CESSA Statewide Advisory Committee Approved Minutes 04/14/2025

Community Emergency Services and Support Act (CESSA) Statewide Advisory Committee April 14, 2025 10:00am - 1:00pm

In-person at Access Living (115 W Chicago Ave; Chicago, IL 60654) and virtual (via Zoom)

Call to Order (Dr. David Albert)

• Director Albert called the meeting to order at 10:04am and reviewed OMA procedures.
• Director Albert introduced Allie Lichterman, new Crisis Community Programs Administrator
  • Allie introduced herself and described professional background, which includes leading CARE (the City of Chicago's 911 alt-response program)
  • Allie has also worked in other government, campaigning, and organizing roles

Roll Call (Allie Lichterman)

• Members present: Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Candace Coleman, Curtis Harris, Justin Houcek, James Hennessy, David Albert, Bobby Van Bebber, Rachael Ahart, Jim Kaitschuk, Blanca Campos, Emily Miller
• Members Absent: Brittany Watson, Pete Dyer, Drew Hansen, Brent Reynolds
• Quorum is present

Approval of Minutes from SAC Meeting on March 10, 2025 (Allie Lichterman)

• Cindy Barbera-Brelle made a motion to approve the minutes from March 10, 2025; Curtis Harris seconded the motion
• Members who voted to approve the minutes: Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Jessica Gimeno (Designee for Candace Coleman), Curtis Harris, Justin Houcek, Jim Kaitschuk, David Albert, Bobby Van Bebber, Rachael Ahart, James Hennessy, Blanca Campos, Emily Miller
• Quroum approved the minutes from March 10, 2025, and the motion passed.

State Updates (Director David Albert and Allie Lichterman)

• Response to Previous Public Comments
  • Public comment received via email on March 24, 2025
    • Mr. Femi Oyesanya reached out expressing concern about CESSA implementation in La Grange. According to Mr. Oyesanya, the LaGrange Police Department and their regional dispatch center stated that Mr. Oyesanya's address was not eligible for mobile crisis response because of prior police involvement at his home. He is concerned about using call history as a blanket disqualifier and how state officials/concerned residents can hold local entities accountable for implementing CESSA with good fait
    • Context from Allie Lichterman: During the CESSA pilot period, 911 call centers (including the regional dispatch center mentioned) are using criteria approved by the SAC to identify low risk calls that are appropriate for transfer to 988 call centers and potentially mobile crisis response; call history is not among the criteria approved by the SAC. In follow up conversation, LaGrange PD and the dispatch center responded that, from their perspective, the call did not have a behavioral health component and this incident referred to a specific call, not a blanket determination
    • Allie Lichterman recommended that Mr. Oyesanya may get in contact with his local RAC co-chair and reiterated that CESSA does not address ensuring compliance; the state has minimal capacity to monitor compliance
• Public comment received during March 10, 2025 SAC meeting
  • A member of the public asked if the SAC had any information about annual budgets of mobile crisis response team
  • Allie noted that funding for MCR/Program 590 is outside the purview of the SAC and the RACs; however, DMH providers submit a requested budget at the time of their grant application, and the agency works with them to determine that number. FY25 budget allocations are available at https://budget.illinois.gov/ and people can reach out to DHS.DMH.CESSA@illinois.gov with further questions.
• SB 2500 unanimously passed the Senate on April 9, 2025 and moved to the House
  • This legislation from DHS will allow us to continue implementing and improving CESSA and extends the implementation deadline to July 1, 202
  • Director Albert also provided a new timeline for milestones (if the bill passes)
    • June 30, 2025: Complete pilot/revised protocol
    • June 30, 2026: Assess and evaluate the pilot with the revision of protocols; implement revised protocols at pilot sites
    • June 30, 2027: Full implementation at the remaining PSAPs

