CESSA Training and Education Subcommittee Meeting - Approved Minutes 11/12/2024

CESSA Training and Education Subcommittee - November 12, 2024, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Meeting Minutes - Approved by Members 12/17/2024

The meeting was called to order by Cindy Barbera-Brelle at 10:31 a.m., who reviewed the OMA procedures, meeting logistics, and agenda.

Roll Call and Motion to approve minutes:

  • Michelle Churchey-Mims motioned to approve minutes from the previous meeting on Oct. 8 and Oct 22, 2024. Robert Van Bebber seconded. Motion carried.
  • Members Present:
    • Robert Van Bebber - approve both
    • Michelle Churchey-Mims (Designee for Blanca Campos) - approve both
    • Cindy Barbera-Brelle - approve both
    • Jessica Gimeno (Designee for Candace Coleman) - abstain from Oct. 8, 2024, approve Oct. 22, 2024
    • Tanya Cooley (Designee for David Albert) - approve both
    • Rachael Ahart - approve both
  • Members Absent: Emily Miller

Old Business: MCRT Training Plan (Dr. Terry Solomon):

  • Dr. Terry Solomon reviewed the CESSA training requirements which include a course on community resources. This will be satisfied by the course titled "Developing Community Relationships."
  • There have been no changes to the Additional Best Practice or Optional Courses.
  • By adding "Developing Community Relationships," there are now six required DMH courses which take nine hours.
  • For the Additional Best Practice Courses, the 10 courses will take 15 hours.
  • For the Optional Courses, the 11 courses will take 17 hours.
  • We believe it will be important to continue to keep you updated as we roll out training and identify any needs that arise.

Discussion:

  • Lee Ann Reinert: Is this the first time this change is being discussed? Are Illinois Healthcare and Family Services and the crisis providers aware we are coming back with an increase of hours?
    • Sarah Ferguson: When it was presented to HFS, it was six hours and didn't include Developing Community Relationships.
    • Lee Ann Reinert: If the committee is saying the recommendation is 19 in stead of 16, I will need to take this back to the inter-agency meeting.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: This recommendation goes beyond what is covered in a 590 program grant. I think there will be some questions and concerns from providers.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: What we can do is add Developing Community Relationships and look at how we can modify the amount of time.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: Is it the expectation that this committee is making recommendations for the larger crisis response system? I'm thinking about the MCRT providers for SASS or IMPACT that are not 590 providers.
  • Lee Ann Reinert: Those are the right questions, Michelle. As the state moves toward a unified crisis continuum, it will be more about what the system as a whole expects all crisis responders to do. I didn't hear the logic behind why we think we need to add 3 more hours of trainings. It feels like you aren't asking for a discussion, just a blessing.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: Thank you for your comments. The Hub felt it was important because CESSA required local services and supports, which would be done through the course titled Developing Community Relationships.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: Are these self-pacing and can be accessed at any time? I know some are virtual.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: The CESSA courses will be available on-demand. We may do a live training and then that training becomes an on-demand training.
  • Tanya Cooley: Each of these six trainings are based on CESSA. What may be adaptable is the time given to each. I believe that is why these six were determined.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: Is the new course required before providing services?
  • Terry: Yes, it's core and we've always said that core trainings should be completed before responding.
  • Jessica Gimeno: I hear the concerns about the added cost of time, but I think it's an important area to include.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: When we went back and looked at the legislation, we realized this topic was part of the legislation, we moved it back to the core content area. We have the ability to modify the amount of time we spend on each content area. If the committee feels that we got approval from HFS on 16 hours so let's work within 16 hours. 90 minutes allows for more discussion and break out rooms, but when we convert them to on-demand, we can trim some of that out.
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle: We could always add more skills to the additional best practice version of the course.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: The Developing of Community Relationships is an underpinning of all the other categories, it's something that happens after you're providing the service, you need to know about your community resources.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: I heard that developing community relationships should not be required before a person goes out.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: No, it's that I don't see it as a stand-alone course, but something that is blended into each course.
  • Tanya Cooley: Michelle, are you asking if it could be blended into the other five?
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle: I think that makes sense.
  • Jessica Gimeno: I like that Dr. Solomon was saying 90 minutes was standard, so what if we did a compromise and did 60 minutes since it is important. I think there is a danger in not emphasizing it enough.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: We have developed all of the other trainings (#1-5). For #6, we can modify it to make it a 30-or-60-minute course and offer the 90-minute option as optional. We can also go back and look at the course content and modify it to keep the total courses under 16 hours. We can also include the option to learn more in the 90 minute course. So, what I'm hearing is we add Developing Community Relationships but we stay within the16 hours that we already have consensus on. Also, not make it not a requirement for entering the field.
  • Michelle Churchey-Mims: As you've summarized, I think being able to have the six topic areas within the established training time frame makes sense.
  • Jessica Gimeno: I agree with trying to keep the total number of hours close to what Lee Ann's presentation was, but I still think we should have Developing Community Relationships as a core standalone course.
  • Lee Ann Reinert: It wasn't my presentation, it was a summary of the agreement of the committee. If this committee truly believes that it should be nine hours and not six, then that's a discussion that the state has to have to make sure we don't create unfunded mandates for our providers. So, what content is not critically needed that's part of the original five courses? If we keep it at six hours, where is that 30 minutes coming from?
  • Tanya Cooley: I believe we had respectful interactions in one module, and then somewhere along the way it was discussed that they should be two separate modules. Originally, it was one and a half hour training and then it became one and a half hours each. That so might be where the total of six hours came from.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: We can keep in mind that the trainings are on-demand, the person can stop the training any time they want. We can also have an extended version. We can go back and look at the other courses.
  • Lee Ann Reinert: It's about what this committee determined is best practice. I still haven't heard what the content is, what we are really recommending as necessary. If we're going to say that it's three more hours that is needed, then it's very important that everyone here understands that we can't do that in a way that results in an unfunded mandate for providers. So, I need to understand what this committee is recommending.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: Is that something this committee wants to say or agree on?
    • Jessica Gimeno: I'd rather have 30 minutes as a required course that an optional course.
  • Sarah Ferguson: I want to answer Lee Ann's question about where the timing comes from. I looked at the document that Lee Ann sent to HFS back in September, when Developing Community Relationships was part of the content under #1, Illinois Emergency Crisis System. But you can see here today that the description of that course does not include developing community relationships. So, we kept that course at two hours, but we took out that content. And what happened on October 8th, when this committee approved the training plan, the content about Developing Community Relationships never got added back in as its own course, or to another course.
  • Lee Ann Reinert: Are you saying that #1 no longer requires the number of hours it originally did, because #6 existed all along, and now we're just calling it something on its own?
  • Sarah Ferguson: When #1 was proposed, it was being developed for the pre-test and it was much longer. We found during the pre-test that the training was longer for the PSAP administrators but shorter than 2 hours for the telecommunicators. I think we can keep that at one and a half hours and add back in 30 min separately for Developing Community Relationships.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: Let me summarize. We keep #1 through #6, make adjustments in the time for #1 and, if necessary, make adjustments to #6 with the optional additional in-depth training for #6. In addition, we still have this course be core but the staff would not have to take this course before they go into the field. I need Michelle and Jessica to help us clarify this point. Should this course be optional?
  • Jessica Gimeno: It should be a core course, even if it was only 30 minutes because that's important to CESSA.
  • Dr. Terry Solomon: I want to recommend that we keep the 16 hours, and the Hub staff look at the courses and make adjustments to #1 (one and a half hours), and #6 (30 min with optional more information).

