CESSA Statewide Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 03/10/2025

Approved by Committee Members 04/14/2025

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

Meeting Minutes - Monday, March 10, 2025 - 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Call to Order/Roll Call (Dr. David Albert)

• Director David Albert called the meeting to order at 1:01 p.m.
• Director David Albert reviewed the agenda

Roll Call and Approval of Minutes from February 10, 2025 (Sarah Ferguson)

• James Hennessy moved to approve the minutes from February 10, 2025; Brent Reynolds seconded the motion
• Jessica Gimeno made a motion to approve the minutes with a revision; the notes as drafted said "humans comprehend color quickly," but the revised notes should say "the human mind comprehends color faster than words"
  • Brent Reynold seconded the revised motion
• Members present who voted to approve the revised minutes:
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle
  • Jessica Gimeno (Designee for Candace Coleman)
  • Curtis Harris
  • James Hennessy
  • Brent Reynolds
  • David Albert
  • Leslee Stein-Spencer (Designee for Bobby Van Bebber)
  • Drew Hansen
  • Pete Dyer
  • Rachael Ahart
  • Jim Kaitschuk
  • Blanca Campos
  • Emily Miller
  • Justin Houcek
  • Brittany Watson
• Quroum approved the minutes and the motion passed

State Updates/DMH Updates (Dr. David Albert)

• New Crisis Services Manager Allie Lichterman will start next Monday, March 17

UIC Behavioral Health Crisis Hub Updates (Dr. Lorrie Rickman Jones)

• The Sonya Massey Commission Mental Health Workgroup (Sangamon County) - Lorrie will be presenting this Thursday March 13 about the relationship between the commission, the workgroup, and CESSA

988 Communications Plan Update (Sally Huffer)

• Launching new communications plan for the 988 crisis line in Illinois
  • Includes new logos/brand identity
  • Includes demographic and geographic targeting (e.g., vulnerable populations and rural regions)
  • Integrated marketing tactics (such as paid social advertising, geofencing, radio stations, etc.)
• Jessica Gimeno: Is there any plan for streaming for people who don't listen to the radio? Some young people use Pandora or Spotify.
  • Sally Huffer: We do have plans for streaming audio for podcasts (Spotify/Pandora), and so those will be dropped into those platforms.

Communications (Erin Condon)

