CESSA Protocols & Standards Subcommittee Meeting 06/20/2024

CESSA Protocols & Standards Subcommittee Meeting June 20, 2024, 2:30 - 4:00 pm

• Virtual meeting via Zoom

Meeting Minutes - Approved by Members 09/19/2024

Call to Order/Roll Call:

• Meeting called to order by Cindy Barbera-Brelle at 2:32 pm (via Zoom)
• Shelley Dallas motioned for approval of 5/16/2024 meeting minutes, seconded by Blanca Campos.
• Members present:
  • Voted to approve: Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Rachael Ahart, Blanca Campos, Candace Coleman (Designee Jessica Gimeno), Lee Ann Reinert, Shelley Dallas
  • Abstained: Drew Hansen, Rick Manthy (not present at time of vote)
• Members not present: Brent Reynolds, Bobby Van Bebber
• Motion carried.

State Updates (Lee Ann Reinert):

• We have not heard that the revisions to the CESSA bill have been signed, so we are waiting for statutory authority to continue into FY25.
• We are working on starting to identify people for hyper-local work. If you have anyone to recommend for the hyper-local work, please email the CESSA mailbox (dhs.dmh.cessa@illinois.gov).
• The Chiefs of Police Association is very interested in identifying local folks to do that work. The more we can engage with multiple partners and agencies, the better, so we have diverse representation on all those committees.

SAC/RAC Joint Meeting (Dr. Mary Smith)

• SAC Vision and values were approved at the last SAC meeting
• Takeaways from the joint meeting were discussed.
• Shelley Dallas: It resonated with me that there is lack of communication all the way around. I have started attending the Region 1 RAC meeting because they changed the time to Wednesday. I do think there are legitimate concerns because they are not sure what the common ground is or what the goal is. I think it would be good if SAC members got more involved at the RAC level.
• Rick Manthy: I noticed at the Forum in Chicago is that there is still some confusion about how the matrix is being applied at the dispatch center and the local level. If there is a work flow or document we can provide to that show how the IRLM will be applied at each level, at the hyperlocal level too.
  • Mary Smith: We can put together some documentation on that
  • Shelley Dallas: We just had a meeting with Lee County and mobile crisis response team and all the responders (police, fire, EMS), and there were a lot of questions about that. I don't know that a document is going to clarify that because its so behind the scenes with the dispatch protocols. But once I explained it to the PSAP reps, they understood. So maybe we go to each RAC and explain it. But after the pre-test, its going to make more sense. It's really at the PSAP level that this will take place. Then after the pre-test, we'll meet with the same group of responders and add in the pilot PSAPs.
  • Rick Manthy: That's good, at least meet with the pilot PSAPs. I try to sit at the regional communities and everyone is doing things a little differently, so if we can sit in the regions and give them a better understanding of the pilots, that would help.
  • Mary Smith: Yes and its not all regions, we can look at the list that has PowerPhone pilots, we did try to cover some information about how the pre-tests and pilots will work, but if people are not understanding the connection, we will need to get with the pilot groups to tell them where we are trying to head. The resources in each PSAP area will be different, but the process should be the same.
  • Rick Manthy: We sat in East Moline's meeting, the process is working for them but it's laid out a little different, there might be a miscommunication where the PSTSC is looking to go and how they are actually implementing
    • Mary Smith: I will take that back and discuss it with Dr. Jones and others and see what we can do

Behavioral Health Crisis Continuum Forum (Dr. Mary Smith):

• We had almost 200 people attend the Forum that was held Tuesday, June 11 and have received positive feedback so far.
• We recorded all the sessions, including the breakout sessions, and we will be posting the recordings and the PowerPoints on the Crisis Hub website.
• Jessica Gimeno: Dr. Margie Balfour's speech was based off the guide she co-authored, called "The Roadmap to the Ideal Crisis System," and that guide is very helpful. I will share it with the group.

Update on Work with Protocol Vendors (Cindy Barbera-Brelle):