New Business: Vote on MCRT Training Plan (Cindy Barbera-Brelle):

  • Michelle Churchey-Mims motioned motion to amend the training plan to include Developing Community Relationships and adjust the hours in the other courses to meet the 16 hour requirement. Rachael Ahart seconded. Motion carried.
    • Robert Van Bebber - abstain
    • Michelle Churchey-Mims (Designee for Blanca Campos) - approve
    • Jessica Gimeno (Designee for Candace Coleman) - approve
    • Cindy Barbera-Brelle - approve
    • Tanya Cooley (Designee for David Albert) - approve both
    • Rachael Ahart - approve both

New Business: Pilot Training Updates and Demonstration (Dr. Terry Solomon):

  • Dr. Terry Solomon provided an overview of the pilot training plan that was presented to pilot sites on Oct. 24, 2024.
  • More information about training for the pilots can be found at The Behavioral Health Crisis Website at https://bhch.uic.edu/pilots/
  • Dr. Terry Solomon showed the Subcommittee a sample training course.
  • Tanya Colley: Since these are core trainings, will they have a quiz that demonstrates they completed the training? Tanya Cooley: If we're requiring those as a core, we might need more verification that they read the PowerPoint.
    • Dr. Terry Solomon: The Hub is in the process of getting a LMS that will allow us to have more features. People process information in different ways and some may take longer. I understand your comment, but our goal is to provide the information and for them to attend it in one hour.
    • Tanya Cooley: I think maybe we are saying two different things. We are requiring this course, so we need something to verify that they read through the material.
    • Dr. Terry Solomon: I will see what we have in our system. But we will have a full LMS in place hopefully by January and we will have different controls that can monitor to force people to spend time on a page.
    • Rachael Ahart: For the three core trainings that are required from another mechanism [HFS], do those have a test or verification they were taken?
    • Tanya: When I took an IM-CANs test, there are questions and scenarios to have checks and balances as you are going through the material. I think that's where a quiz could be beneficial. So, it's not about the time but verification.
    • Dr. Terry Solomon: That's something we can add when we have our learning management system. Also, be mindful that adding a pre-and-post-test will increase the time.
  • Jessica Gimeno: I appreciate the time that went in to making the trainings. Are we including people with lived experience, especially in the IDD module?
    • Dr. Terry Solomon: Susan, the presenter for IDD, has a son with Autism Spectrum Disorder. If you have trainers on specific topics that you want us to consider, you can email us.
    • Tanya Colley: When talking about lived experience, I would go into that with the understanding of family lived experience is different than lived experience.
    • Dr. Terry Solomon: Yes, we had a presenter with lived experience for the training we did last month about mental health and substance use.

Meeting Calendar: Cindy Barbera-Brelle proposed to cancel the November 26, 2024 meeting during the week of Thanksgiving and to move the December 10, 2024 meeting to December 17, 2024 to provide additional time for updates. No issues raised. Change approved.

Public Comment: No hands raised.

Adjournment: Cindy Barbera-Brelle adjourned the meeting at 11:49 am.