• Soliciting feedback from SAC members about draft informational flyers: SAC members will be divided into breakout rooms by stakeholder type and have the opportunity to provide feedback on a stakeholder-specific flyer
  • Group 1, Law Enforcement and First Responders: Bobby Van Bebber, Drew Hansen, Pete Dyer, Rachael Ahart, Jim Kaitschuk
  • Group 2, PSAPs: Jim Hennessy, Brent Reynolds, Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Director David Albert
  • Group 3, Community Service Providers: Blanca Campos, Emily Miller
  • Group 4, Advocates/General Public: Jessica Gimeno, Curtis Harris, Justin Houcek, Brittany Watson
• Breakout room discussion questions:
  • How does CESSA affect my stakeholder group?
  • What are the benefits of CESSA for my stakeholder group?
  • How would you like to see these distributed?
  • Can you and/or a colleague provide a stakeholder quote?
• Group 1 (Law Enforcement and First Responders) key takeaways
  • Room included SAC members and expert consultants focused on law enforcement (LE) and emergency medical service (EMS) responders
  • Suggestion to use EMS medical directors as a way to hit all the different parts of the EMS system
  • It is important to have separate flyers directly targeting LE and directly targeting EMS/other first responders because their responses are different and their relationship to CESSA is different
  • Benefits: freeing up LE to go to other calls, getting the right type of response to the right call, getting patients connected to mental health services, decreasing the burden on the EMS system as the current solution to mental health calls, adding tools to the toolbox
  • Need to answer operational questions - How would the day-to-day response of the LE officer or the first responder look different?
  • How do we balance peaking interest with directing folks to our website?
  • Do we put the implementation deadline on the flyer?
  • Suggestion to pace how we share information because it could cause confusion in communities where CESSA isn't implemented yet.
• Group 2 (PSAPs) key takeaways
  • Room included several PSAP administrators, Director Albert, and Cindy Barbera-Brelle
  • Once implemented, CESSA will result in not dispatching police or fire to situations best handled by 988. It will allow LE to spend more time responding appropriately to LE calls, and the same for fire. It will avoid LE getting involved in situations that may occur/escalate because of police presence. Another resource for LE and EMS to get resources to individuals experiencing the crisis
  • For the individuals not in the pilots, they do not know how implementation will go. At some point we may need to focus on the process and operational changes. Also, PSAPs not part of the pilots may not have a perspective on the benefits of CESSA
    • While some people have some knowledge and fear that the process will make things more challenging, other people have little to no information at all
  • Some communities with police social workers are able to work with the crisis system and they have seen benefits from their partnerships
  • There may be myths about CESSA, so we need to make a myth-buster FAQ about what CESSA is and what CESSA is not
    • For individuals who have limited knowledge, they may fill in the blanks and provide incorrect info
  • People are not on the same page as to when to call LE in fear that LE may does not respond when needed
  • Important to add: Understanding that calls are coming in from 988 and transferred but also recognizing that some of the calls transferred are not from the area of the PSAPS. Telecommunicators expressed concern because they cannot identify where the caller is located. (However, group members still acknowledged that geo-routing is in place for most of the areas.)
• Group 3 (Community Service Providers) key takeaways
  • The need to communicate specifically with private practice and private providers, who may be less informed about CESSA
    • How can we specifically reach them and empower them to share the resources with their clients? There might be some misunderstanding about what CESSA costs or what happens when you refer someone to 988.
  • Dialogue about the use of the word "benefits" (in the phrase "Benefits of CESSA")
    • Suggestion to use "Goals of CESSA" instead
  • Concerns expressed about the general public not understanding CESSA and how that's going to affect community service providers
  • Looking at the full range of providers-not just crisis service providers, but all the way down to living rooms and a variety of other services
• Group 4 (Advocates/General Public) key takeaways
  • Including the CESSA vision statement as a centerpiece: Individuals experiencing mental health or substance use emergencies are deflected from unnecessary hospitalizations or incarceration, and linked with available, appropriate community services that enable the individual to recover, heal, and thrive
  • Defining the group of stakeholders: the Advocates and General Public includes users of the mental health system, people who CESSA is supposed to be coming and helping, people experiencing mental health concerns
  • Benefits: anonymity/confidentiality, talking to someone who understands your cultural experience, helping individuals feel less anxious and get proactive treatment before the crisis escalates, reduces the shame in getting help, matching individuals with the level of care that they need
    • Not a fractured approach, but a turnkey approach
  • Suggestion for quote: "CESSA gives me the confidence I need to seek the care I deserve."
• Comment from Justin Houcek: That flyer is missing something...It tells me what it is, but it doesn't say what happens when an individual calls. It's missing something, if you're suffering from a crisis.
  • Pete Eckart: You're right that it's just one part of the mock-up. We already intended to include, if you are in a crisis, here's what you do now before CESSA is implemented. So, I appreciate that really important piece.
  • Sarah Ferguson: We also want to highlight that we are creating a flyer for law enforcement and a flyer for everyone else. So, the law enforcement flyer wouldn't really speak to an individual in crisis; it would speak to what LE does differently. But you're absolutely right, that a flyer geared towards the general public is necessary so that they know what happens when they call 911 or 988, and what is MCRT.
