CESSA Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) Meeting 01/16/2025

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA)

Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) Meeting

Date - 1/16/2025

Time - 1:30-2:30pm via Zoom

  • Welcome and Call to Order (Roll Call)
    • Lori Carnahan opens the meeting at 1:34pm.
    • Attending: Lori Carnahan, Dr. Steve Graham, Shannon Hartnett, Candace Gunby, Austin Gibbs, Daniel Manning, Scott Spinazola, Matthew Buckley, Todd Rountree, Sarah Wiemeyer, Sydney Talavera Corinne Swiatek, Jim Moldenhauer. We have a quorum.
    • Absent: Eric Metcalf, Mark Puknaitis, Jason Arres, Jean DeCaro, Sibil Kuruvilla, Jillianne Chuffo, Jessica Robb
  • Open Meetings Act
    • Lori Carnahan read the instructions regarding the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
    • The group was informed that the meeting was being recorded.
  • Approval of the Minutes from previous meeting
    • We have minutes to approve from October, November, and December.
    • Motion to Approve: Jim Moldenhauer
    • Second Motion: Austin Gibbs
    • No changes noted.
    • All were in favor of approving the minutes with no objections.
    • Minutes were approved.
  • State Updates
    • PowerPhone pilot will start on January 29th. PowerPhone staff should have already gone through training. Mobile crisis need to have training done by January 21st.
    • The state met APCO. Training for their staff needs to be done by the end of February. The state will meet with those PSAPs in the beginning of February.
  • Pilot Updates
    • Overview of Protocol Implementation process
  • Pilot-Test Preparation including training has taken place
  • We will soon begin Pilot Tet of Protocol Changes and Dispatch Referrals and Evaluation of Pilots
    • PowerPhone pilot starts the end of January 2025.
  • PowerPhone is installing protocol modifications/changes into the pilot PSAPs' computer systems.
  • Core trainings completed by pilot PSAPs, 988, and MCRTs
  • Data collection
    • Pre-Test and Pilot Updates: Priority Dispatch and APCO
  • Priority Dispatch
  • Held follow-up meeting with Priority Dispatch to further clarify questions with their protocol framework
  • Will hold follow up meetings to finalize the Priority Dispatch protocol changes and IRLM mapping in December/January
  • Finalize Pre-test and Pilot Sites
  • Pre-tests expected to begin no later than January/February 2025
  • Pilots to begin shortly thereafter
  • APCO
  • Continued review and finalization of recommendations for modifying protocols
  • Pre-tests expected to begin in February followed by 3-month Pilots
    • PowerPhone Total Response Protocols Modified
  • Protocols that have been updated* and included in the Pilot:
  • Mental Health
  • Public Disturbance
  • Welfare Check
  • Suspicious Person
  • Abandoned Person
  • Suicidal Attempt (new)
  • *Note: The Trespass and Public Indecency Protocols were updated, but are not included in the Pilot because these types of calls do not meet the criteria for Level 1 of the Interim Risk Level Matrix (IRLM)
    • Evaluation of the Pilot
  • It is imperative that standardized collection of key data elements be collected and reported by each entity participating in the Pilot so that the full process can be evaluated. Each PSAP, MCRTs and Centerstone 988 will each provide data for this purpose.
  • Initially data will be submitted on a bi-weekly basis
  • Bi-Weekly Meetings to troubleshoot and address issues that may arise during the Pilot will be scheduled
    • Next Steps - pilot readiness schedule
  • January 7, 2025 - meeting convened with PowerPhone PSAP administrators
  • January 13, 2025 - meeting with MCRT Project Directors & Centerstone 988 (PowerPhone)
  • January 14, 2025 - meeting with MCRT Project Directors (Priority Dispatch and APCO)
  • TBD early February 2025 - meeting with PSAP administrators (Priority Dispatch and APCO)
    • Member questions
  • Jim Moldenhauer asked about guidance for Level 1 third-party callers.
  • Brenda Hampton confirmed that there is written guidance for third-party callers has been created. 911 will not pass any calls to 988 if there is immediate risk, lethal weapons, a crime is being committed, or a high level of medical risk. If a third party calls in and is observing an unusual behavior, which is defined in the guidance, and none of the exclusions are met, then 911 will transfer that call to 988. If the caller refuses to talk to 988, then 911 will use their existing protocols. If the caller just wants to report the situation and does not want to talk to 988, then 911 will directly contact 988 to send a mobile crisis team in that area. If there are no teams available, 988 will alert 911.
