisis Team Alternative Response Models
    • Level 1 and 4 are pretty consistent and protocols are in place. In terms of Levels 2 and 3 will be working on determination of who responds in the urgent and the moderate
    • Zachary Gittrich inquired what the difference is between Level 2 and Level 3.
      • Dennis Duke responded this will be the work within the regions and the state. The toolkits will contain a risk matrix to help differentiate between urgent and moderate.
      • Zachary Gittrich - we could potentially merge those into one if our own region wanted to.
      • Dennis Duke responded its possible based upon the resources available.
  • Regional Subcommittee Update
    • Allen Haeffner reported for Protocols and Standards Subcommittee at the regional level meetings is on hold until the state provides the toolkits. Allen attended the Statewide Subcommittee meeting and it was announced the toolkits will be finalized in the near future.
    • Regional subcommittee members were encouraged to attend the statewide subcommittee meetings.
  • Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
    • Partner with community providers
    • 40-hour training for officers
    • Co-Responder teams are pairing law enforcement with behavioral health professionals to reduce risk (arrests, increase safety, reduce ED transports and hospitalizations and increase linkage to community care in the Co-responder model.
    • Benefits of Co-Responder Model
      • Model is generally accepted by stakeholders
      • Improves collaboration between law enforcement and behavioral health
      • Potential to reduce ED transports
      • Possibly reduce immediate risk of arrests
        • Zachary Gittrich commented the co-responder model is typically more expensive than the responder model.
      • Dennis Duke inquired if there are any receiving or stabilizing facility in our region that is a stand-alone.
        • Zachary Gittrich responded referring to the living room models and there is one in McLean County and they are expanding it. Peoria is another that is trying to develop similar model.
        • Dennis Duke shared Quad Cities has a crisis stabilization unit and living room model that are attached to the back of the emergency room. Although it's not a stand-alone facility, it does have similar function.
      • Dennis Duke inquired if there were alternative transportation options to a police car or ambulance that's being utilized in our regions.
        • Ryan Beck responded Peoria County and Tazewood, Woodford County both have access to cars. It's a caged car, but they can transport without police or EMS involvement. They're in the process of expanding their teams and capabilities and uncertain as to how much they've utilized it.
  • Committee task: Understanding local resources for alternative response
    • Landscape Analysis will be developed with toolkits to help analyze resources
    • Important to identify resources to enable better coordination of services and provide multiple options for responders. Toolkits will help to obtain the data needed to guide the work.
      • Darren Gault inquired of how 988 roles play into the calls that initiates the types of resources. Further shared incident of a 988 call was in a different regional call center and ended up calling the dispatch center. The traditional law enforcement investigative methods were not used (i.e., ping a cell phone to locate the call), ultimately this call was broke down from 988.
        • Dennis Duke concurred this would be a concern when the caller felt their crisis call was resolved but the communication did not get dispatched properly leaving law enforcement and the behavioral health 590 provider trying to figure out what happened.
        • Gabriela Vo, Quality Assurance Clinical Supervisor from 988 responded to discuss the process/protocol is to assess the safety of the caller within the first 5 - 7 minutes. The call is then sorted into either emotional support (high, medium or low) or in progress for lethality level. The goal is to de-escalate the individual then no further intervention is required. The crisis counselor is supposed to stay on the call to work with the caller and continue assessment until dispatched to law enforcement, EMS or finite team and has reached the individual. A situation where EMS or finite team is contacted is usually due to inability to de-escalate. If the individual called and considered low or medium by their actions (non-suicidal) and have a safety plan then their word and personal agency is considered.
      • Zachary Gittrich voiced a concern that 988 response does not know how to ping calls or have the ability to call the phone provider and get an exact location, like 911 operators have and this needs to be corrected.
        • Brenda Hampton asked for Chief Gault's contact number to gather further information of the incident. Then responded to Zachary Gittrich the 988 inability to ping calls is not an Illinois issue rather than it's a national issue - noting 988 is not set up with the same infrastructure that 911 has.
      • Ryan Beck noted 590 providers are still receiving a lot of calls directly from people looking for help and fewer calls are going through 988. How can the call be transferred over to 911.
        • Dennis Duke responded this is not just 590 providers in Peoria, rather feels it's all 590 providers and will be a task for our Communication and Public Messaging subcommittees to help educate the public. Furthermore, he reminded there will be regional variations to consider regarding established protocols.
      • Gabriela Vo noted during a transfer, 988 process is to document and standardize what information the crisis counselor would communicate with the finite team or EMS. All calls are documented, however in the case of finite team or EMS there is detailed documentation of their intervention and information is passed on to the finite team while the crisis counselor is on the phone with the caller and the finite team.
      • Brenda Hampton shared the referrals from 988 for referrals from 590 to 988, referral transfers from 988 to 911 and from 911 to 988; those documents are in the evolution now and they are being written on. The documents will be reviewed by both mental health and the SAC committee who is in charge of the PSAPs. July 1st is the intention to have all these connections in place; currently it's business as usual.
        • Dennis Duke inquired regarding regional variations that currently exist where established and efficient communication is occurring between law enforcement and 590 providers, would that be disrupted or allowed to continue in consideration of how important 988 is.
        • Brenda Hampton responded there's going to be more than one model throughout the state of Illinois as the resources are different and wouldn't be asking anyone to disrupt current communication that's working for them. The landscape analysis will provide information of what's working, in place and relationships built. The work through RAC will go to State Advisory Council committees to review.
        • Zachary Gittrich inquired regarding the 988 unable to ping/locate a call, if it's a national specific problem to be fixed on a national level; who do we lobby or reach out to get this resolved.
        • Brenda Hampton responded start with Vibrant.
  • State Updates
    • Risk Matrix is in the final version may be released this week.
    • Landscape Analysis (and Toolkit) is in the final version could be release early next week.
  • Schedule Remaining RAC Meetings
    • RAC 2 Meetings Dates are: April 12th, May 10th, and June 14th
  • Committee members open discussion - Questions/Answers
    • Dennis Duke inquired how will the Landscape Analysis be delivered for the PSAPs to complete.
      • Brenda Hampton responded to be delivered to the RAC for you to send out to the PSAPs. Brenda will follow up for further clarification.
    • Dennis Duke inquired if the Risk Matrix will help identify the level 2 and 3 response better and when it will be available.
      • Brenda Hampton responded you will have the latitude with those two levels to customize those for your regions, but the Risk Matrix you get will be used moving forward.
  • Open for Public Comment - none noted.
  • Meeting was Adjourned at 2:04 PM by Jodi Mahoney, seconded by Rhonda Flegel