988 Campaign Updates (Sally Huffer)

• As a follow-up to the recent IDHS multi-channel digital marketing campaign, IDHS is tracking impressions, clicks, and click through rate across various platforms
• There are also ads on the interiors/exteriors of CTA and PACE buses and at the platforms/stations
• Question from Blanca Campos: Did DMH send a provider notice when the campaign started?
  • Sally Huffer: We did not send a notice. The campaign was approved, and a few ads went out before the holidays, with more in February. Impression/click statistics are from March.
  • Blanca Campos: It would be helpful to send out a notice so we can spread thew word to our providers, our networks, and social media.
  • Director Albert: Let's do that.
  • Sally Huffer: We are in the process of building up a toolkit on the 988 DMH website so people can download and share them
• Question from Candace Coleman: Have the ads yielded more calls?
  • Sally Huffer: We haven't had a meeting yet to show if it's increased the call volume; we know it has increased the chat. We have to have a meeting with the people from 988, who have access to the Vibrant figures, and with someone from the marketing agency, so we can evaluate the impact.
• Question/comment from Justin Houcek: I saw this in Waukegan on the back of a bus...my question is, how many people in this room have seen one of these physical ads? I'm wondering how many more the public might have to see them. [About 40% of the room raised their hands.] If 40% have seen them, then maybe we need a push for more wraps.
• Question from Jessica Gimeno: Are there any marketing campaigns targeted in rural areas?
  • Sally Huffer: Yes, let me see if I can look up some more information on that quickly.
  • Curtis Harris: What about urban areas in the state, other than Chicago?
  • Sally Huffer: Yes, we have a targeted area.

Funding and System Changes Discussion (Allie Lichterman)