  • Blanca Campos: I wanted to echo what Justin said...That's the point I was trying to get at in our small group, the importance of educating about what happens. CESSA is an act, this is sort of the process, but when you call either 911 or 988 for a behavioral health issue, this is what happens. Or even using this as an opportunity to educate people more about 988. What is 988? Where should you be calling? I'm glad the distinction was made [between stakeholder flyers] but really reinforcing what Justin said in terms of talking about CESSA-I think it can confuse the consumer; it can confuse people in general. When I talk about the work we're doing, I really focus on 988 with everyone I talk to...This part [on the current flyer draft] is just the procedural part and the coordination piece that the providers, the 911/988 call centers are doing, the weedy stuff. But the consumer side has to look very different because it can get confusing very quickly.
  • Director Albert: Yeah, if I may just quickly sort of co-sign that, I think these are really important points. And it's important for us to remember, those of us who are involved in this work, even for us...CESSA can get really complicated really quickly. And so, I think that makes it more important to break it down....The more straightforward, simple, basic we can make all these brochures, the better tailored to each audience, but, at the end of the day, there are a couple of main messages we need people to understand. We should probably be focusing on those.
  • Jessica Gimeno: I wasn't sure if earlier they had shared flyers for the other stakeholder groups, and it had gone by quickly and I missed it. Or is this the only mock-up?
  • Erin Condon: They're all in development. This is really just the one skeleton flyer that is just an example. We really wanted each stakeholder group to think about what their example flyer would look like. So, if you were in the community service providers group, what would the flyer for providers look like? They'll all have the same format, the same structure. They're going to feature benefits, they're going to feature a quote, they're going to feature an image, but it's really going to be tailored. The goal is to think about how we can-as concisely as possible-tell this stakeholder group what they need to know.
  • Jessica Gimeno: Thank you, that's helpful. And I don't know if it's just me, but it's hard to read the red text on blue.
  • Sarah Ferguson: "CESSA will help make sure people get services and supports instead of involving police when they're not needed." This is actually a quote from Candace Coleman from Access Living, that we took from a previous FAQ. We want to have different quotes because different things are going to resonate with different people.
  • David Albert: Just to clarify, will the other stakeholder flyers be shared with this group as well [for feedback]?
    • Sarah Ferguson: I would say yes, and I think looking at the draft flyers in April together could be really great. If folks prefer to do that over email, we could do that. So, I think it's just something to consider how this group wants to do it, but yes, we'll take the content from today and put it in each different version of the flyer for you to review before we finalize it.
  • Emily Miller: There remains such confusion in general-what is 988 in comparison to CESSA? How do they fit together? What does it mean? I think that it's really important to remember that we all know and understand what CESSA is because we eat and breathe it. I think there maybe needs to be a conversation on potentially changing the way that we talk about CESSA publicly. You know, 988 is something tangible, something you can call. It's a number you can call when you need help. CESSA itself isn't the number you call when you need help. CESSA is a piece of legislation that was enacted into law that we're now developing policies and procedures to implement. But we talk about it a lot using the simple verbiage that we do when we talk about 988, and I think that causes confusion and it doesn't help people understand the context of what CESSA is and means and what it will mean when it is fully implemented. I think that there's room-for us as a stakeholder group, regional groups, just in general-to really look into how we are communicating about it and maybe we stop using the term CESSA so frequently, and just talk about what policy changes are going to happen that will actually impact people in their job.
  • Lorrie Jones: Emily, I think that's an astute observation and recommendation. As opposed to understanding CESSA, know that there are changes in response types when you call 911 and if you have a behavioral health crisis, you can get a different response type when you call 911. I think we need to play with that idea, but I really do appreciate it, because you're right: the public's like, what is CESSA? Why do I need to understand CESSA? But what happens when I have a behavioral health crisis and I call 911, what happens differently-that is the message. That's really something to ponder.
  • Jim Hennessy: I want to weigh in a bit on this. I think that "Goals of CESSA" is way better. I love that we have "Learn more & get involved" at the bottom, but I would say as far as the 911 group, I think everyone know what the goals of CESSA are. I think the 911 community would be better serviced by a flyer that would say what we're currently working on, what we're working through, the hurdles, how we're trying to address them. Like, a little snippet, because this is still in progress. Nothing is finalized; the pilots are here, and these are the lessons we're trying to get through. I think everyone in our community knows what the goals are.
  • Director Albert: I appreciate that very much. Speaking for myself, I'm usually surprised whenever I get in front of people who I assume know what 988 is, I'm really surprised by how few people actually even know that, so it wouldn't surprise me personally to find out that many people in the field are not clear on what CESSA is, but I think your point's well taken and making sure that folks who need to be in the weeds are aware of the timelines, deadlines, etc.

