CESSA Statewide Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 09/09/2024

Approved by Committee Members 10/15/2024

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA) Statewide Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes - Monday, September 09, 2024 - 01:00 pm-3:00 pm via WebEx

Call to Order/Roll Call

Director David Albert called the meeting to order at 1:01 PM

Approval of Minutes from May 13, 2024

  • Brent Reynolds noted that Quorum was present.
  • Brent Reynolds moved to approve the draft minutes from the May 13, 2024, meeting. Cindy Barbera-Brelle second, Bobby Van Bebber third.
  • Members Present: Cindy Barbera-Brelle (Present and Approved), Jessica Gimeno (for Candace Coleman) (Present and Approved), Brent Reynolds (Present and Approved), David Albert, (Present and Approved), Bobby Van Bebber (Present and Approved), Drew Hansen (Present and Approved), Richard Manthy (Present and Approved), Rachael Ahart (Present and Approved), Jim Kaitschuk (Present and Approved), Blanca Campos (Present and Approved), Emily Miller (Present and Approved)
  • Members Not Present: Curtis Harris, Shelley Dallas, Justin Houcek
  • The minutes were approved.

Agenda

The Agenda for the day was reviewed by Director Albert.

State and UIC Crisis Hub Updates

State Updates: Lee Ann Reinert

  • Comings and Goings: Chief Behavioral Health Officer is resigning at the end of September. There is no immediate replacement. The various departments are working closely to make sure we stay coordinated.
  • Mandatory trainings for SAC members need to be completed by end of 2024. Rachael Ahart inquired who is her agency technology service requestor and Melissa Guy agreed to assist.
  • SAC members received email updates in July and August during the meeting hiatus. No questions.
  • Public Comment received by email
    • DMH received a letter that was originally sent to IDPH. DMH this email as a public comment received in advance of the meeting.
    • The question is whether individuals can be held legally accountable for leaving a patient if the officer does not complete a petition so law enforcement does not transport to the hospital. This is outside of the purview of CESSA itself.
    • Bobby Van Bebber: EMS doesn't do involuntary paperwork so nothing has changed.
    • Rachael Ahart: Can we request more clarification on what this committee can look at? As we read the legislation, it says mobile crisis responders are not participating in the involuntary process outside of being a witness and saying we need assistance. It varies in each locality on who they are currently using for transport.
    • The committee agreed that DMH should respond asking for further clarification on what the commentor is looking for from the SAC.

The Behavioral Health Crisis Hub, UIC Updates: Dr. Lorrie Rickman Jones

  • The June 11th Forum: We are considering the event to be successful as we wanted to stimulate conversations about change and feedback indicates we did that.
  • We are hiring so please look forward to seeing positions on our website. We also have a new staff member, Jessica Atassi, who started over the summer supporting Brenda.
  • We are moving to implementation so we are thinking about how we want to restructure ourselves as move towards implementation. We are thinking about consolidating our technical subcommittees. We will talk more about that in the next meeting when we have more of a plan.

Technical Subcommittee Updates

Protocol and Standards: Cindy Barbera-Brelle

  • Update on Work with Protocol Vendors
    • Priority Dispatch: The pre-test with three counties started last week and we have a check-in scheduled for Wednesday to see how it's going. Training was done in advance with the telecommunicators.
    • PowerPhone: we are continuing to work on those protocols
    • APCO: We have an internal call on Wednesday to discuss preliminary work we've done with those protocols to discuss questions we need to ask, similar to the process with PowerPhone.
    • Independents: The list of independents has shrunk as some of the PSAPs have moved to one of the vendors we've been working with.
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle provided an overview of the purpose of the pre-tests and pilots.
  • The three PSAPs participating in the pre-test are Lee County, Cumberland County, and Cicero.
  • The pre-test began on September 3, 2024 and is expected to be conducted for 45 days. We may adjust that depending on what the activity has been so we'll do regular follow up with the pre-test sites.

Data and Technology Committee: Pete Eckart

  • The Subcommittee will be supporting the identification, collection, and reporting of data for the pre-tests and pilots.
  • The data indicators for the pre-tests and pilots were recommended by the Protocols and Standards Subcommittee and The Hub staff subject matter experts based on what is available.
  • The Subcommittee was charged with executing a variety of activities related to data and information systems management. The Subcommittee compiled a report of what we realized, partially realized, and what is yet to be realized. The report will be posted online soon.
  • There is currently a data system under development in partnership with the UIC Center for Clinical and Translation Services. We anticipate the system will be operational in this fiscal year. We will continue to make reports to you based on our progress.

Training and Education Subcommittee Report: Cindy Barbera-Brelle

  • Training Plans were revised and consolidated over the summer based on feedback
  • Training for the pilots is expected to start in October, but that's really based on how things progress with the pre-test.
  • The proposed training is broken up into three components: 911, 988, and 590 mobile crisis response and for each one there will be core/required, recommended, and optional. They will all be on-demand so that you can take the training based on your availability.

