CESSA Subcommittee for Technology, Systems Integration & Data Management (TSIDM)
November 04, 2024, 2:00 - 3:30 pm via Zoom
Subcommittee members: Brent Reynolds, Cindy Barbera-Brelle, David Albert (Designee-Lee Ann Reinert), Jim Kaitschuk, Robert Van Bebber, Candace Coleman (Designee-Jessica Gimeno)
- Welcome and Call to Order (Roll Call)
- Open Meetings Act
- Approval of the Minutes from previous meeting
- State updates
- Hub updates
- Debriefing the Data Systems Development Discussion
- SAC Metrics Recommendations
- Public comment
- Adjournment
The meeting was called to order by Robert Van Bebber at 2:01pm.
Robert Van Bebber reviewed procedures around the Open Meetings Act and meeting logistics.
Roll call and previous meeting minutes:
- Motion to approve meeting minutes from October 7, 2024, from Lee Ann Reinert, seconded by Cindy Barbera-Brelle. Motion carried.
- Present: Robert Van Bebber (approve), Lee Ann Reinert (approve), Jessica Gimeno (approve), Cindy Barbera-Brelle (abstain), Jim Kaitschuk (approve)
- Absent: Brent Reynolds
- Quorum present and meeting minutes approved.
State updates (Lee Ann Reinert):
- Changes to 988 data accessibility at the State level
- Vibrant Emotional Health will soon give states access to their state-level data through the "Vibrant Exchange."
- Vibrant is the router of all 988 calls and therefore owns all the data.
- Traditionally states have received "Broad State Metrics Report" in the middle of the month for the previous month.
- Now states will get direct access to the data and will be able to pull reports.
- Vibrant will allow each state to have 1-2 seats on the platform - internal DMH staff will meet to review at the end of the week once access is granted.
- DMH will need to learn how to pull reports and navigate the system, but the intention is to create publicly facing dashboard that will update on a monthly basis.
- This new data accessibility will help with overall transparency and public understanding of 988 system performance.
- SAC Membership Changes
- Reported out by Sarah Ferguson and Pete Eckert (the Hub):
- Pete Dyer accepted appointment on the SAC, replacing Rick Manthy.
- Brittany Watson accepted appointment on the SAC, replacing Pooja Nagpal.
- Shelley Dallas has recently tendered resignation from the SAC.
- We are in the process of determining where new SAC members want to sit in terms of subcommittees.
Hub updates (Pete Eckert):
- New Data Manager, Jodie Bargeron, PhD, starting at the Hub on November 18.
- Jodie has extensive qualitative and quantitative experience.
- Will join the TSIDM meetings going forward.
- Will be tasked with putting some of the items here into operation.
Debriefing the Data Systems Development Discussion (Pete Eckert):
- Reviewed high-level bullet-points from the discussion on data systems development.
- Full conversation available in public meeting notes from October 7, 2024.
- Opened up opportunity to discuss questions, comments, opportunities from previous meeting's discussion.
- Pete Eckert: Shawn Cole, I see you're here, any new information?
- Shawn Cole: No new information.
- No comments or questions from the subcommittee members.
SAC Metrics Recommendations (Pete Eckert):
- Background:
- Over the past two months, SAC members have been working to define priorities for FY25.
- SAC members offered different priorities and discussed them in detail at the in-person October Meeting.
- The Hub was then asked to put these into recommendations and action steps for final presentation back to the SAC.
- The idea is that everything that the SAC leadership is doing is really driving the work and that everything is happening out in the open.
- We've identified three goals that are at the regional or subregional levels, and four goals that are statewide.
- Today we would like to highlight where the recommendations and action steps are coming up around data and data systems, including things that exist now and things that we will be building.
- Review of slides for metrics recommendations for each SAC goal:
- Goal: Reduce the reliance of people in a behavioral health crisis on the 911 system (System)
- Metrics Recommendations:
- Stats:
- Calls to 911, 988, MCRTs and other crisis resources.
- Referrals and resolution of crisis contacts.
- Transfers to 988 or MCRT.
- Impressions of communications campaigns (like the state's 988 campaign)
- Comments on goal and metrics:
- Lee Ann Reinert: I think these do sound right. I'm interested in hearing if people have thoughts on this. When we talk to our vendor about the comms plans that we have, around 988 specifically, there are ways that they measure what they believe an impact of a campaign is. I guess we would be looking to the vendor to do that, but that's limited to 988. I'm wondering if things that others on this call think are measurable. For instance, billboards on interstates. How do you count the number of people that see a billboard?
- Jessica Gimeno: I attend the Crisis Jam meetings, and one time they discussed this. Vibrant and SAMSHA showed examples of campaigns they ran in Kentucky. The experts on that call had a way to measure and we wouldn't have to re-invent the wheel.
- Lee Ann Reinert: That's right, we should know how we're going to measure it before we do it so we don't lose the ability to measure it.
- Goal: Develop and implement a Quality Assurance Plan for CESSA implementation (QA Plan)
- Metrics Recommendations:
- Include call transfers, time, transportation time, response time.
- Integrate SUPR data to provide information on OD hotspots, calls involving both mental health and substance use, etc.
- Incarceration and hospitalizations could go down if CESSA is a success.
- Pete Eckert: This is a good one, in that we already have it staffed and we have a really good plan. We have taken our recommendations about data for system improvement and we've given that information to the person who is leading the work on the QA plan. The work we did last year is going to fold right into this.
- Comments on goal and metrics:
- Jim Kaitschuk: How about an overall decrease in calls over time to both 988 and 911 for mental subjects. Sorry, "mental subjects" is how it's coded in our CAD.