Technical Subcommittee Updates (Pete Eckart)

• Baseline assessment project: Draft and deliver the Baseline Assessment Results report by late June 2025
• Pilot data collection and reporting process: As expected, we will refine the data collection and reporting process throughout the pilot
• 988 Quality Assurance Plan required by SAMHSA: Work is proceeding on time and is expected to be delivered to SAMHSA by end of March

Training and Education Subcommittee (Dr. Terry Solomon)

• 657 people have completed training for pilots
• We are revising the PSAP pilot de-escalation training based on feedback from PSAP pilot sites. We expect revisions to be completed by the end of June.

Protocols and Standards Subcommittee Updates (Dr. Mary Smith)

• Subcommittee met on February 20, 2025 and March 6, 2025
• Focus was the pre-tests and pilots

Total Response Pilot Updates

• All 9 pilot sites officially launched as of late February
• Touch Base Meetings with each of the three entities in the pilot
  • PSAP Administrators (weekly)
  • 988 Centerstone (bi-weekly)
  • MCRT Project Directors (bi-weekly)
• Dr. Smith also mentioned that, in an effort to make reporting and data collection as easy as possible, the Protocols and Standards Subcommittee worked with Total Response to create a report that the PSAPs could run. Some sites have begun to use the report; other sites are working through technical issues or adopting other reporting practices
  • It will be an ongoing process to effectively collect data from individual sites that have their own unique policies and procedures
  • Expected to see an uptick in referrals/data as the pilot continue and new processes take hold

Priority Dispatch and APCO Updates

• Priority Dispatch
  • Pre-Test began with four pilot sites on March 3
    • Meeting with pre-test sites on a weekly basis
    • Illinois Regional Valley Dispatch (Region 2); Bloomington PD (Region 2); West Central Joint, Morgan County (Region 3); and Northwest Central, Arlington Heights (Region 9)
  • Pilots (10 in total) meeting and planning to kick off on April 1
• APCO
  • Reviewing protocols
  • Identifying pre-test sites

Pilot Flow Charts (Total Response)

• Tools have been developed to help pilot participants
  • Ex. Flow chart showing 911 to 988 transfer process (may look slightly different based on protocol vendor)
  • Ex. Flow chart showing warm handoffs (same process for all protocol vendors)

Regional and Subregional Updates (Jessica Atassi)

RAC Summits/Town Halls

• RACs tasked with holding a summit or town hall open to members of their community by the end of March
• Upcoming
  • RAC #9: Monday, March 17 from 2-3pm
• Recent
  • RAC #6: Thursday, March 6 from 1-2:30 pm
  • RAC #8: Thursday, February 13 from 1-2 pm

Subregional Committees Growth Chart - vetted by RAC vote

• Seven SRCs have currently been voted into existence
• Recent additions in the past month
  • RAC 1: Lee/Ogle/Rochelle; DeKalb; Rockford/Boone/Winnebago
  • RAC 8: NORCOMM
• Other SRCs are in development; more updates anticipated over the next few months

SAC Next Steps (Dr. Lorrie Jones)

• Working to launch remaining pilots, troubleshooting data collection efforts
• Jessica Gimeno requested to see updated stakeholder flyer drafts before the April meeting

Next Meeting Dates

• In-Person on Monday, April 14, 2025, 10 am - 1 pm (Access Living, 115 West Chicago Ave, Chicago IL 60654)
• Virtual on Monday, May 12, 2025, 1-3pm

Public Comment

• Zach Gittrich: I was mainly just wondering if the SAC has done any research on how much the annual budgets are for all of the different 590s and how much they've been in the past couple years. I know that trying to find permanent funding is a big issue, and I think it would be very helpful if we had all of that information to see how much it costs now, especially as we talk with legislators, so we can say "this is what it costs now, and this is how much funding we would like to see going forward as a kind of permanent funding," instead of simply asking our 590s to simply rely on getting grants or Medicaid reimbursements. I think going forward we need to make sure we get permanent funding, so I'm wondering if that data has already been gathered.
• Lorrie Jones: Thank you for your comment. We will have a response at the next meeting.

Adjournment

• David Albert adjourned the meeting