• On March 24, Trump administration/SAMSHA informed IDHS about the immediate termination of certain federal grants, including ARPA; those terminated grants were COVID mitigation funds, and would have been eliminated in September 2025 anyway. Fortunately, the state had already prepared with braided funding. The director notified providers that we are not certain of the full impact yet, but the state is planning ahead and working with its partners to mitigate impact as much as possible.
• Illinois joined other states in litigation against the US Department of Health and Human Services; the court issued a temporary restraining order on April 5 and during this time we may use federal dollars. Providers should turn in invoices early (although they are not due until April 15) so we can disburse funds as quickly as possible.
• Approach to navigating federal decision making
  • Clear, consistent communication
  • Transparency, quick turnaround on response
  • Accessibility
• Question from Blanca Campos: In terms of the lawsuit, I understand the next court hearing is on April 16. So, by that time, can we expect to know what's going to happen?
  • Director Albert: I don't have any updated information on that. I think the 17th was the deadline on the temporary restraining order, so that's part of why we are encouraging providers to get their billing in and draw on those funds. We are relieved that we can temporarily access the funds, and we have already processed a lot of money, which makes this matter more manageable. We can thank the fact that the funding was already braided, and we knew our dollars were ending, so we already worked it into the proposed budget for the coming year. But I don't know the answer about what happens on the 16th.
  • Blanca Campos: Did you work into the FY26 budget starting July 1, given that you thought the funds were going away in September?
  • Director Albert: If we had Brock here, he could give the exact answer. We will have to follow up with you. My understanding from Brock is that we are in a very manageable situation right now.
  • Blanca Campos: I want to remain always cautiously optimistic, but the judge did issue the temporary restraining order within 30 minutes because of the impact states were able to prove.
• Allie Lichterman asked folks to remind providers about submitting invoices early if possible.
• Continued discussion: Allie Lichterman asked meeting attendees to share how changes/cuts are affecting their stakeholder group and how DMH can be supportive
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle: At this point, PSAPs aren't experiencing any impact. There's always been conversation about having federal funding for next gen 911, and that's just never made it through Congress, so we aren't impacted at this point.
  • Allie Lichterman: Are there any ways we could proactively prepare in case we need to communicate with PSAPs? Or should we talk as we go
  • Cindy Barbera-Brelle: I think that makes sense. I have an email list, and I meet with 911 authorities and PSAPs once a month. I can be pretty responsive.
  • Allie Lichterman: Thanks, and that's a good reminder that everyone at the state needs to be talking so it's the right trusted source sharing the information
  • Blanca Campos: Our members were the 590 providers as well as the members that provide first episode psychosis, which are the two DMH programs that were impacted. And then there were about 10 substance use programs impacted as well. As soon as it happened, we reached out to Director Albert to see if DMH had additional info. CBHA works very closely in partnership with out trade colleagues at IRF and IBH. We work together so members are receiving the same message and we don't create additional confusion. We did collect some information about, if funding does get cut immediately, what does it mean for our services and staffing? We got some info from our members about the potential impact. We didn't need to be part of it because of the state lawsuit, but there was also an opportunity to appeal through our national association.
  • Allie Lichterman: When you collected that information, were you seeing any differences across the state in terms of impact, level of concern, or type of concern
  • Blanca Campos: Concern is always going to be high because even though we're moving in the right direction, funding is always a challenge. Plus, this program is 24/7, and there's recruiting/retention...One of our members mentioned that the email went to staff, but not to the executive directors or CEOs of the association. Who the email went to caused additional anxiety for staff.
  • Director Albert: We're sorry that happened, and we will fix that.
  • Jessica Gimeno: Access Living helps people with disabilities, and we get calls from people worried about losing Medicaid or healthcare. I saw this presentation in November from Ascension, and they said many of their services are underutilized because people think they have to pay for it. People are afraid to use us because of the charge. There's the potential effect of people not seeking help, of this problem being amplified, even if it's not true [that you have to pay].
  • Director Albert: That's a great communications flag. There's a lot of myth-busting to be done.
  • Rachael Ahart: For us in law enforcement, it's mostly related to various grants that the agencies have and what that looks like moving forward. And then some stuff working with mobile crisis response and what that impact is going to do.
  • Allie Lichterman: Do you think there's an understanding that mobile crisis response funding is being impacted as well? Are there concerns/increased awareness about maintaining funding
  • Rachael Ahart: I think that the awareness of the funding and the efforts to maintain funding, regardless of what happens with this. And then with agencies operating under grants, what does it look like if those funds change or don't come through? We have received a lot of communication from the University as things update, so tracking and getting real-time information but not all of the information that may not be critical or important at that time.
  • Allie Lichterman: I think that's two helpful plugs. One, a communications flag about how do we communicate with law enforcement that's interacting with mobile crisis so they're getting similar information to providers? And also, I think the first responder mindset of, why would I use this if I don't know whether it will be consistently here? We need to build systems that are consistent and reliable; that uncertainty means that I'm less likely to use it because I don't want to get in a habit and have it end.
  • Justin Houcek: Anybody trying to do something, you can't settle on anything until we know the dust is going to settle. Can we set our own dust settling moments of one month, three months, six months because everything seems to be up for grab? We're all trying to make decisions based on something that's up for grabs. I wonder how we follow...We don't want to get too anxious for something that hasn't happened yet.
  • Director Albert: I want to be clear that we are talking about the difference between September and March, and partial funding, and this is limited in scope for what we are discussing, the mobile crisis 590 program. We already knew these dollars wouldn't be available
  • Justin Houcek: Right, and I understand that. I'm thinking, anytime you try to make a decision, now or in the future, how do we make certain funding decisions when we know there's no consistency. It's just weird, because we all want answers, but we can't give those answers.
  • Blanca Campos: In terms of braided funding, there's some uncertainty with federal monies, not necessarily the ARPA funds. But as a state, there's legislation about the 988 surcharge and having commercial insurance pay their fair share as well, and of course there's Medicaid funding. So that goes to Director Albert's braided funding, in terms of how can we ensure this is sustainable and we are not reliant on federal money?
  • Justin Houcek: And then, we can let the others know that it's out there. I didn't even think about, like Jessica said, people are apprehensive that they're going to charge me for an ambulance ride.
  • Emily Miller: Just generally, there's so much uneasiness among everyone involved in human services, crisis, just all of the above. Everyday it seems like there is something new. As long as clear, concise, transparent communication continues, I think folks understand that we are all getting this information and digesting it at the same time. Whatever we can do to lessen the panic for people providing and receiving the services, whenever this information is blasted to us. It was appreciated how quickly folks responded, and we're hearing a lot from national partners...The continued openness, partnership, grace is important in these uncharted waters. DMH did a wonderful job communicating with providers, and that's going to be key going forward. The panic is going to be there regardless, which just shows the importance of people having as much accurate information as possible.