• PowerPhone
  • Meeting next week to finalize the direction of the PSAPs
  • Pre-test sites:
    • Lee County
    • Cumberland County
    • Cicero in Cook County area
• Priority Dispatch
  • We are reviewing the blend-in of the IRLM with their EMD and police protocols
• APCO
  • They provided us access to their training sites so we could see live what the protocols look like.
  • We have done the cross walk between PowerPhone protocols and APCO protocols to see where there is some symmetry. We will apply a similar approach to APCO by adding questions to bridge to a mental health protocol.
• Independents
  • Its a smaller list than we originally anticipated. I asked them to share their protocols. A couple of responded and said they are using national protocols, so they are no longer independents.
  • We intend to meet with the independents as a group and then individually to determine next steps.
  • We would probably want to meet with their resource doctor as well as their PSAP manager or EMD quality assurance manager, those who have the best handle on the protocols to discuss adding questions when a mobile crisis response team is needed.
• Pre-tests and pilots (Dr. Mary Smith)
  • Dr. Smith reviewed the goals and scope of the pre-test.
  • The pretest will last approximately 45 days during which the workgroup will be looking at the data, talking to the PSAPs, to see if things are working out the way we hope they will. There will also be data collected and analyzed so we will have a good idea of how the pre-tests went
  • Training
• The PSAP telecommunicators for the PSAPs participating in the pre-test will receive training regarding the logic and goals associated with modifying the protocols.
• There will also be some training on operational/functional use of the protocols by either the 911 Administrator, PSAP Supervisors, or by Protocol Vendors.
  • Data collection
• The PSAPS will be able to generate reports using their CAD systems or the vendor will be able to work with the pretest sites to generate the data needed for the pre-test evaluation.
• PSAP identifier, the incident types and priority level for service (which relate to severity/acuity from the IRLM) and the projected dispatch referral decision.
• So there wont actually be in the record a dispatch referral decision other than the one that is normally made.
• We'll meet with PowerPhone on how we can collect the data to see what the dispatch decision would have been if they referred from 911 to 988.
• We will probably collect data using EXCEL or similar software to compile the data.
  • PowerPhone Pilot sites
• There was no pilot site identified for RACs 6 and 7. based on the fact that some PSAPs in that region are receiving a grant from Cindy's office, they may be able to participate in the pilots
  • Additional Pilot sites
• The same process will be engaged when we do Priority Dispatch and APCO
• The Independents process is to be discussed
• We've already asked the RACs to start identifying who might participate in the Priority Dispatch pilots
  • Shelley Dallas: In discussions with other PSAPs in our area (at a NENA meeting), we got a question about the 911 to 988 and 988 to 911 transfers. Most PSAPs already have a 911 transfer standard operating procedure. In lieu of reinventing the wheel, would it be useful to receive their procedure, so that we are not creating a new standard operating procedure for 911 to 988?
• Mary Smith: I will take this back and I think maybe Brenda will reach out to you. In her draft, she used information from NENA and other sources, but I agree, we don't want to reinvent the wheel.
• Shelley Dallas: it may be better received by PSAPS if you say, "if your existing policy includes x, you can use that".
• Mary Smith: We will also need some additional data elements so we can track between 911 and 988 and then 988 and 590.
• Shelley Dallas: For example, in our PSAP policy, it says create a CAD incident with applicable information using XFR, which is our transfer code, as the clearance code. We could just add another caveat using 988 as the transfer code.
• Shelley Dallas agreed to send Brenda Hampton a copy of her PSAP's policy, which includes the state transfer directory in it.
• Discussion:
  • Mary Smith: We won't be testing the transfer of calls during the pre-tests because we are not ready to do so for a number of reasons. One of them is that the statewide contract is moving from PATH, Inc. to Centerstone. There are no modifications to the actual dispatch referrals currently made by PSAP telecommunicators during the pre-test.
  • Lee Ann Reinert: Centerstone comes on board on July 1, 2024, but we can't start having conversations with them about CESSA until they can incur expenses on their grant. So, July 1 is when we can have design discussions with them.
  • Jessica Gimeno: So is the pretest to figure out what percentage is behavioral health calls?
  • Mary Smith: We worked with PowerPhone to identify which ones are mental health calls by adding questions. We are looking to see if based on those changes, we are able to identify folks who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis. For example, the number of calls PSAPs have received prior to the pretest that identified people experiencing a mental or behavioral health pretest. So, with the pretest, we want to see if the modifications we made work the way we hope they will.

Next Meeting Date:

• Mary Smith: Some of the technical subcommittees are identifying a tentative regular meeting time, and then we could send out a hold the date for if the Governor signs the bill. We could have the discussion now if folks think it's helpful to meet twice a month.
• Cindy Barbera-Brelle: That's a good idea. My recommendation is that we schedule for every two weeks, if we are coming up towards September and haven't gotten pre-tests started, we can cancel. There's a lot going on, so we are going to need feedback from the committee.
• Motion: Rick Manthy motioned that we start meeting again on the third Thursday of September and continue after that on the first and third Thursdays at the same time. Shelley Dallas seconded.
  • All members present voted to approve. Motion carried.

Public Comment: There were no public comments made.

Adjournment: Cindy Barbera-Brelle adjourned the meeting at 3:23 pm.