  • Jim Moldenhauer has concerns about this process, especially if the third-party caller doesn't stay on the line and that other individuals may call in during the 60 minutes that the mobile crisis team has to respond.
  • Brenda Hampton acknowledged Jim's concerns and confirmed that 911 will know very quickly whether there is an available mobile crisis team or not.
  • Lori Carnahan said she has also shared concerns about the complexities of third-party callers.
  • Corrinne Swiatek shared concerns about repeat callers and asked if there is a point during the 3-month trial that they can pivot if they are seeing real problems on these issues.
    • Jessica Atassi said there will be weekly check-ins with the pilot sites so that adjustments can be made as needed.
  • Jim Moldenhauer asked whether the metrics PowerPhone has created will be able to capture all the data.
  • Brenda cannot answer so told Jim to reach out to Cindy Barbara-Brelle.
  • Jessica Atassi mentioned the CESSA Information Report. She said they should only have to pull that report for the data they need.
  • Subregional Planning Committees (SRCs) - vote needed
    • Our vote today is to form the three subregional committees.
    • Once the vote is approved, Lori Carnahan and Krista Webb will reach out to the individuals proposed for the committees to see if they will join. Then a list will be provided to the subregional committee leaders.
    • Lori Carnahan reminded the group that a majority of the subregional committee members cannot be RAC 8 members.
    • The three committees will regularly report back to RAC 8 on their work.
    • Motion to Approve: Jim Moldenhauer
    • Second Motion: Corinne Swiatek
    • All were in favor of creating the three subregional committees with no objections.
    • Vote passed.
  • Summit Planning
    • Hold a virtual summit in place of our February meeting
    • Date/Time: February 13, 2025 from 1-2 pm
    • Tentative agenda:
  • CESSA - Overview of legislation and history of state and regional work
  • Crisis response and system overview in Region 8
  • 988
  • Mobile Crisis Teams
  • Law Enforcement/EMS
  • If you are interested in providing a brief explanation of the services you provide and how CESSA is impacting your work, we are looking for representatives from those four fields. Please contact Krista Webb and Lori Carnahan and we can help you with slides.
  • CESSA implementation - Pilots and next steps
  • Involvement in subregional committees
    • We will create a flyer and meeting invite and distribute both to committee members who can share among their networks. We will also post to the RAC website.
    • Scott Spinazola agreed that this was a good idea, both for those who are new to the work as well as a refresher for those who have been involved for a while.
  • 2025 Strategies/priorities- Discussion
    • SAC Regional/Subregional Goal #3: Stakeholder groups understand the purpose of CESSA, what crisis response services will be available, and how to access them
  • What are the strategies for this goal in FY 2025?
  • What are reasonable metrics to measure this goal?
  • What are ways to understand if we are making progress?
  • What can your RAC membership and Subregional Committee(s) do to contribute to realizing this goal?
  • Member comments
  • Jim Moldenhauer said that from a regional perspective the public hasn't seen us do anything, so the pilot data will be a good way to show progress.
  • Corinne Swiatek asked if there are concerns that changes at the state level will slow down progress. She also wondered what will happen if the new programs we're putting into place can't meet certain metrics, then what guarantees do we have from the state so we can make sure we continue to have the resources needed to meet those goals.
  • Next Meeting Date: Discussion
    • March 20, 2025 at 1:30 pm
    • We will discuss what cadence we want these meetings to continue, knowing that subregional committees will also need time to meet.
  • Public Comment
    • NA
  • Adjournment
    • Motion to Adjourn: Scott Spinazola
    • Second Motion: Matthew Buckley
    • The meeting was adjourned by Lori Carnahan at 2:25pm.