Quality Assurance Plan (Craig Williams)

• Craig Williams reviewed the purpose of the Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) and the key components of the document submitted to SAMHSA.
• Question from Jessica Gimeno: The Sentinel Events slide mentions media-critical events...What are those?
  • Craig Williams: Sometimes we have issues where there is a spike in call volume, such as when Robin Williams committed suicide and we received a significant spike in calls. We try to maintain and monitor these events as much as possible.
• Question from Justin Houcek: The presentation says you will monitor 3-5% contacts and transfers for quality. Is that enough from your perspective?
  • Craig Williams: We are calibrating that percentage as we go. Right now, the standard is 3-5% but we have agencies that far exceed that. In particular, if you have a new call-taker, you're going to pick a bit more than 3-5%. But if you have call-takers that have exceeded standards for years, that's adjusted as we go. 988 is fairly new and it's something that we evaluate all the time-is 3-5% enough?

CCBHC Presentation (Kristine Herman, HFS Behavioral Health Bureau Chief)

• Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) is a model of care that aims to improve service quality and accessibility. CCBHCs are required to serve anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay, place of residence or age - including developmentally appropriate care for children and youth
• Currently in the process of creating a learning collaborative for providers who may want to join the demonstration next year; provider notice about applying to the learning collaborative was sent out March 19
• Curtis Harris: Will the demonstration provider locations be in the next year?
  • Kristine Herman: These are our locations for this year, we are anticipating up to 10 additional locations next year.

Crisis Hub Updates (Dr. Mary Smith) *

• June Behavioral Health Crisis Continuum Forum
• • Due to uncertainty impacting various sectors, the forum is being reformatted; instead of a full-day meeting on June 11, the forum will consist of a series of virtual presentations (likely June 11, June 18, and June 25, 9 am-12 pm)
    • Using Zoom will allow more people to participate
  • Theme will still focus on collaboration, resilience, and innovation; currently working on speakers and finalizing event details (which will be sent out soon)
• Meeting between law enforcement and IDPH
  • Attendees: Chief Gault, EMT, and Bobby Van Bebber; Dr. Lorrie Jones, Brenda Hampton, Mary Smith, and Sarah Ferguson
    • Meeting held in response to a public comment received at SA
    • SAC members will receive more information soon
• Comment from Director Albert: Thanks to the Hub for being thoughtful of cost and expense given the environment that we're in right now.
• Question from Jim Kaitschuk: Were any of the members of the SAC that represent law enforcement included in that discussion?
  • Mary Smith: The decision was first to meet with Chief Gault and IDPH to start the discussion, with the intention to bring it to the SAC for further discussion. We will share the notes once Dr. Jones is back late this week or early next week and we can share this information. Perhaps this can be on the table for May SAC meeting.
  • Jim Kaitschuk: The PowerPoint language was confusing because it says "meeting between law enforcement and IDPH" but there was really only one law enforcement rep there.
  • Mary Smith: I apologize for the confusion; it was a brief meeting to share some of the issues with IDPH.
  • Director Albert: It's a good call-out, and if we will use this slide again, we can clarify that piece.