Regional Updates: Dr. Lorrie Jones

  • RAC work over the last two months has included replacing chairs, co-chairs, and members.
  • Several RACs with Priority Dispatch PSAP have reached out to these PSAPs to initiate discussions on the next phase pilot participation.
  • All RACs have populated the CESSA calendar through June 2025.
  • A Region 2 Priority Dispatch PSAP held a local level CESSA discussion in Oglesby with diverse stakeholders. That's the kind of work we want to see done to stimulate interest at the local level.
  • September 16th, RAC #11 will host an in-person meeting at Access Living with guest speaker, Preston Looper, LPC-S.
  • Subregional committees:
    • The vision is that we can delve deeper than the regional structures to facilitate change.
    • The subregions have to be OMA compliant which requires some administrative responsibilities, and there has to be representation of the categories in CESSA. This will be administratively supported by the UIC Crisis Hub.
    • We know the changes happen within the PSAPs and around the protocol vendor so we think that subregional structure should be organized around the vendors.
    • We would bring together the PSAPs with the same vendor to trouble shoot protocols.
    • We would have four new subregional committees comprised of individuals from the previous slide. You will then have implementation groups centered around the PSAP specifically. The implementation groups have no decisional authority and only implement what has been authorized at the subregional, regional, and statewide levels. Discussions about issues with protocols would happen at the subregional level.
    • It will be phased because not all the vendor changes are operational at the same time and because there are some PSAPs that will be ready earlier.
    • No questions from SAC members.

Discussion on Defining Success for Fiscal Year 2025 Updates: Pete Eckart

  • How you define success in a planning phase is different than in implementation phase.
  • We will start the conversation today and The Hub and DMH will work on turning today's conversation into something that we can work on at the October meeting.
  • Drivers that guide us are taken directly from the CESSA legislation and the SAC Vision Statement. In addition, another driver is the perspective you all bring to this as you represent your constituents and systems as that perspective will vary.
  • Brent Reynolds: I think our meaningful progress will be demonstrated by the successful implementation of the revised protocols at the 911 PSAPs. As long as those pilot programs go well, we can start seeing the protocols implemented no matter the vendor because that gives us the opportunity to transfer calls outside of 911.
  • Rick Manthy: For the initial stages, just to understand that the 988 transfer is going successfully and that all the PSAPs in the state are either successfully transferring or have a process in place. And also to see where we are at with the definition of CESSA to have law enforcement respond less to lower acuity calls and shift that portion of calls to mobile crisis response.
  • Pete Eckart: We are going to have to recognize that we may not have all PSAPs transferring to 988 by the end of the year but I heard you say that we would have meaningful progress.
  • Emily Miller: I think that one of the ways we will be able to show meaningful progress will be knowing that our communications efforts are reaching the people that they need to reach and ensuring that individuals in communities understand what changes are happening because of CESSA and what the process is, how it will work for individuals within their communities. How do we ensure that the same communication is going out across the spectrum for the agencies that provide services, agencies that talk about services or refer, and individuals that need services.
  • Pete Eckart: There are some things in there we can measure and we can put on a target on that when we bring you the roadmap in October
  • Director Albert: I agree with what's been said so far. I think meaningful progress will be getting as far along on getting the protocols in place as we can so the individuals benefit from these efforts. I also want to co-sign was Emily said about communication.
  • Drew Hansen: We want patients to get the best care but at the end of the day is that people in mental health situations, fire, and hospital, and police isn't the end all be all. So, for the responders, if we see a reduction for exposure to the 911 system in both calls coming in and patient exposure. There will still be some exposure for higher acuity calls but at the end of the day, there should be a reduction in contact with 911 system. So (1) they are getting to the right place and the appropriate care for their current situation and (2) they are starting to heal and eventually not needing to reach out at much.
  • Blanca Campos: Really seeing how many calls that previously would have received a 911 response are now getting connected to 988 and mobile crisis response. And related to communication, we need to get the information about and make sure it trickles down to people on the ground doing the work and receiving services.
  • Jessica Gimeno: Can we get data from the individuals to see if it was re-traumatizing, did they have to repeat their story to several times, and how did the people getting help feel about their experience. Also the local relationships are absolutely key to making this work, and we can have the different local agencies met each other.
  • Rachael Ahart: I'd like to see us go through the laid out state goals again and see where we are with that. One things that comes to mind is the confidential advance care directives and other things like that we haven't hit on as much. Also being able to communicate about the CESSA act is really important. There are a lot of people who are meeting locally to discuss how it will look in their community so shared communication is important. I don't know if this fits in subregional but I'd also like to see a table-top exercise with cases that are the same, what would it look like for the transfer process and then in the field. So maybe doing some hands-on exercises prior to going live so we can practice and figure that out how it would work for different agencies.
  • Blanca Campos: I feel a need to align more with the Regional Advisory Groups. I'm interested in what they have to say and how to set goals and achieve them together.
  • Pete Eckart: I would say not explicitly but the conversations about success for them are very clear because they are working on the relationship building that supports the pre-tests and preparing for the pilots. They have had a lot of exposure to similar questions and a practical focus recently on relationships and the pilots.
  • Barriers and Assets
    • Brent Reynolds: Time and logistics. Pilots are great but the reality is the time that this will take. It's taken us until this year to go live in every county with 911 in Illinois. There's a lot of training and coordination that has to be put into place for the 911 PSAPs across the state.
    • Pete Eckart: You also identified an asset. While formerly this was conceptual, we now have a specific activity we are doing and can talk about how its working.
    • Members were invited to put additional barriers and assets in the chat if they have ideas. No comments in the chat.

Next Meeting Dates: Lee Ann Reinert

  • October 15, 2024, in person in Glenview and virtual
  • November 12, 2024, virtual
  • December 9, 2024, virtual
  • SAC members discussed their preferences for the start and end time of the in-person meeting. Based on their discussion, Lee Ann proposed to start at 10 am and extend the meeting until 1 pm. We can look into options for having lunch ordered but we can't pay for it. No objections.

Announcement

Rick Manthy will be stepping down prior to the next October meeting and is working on identifying a replacement. Director Albert conveyed his appreciate to Rick.

Public Comment

No hands raised.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by Director David Albert at 2:40 pm.