SSAC/Response, Recovery, and Innovation Committee Agenda - 02.07.23

1:00-3:00 PM

WebEx Video Conference

AGENDA

  1. Welcome/Introductions (Jodi/Mary)
  2. Approval of Meeting Minutes: November 9, 2022 (Taneka)
  3. KPI Discussion (Kari)
  4. Approval of Committee Charge (Jodi/Mary)
  5. Committee Priorities for 2023 (Jodi/Mary)
  6. Adjournment (Taneka)

MEETING MINUTES

Committee Members in Attendance: Mary Camper, Reestablishing Hope; AJ French, Gift of Voice; Jodi Martin, Boys & Girls Club of Livingston County / Prairie Central

Committee Members Not in Attendance: Dayo Adenekan, Cila Corporation; Carlene Cardosi, Rosecrance; Mike Inman, City of Macomb Mayor; Bela Mote, Carole Robertson Center for Learning; Sylvia Puente, Latino Policy Forum; Frances Reyes, The Center for Prevention of Abuse

Guests / IDHS Staff in Attendance: Kari Braham, Special Projects Administrator; Taneka Jennings, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs

Welcome/Introduction:

Co-Chair Mary Camper provided opening remarks and invited all Committee members to share their updates.

Kari will be supporting the Committee, going forward.

Approval of Minutes

The group decided to approve the previous minutes on the next meeting due to low attendance and member AJ French was absent in the previous meeting.

KPIs Discussion

Guide questions:

  1. What are some key indicators in terms of preparedness during a response and recovery situation?
  2. What are the gaps in the IDHS side or on the members' own organizations that IDHS could do a better job of addressing in the future?
  3. What are the gaps in times of crisis such as when busloads of asylum seekers came to Illinois or the situation that the State is in right now that the public health emergency is winding down and the State is in a period of recovery?

Co-Chair Mary Camper -

  • Many agencies encounter challenges related to the warm hand-off of individuals in crisis from one facility to the next
  • Communication may not be effective to allow individuals to have a warm hand-off and sometimes individuals don't get connected to the needed services right away
  • Knowing who the key contact persons are is also important when there are additional services that have been identified
  • Communication on all departments and with partner organizations should be strengthened to eliminate gaps and services
  • Some individuals may not qualify for additional services because they make a few dollars or more, above the cut off limit though it still causes a crisis within their families
  • These situations are worsened when there's a gap in resources in certain communities and individuals don't get connected to needed services.
  • This can fall under the second committee charge which is to "Identify potential gaps in programs, services, and coordination and recommendations for improving IDHS' preparedness for future emergencies"

Member AJ French -

  • It may be a good practice that in cases of slots not filled, for example for the population with Medicaid and no Medicaid, people with slightly higher income and no Medicaid can be accepted if there are slots to be filled
  • Making sure that emergency responders have Narcan with them for other types of emergencies other than fire
  • Making sure that people with lived experience, whether people on mental health recovery or substance use recovery or recovery from incarceration of people who have been through various parenting challenges, are in conversations to shape emergency service delivery, policies and practices
  • In relation to assessing whole wellness, Ms. French mentioned the powerpoint presentation provided to the CESSA workgroup, the emergency assessment did not include assessment for any kind of strength that an individual might have. She recommended that strength-based assessment should always be included in any crisis assessment so as not to compromise effectiveness. Co-Chair Mary Camper agreed and added that the strength-based approach can be used as a form of coping skills for individuals to help them improve their self-confidence and self-esteem.
    • For example, a suicidal person can be guided to draw strengths from their own experiences, identify something from themselves that has helped them previously. It reinforces realization that recovery is possible, and it re-establishes hope.
    • Ms. French will send more examples in writing over the next few weeks.
    • Co-Chair Camper added that it helps to look at the person as the expert who has the abilities and solutions inside of them. They have the wealth and wisdom and they just need to help to define these to help them get into that place of stability.

Co-Chair Jodi Martin -

  • IDHS has a document that can be used during a crisis and how to recover from a crisis but it still needs to be completed. The document was brought to SSAC and the RRIC committee was supposed to work on it. Co-Chair Martin might have a copy, she will look for it and she will be willing to work on it with the help of the Department. Taneka will try and look for the latest version of the document which may have come from Dr. David Jones.
  • How to ensure continuity of care when there is a changeover of staff in the department.
  • In terms of KPI, challenges have to be identified, what needs to be done to meet those challenges, and then look at the performance on those areas
  • Also, how to ensure continuity within an organization if the organization gets into a crisis, e.g. when AmeriCorps experienced a crisis

Approval of Committee Charge

  • The Committee will need to have access to certain reports or data such as the quarterly and annual reports on receiving grant funding or other data in order to be able to do bullet point 1 of the RRIC goals. Co-Chair Camper suggested to include in the agenda for the next meeting- to identify specific reports or data points or metrics that the Committee will need access to.
  • Include customer satisfaction on bullet point 3 of the RRIC goals
  • The group would like to hear about the current status of the OneDHS initiative to have tangible ways to contribute to advising on what implementation looks like
  • The group decided to postpone voting to approve the charter until more people have had a chance to read it and also because there were some changes made. Both the broader charter and the committee charters will be voted on for approval on the next SSAC meeting.
  • Focus areas for 2023 will be discussed at the next meeting
  • Co-Chair Martin volunteered to help in getting engagement from the other committee members to get more participation during meetings.
  • Co-Chair Camper suggested to have a practice on scheduling to give individuals opportunity to select among times and availability. IDHS team will look to get days way out in advance to put out the full meeting cycle out to members and at the same time get feedbacks on the dates.

Adjournment:

Co-Chair Martin moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Co-Chair Camper. The Committee voted unanimously to adjourn at 2:01 PM.