- Pete Eckert: Jim, do you think it would be a success if calls to 911 went down and calls to 988 went up?
- Jim Kaitschuk: To start with, yes, I do. If you looked at a longer-term view of this, if they both went down, then hopefully that means we're actually addressing the problem and people are getting the help they need.
- Pete Eckert: As a reminder, even if you're not an official SAC member, our chair, Brent Reynolds, is typically very welcoming of members of the expert consulting group or public to speak up as we're going through these.
- Goal: Increase collaboration between parts of the system (Collaboration)
- Metrics Recommendation:
- Dispatch decisions: law enforcement, fire, EMS, and now crisis response.
- Referrals between 911, 988 and MCRT, and resolution of crisis contacts.
- Something to measure the creation and utilization of a safe space.
- Development and dissemination of plans and updates.
- Comments on goal and metrics:
- Jessica Gimeno: I know that RAC #7 has regularly meetings scheduled between stakeholders in the community. They do meet once a month in person, I know that's not possible for everyone for a lot of reasons. But even meeting by Zoom, at least people could meet intermittently.
- Pete Eckert: Yes, that's at least the bare minimum. Then the third bullet comes into play. We are more likely to have meaningful collaboration if people feel like they are in a safe space to talk about the things that matter most to them. Any ideas on how to measure the creation and utilization of a safe space?
- Jessica Gimeno: For people to have multiple avenues to submit feedback, to be inclusive of people that are not comfortable speaking up so they can submit feedback in written form.
- Pete Eckert: We did try this in the last in-person meeting; I think we need to keep trying so people get comfortable with it.
- Lee Ann Reinert: The only other thought I had is that if we're trying to measure increase, we need to have a baseline.
- Pete Eckert: Yes, it's absolutely essential. We will put that on our internal (Hub) agenda, because that's really important. I'd love to report back to you all about how we would do that and get your ideas. Our new data manager will be on board and so that can be an activity we can task her with.
- Pete Eckert: Jessica, could you also just put a note in the notes? There's a collaboration continuum that I'm using on another project that might be useful to bring in here as part of the measurement piece about the creation and utilization of a safe space. We can report back next time.
- Goal: Have an actionable and sustainable plan for FY 26 and beyond (Sustainability)
- Metrics Recommendations:
- Highlight outcomes based on system changes.
- Share data through visible celebrations of success and personal stories.
- Bring systems together through development of centralized dispatch.
- Pete Eckert: A lot of times when we talk about sustainability we're talking about financial sustainability, and nobody mentioned that.
- Comments on goal and metrics:
- Jessica Gimeno: Could you give an example about outcomes-based, what you would like to see?
- Pete Eckert: Over the long haul, not this year, maybe not even next year, we start to see changes in system utilization. If people have a crisis, we would like a more effective system to not just respond to the crisis at hand but connect people to types of services and interventions that could have an impact so they're not as dependent on a crisis system. So that would be an example of an outcome, and that is something we can count-saying that utilization of systems goes down.
- Lee Ann Reinert: I'm also thinking a little bit farther down the road, a year or two out from implementation. As we get better at bringing awareness to 988, the thinking across the country is that the number of behavioral health calls into the 911 system, to begin with, will reduce because people will call 988 instead. It's important as we're building metrics and a system for how to document those and look at trends, that it's not simply one line we're looking at. For instance, if we're looking at the number of times calls going into 911 get transferred to 988, we might initially see an increase, but then we may see a decrease because people stop calling 911 as much and start calling 988 more, so there's less need for transfers. We need to be mindful of complexities of data as we share out, so it doesn't get misinterpreted.
- Goal: Stakeholder groups understand the purpose of CESSA, what crisis response services will be available, and how to access them (Communications)
- Metrics Recommendations:
- Benchmark using data from other states.
- PSAP-level data on calls with a behavioral health component, breaking down call type.
- Numbers and types of resources each region has to respond to crises.
- Increase in utilization of police social workers.
- Increase in community use of Living Rooms.
- Comments:
- Robert Van Bebber: Whenever we talk about the numbers and types of resources each region has to respond to a crisis, there needs to be a consideration for the population being serviced, as our state is very diverse. When you're not close to the data it's sometimes misinterpreted. We need to ensure everyone understands why, for example, EMS Region 5 doesn't have the same services as EMS Region 11 (Chicago). It comes down to access and population type features.
- Lee Ann Reinert: I think that rather than just numbers and types of resources, we may need to have some way to compare or anchor it to the overall population and demand for resources. Simply saying that you have X number of Living Rooms or crisis response teams is meaningless unless you know the population that is being covered.
- Robert Van Bebber: Whenever we benchmark with other states, it's important to exercise caution, we do that too with EMS data. Sometimes data from other states is very heavily influenced by policy. While other states have acts similar to CESSA, no acts are the same.
- Pete Eckert: The word I was thinking of is context. In this work, distances matter, population density matters. I do think that the experiences in places like Arizona and Virginia provide some insight to us. We may want to come up with another way to describe that we can learn from other states that have tried something with comparability to CESSA, and use it to guide or help us to understand where the pitfalls or opportunities might be.
- Jessica Gimeno: I agree about taking geography, availability of resources, transportation, population of an area into context. One good place to start is Dr. Margie Balfour who spoke at the UIC Forum in June, who has a roadmap for the ideal crisis system. I think that's the one that lays out different benchmarks for rural versus urban and how the best practices could be adjusted.
Next Meeting Dates
- Monday, December 2, 2024, from 2-3:30 pm
- Monday, January 6, 2025, from 2-3:30 pm
Public Comment:
Adjournment: Meeting adjourned by Robert Van Bebber at 2:53pm. No opposition