Communications (Pete Eckart)

• Draft flyer version review
• • In our previous meeting we had shared some early versions of flyers that we were working on targeted to various stakeholder groups. Inside your packet (For in-person attendees) you'll find some drafts, for folks online we will flash these on the screen
  • Working on flyers that can go out to five key stakeholder groups: Law Enforcement, Fire/EMS, People with Lived Experiences (Your Community), Community Service Providers, and 911 Centers
    • Messages are pretty similar across the flyers
    • Goals have specifications for each group
  • The Hub welcomes feedback from the SAC membership on improvements to the flyers
  • The Hub also welcomes quotes that capture why CESSA will benefit society/various stakeholder groups. We already have a quote from Candace Coleman; ideally we would have a quote for each one of the different sectors- i.e. someone in Fire/EMS, law enforcement, etc.
    • We recognize this is politically complicated and nuanced, so we'd be willing to take a quote from you anonymously
• Discussion
  • David Albert: I find "mental and behavioral health crises" confusing; usually behavioral health encompasses mental health and SUD. Simply "behavioral health" could be less redundant.
  • Blanca Campos: I agree with that. As an industry, we use it and understand what "behavioral health" is, that it includes both. But we also have to define it for people not in our industry who don't know the term. It's not always innate for people outside the industry.
  • Allie Lichterman: Instead of quotes, if those are difficult to get, we could also give clear examples of the type of crisis and how the specific sector was involved in resolving it. You could use de-identified examples, obviously high level because it is a small box .
  • Jessica Gimeno: That is a good idea, people remember stories more than they remember facts .
  • Rachael Ahart:
    • I wonder if we want to say "will require" instead of "requires" to not create confusion about the implementation timeline.
    • The message about "stakeholders contributed to protocols" and "stakeholders are represented on the advisory committees" are similar; these statements could be combined.
    • The flyer says crisis counselors are trained, but it doesn't say who they are, so maybe putting individuals in there (i.e., MCRT are individuals trained to de-escalate…").

Pilot Updates & Discussion (Allie Lichterman, Mary Smith, Cindy Barbera-Brelle, and Pete Eckart)

• Question from Blanca Campos: How long is the pilot?

• Mary Smith: About 3 months for Total Response, Priority Dispatch a bit shorter and APCO even shorter. All pilots will be completed by June 30.
• Blanca Campos: When would full implementation start?
• Cindy Barbera-Brelle: We will start evaluating data in July. We haven't identified the length on that.
• Mary Smith: Something we want to highlight is that just because the pilots are over, it doesn't mean that we will stop doing what we're doing. The PSAPs that are part of the pilot will continue with the processes we have put in place. As we go into the new fiscal year, then we work on bringing more into the process.
• Allie Lichterman: Right now, that's where we could really use everyone's help. We have the coalition of the willing, we have people that are excited to do this. And the people that aren't doing it, it's not because they don't want to. The systems change might be five steps ahead. We need help from you to grow the coalition of the willing so we can help them work through their concerns.
• Pete Eckart: The pilots are getting us the data that we need. We should have the solutions conversation at the June or July meetings that are focused on the quantitative data and the qualitative data. That will help us move from the coalition of the willing to broader implementation.

• Question from Jim Hennessey: This presentation was really good and positive; we are acknowledging how early it is and how the data might not yet reflect the good change that's coming. I hear feedback at APCO and NEMA meetings about people looking at co-responder models, which I don't think would have happened without these pilots going on and people talking about it. I love how positive that whole thing was. I think we should get in touch with the IPSTA board and give a presentation on CESSA at the public safety telecommunicators conference. That would be good to get the word out and have people ask questions. Happy National Public Safety Telecommunicators Safety week to all the telecommunicators out there.

Subregional Committee Presentation (Emily Legner, Phil McCarty, & Chris Mueller)

• Emily Legner is a Co-Chair for RAC #3; helped to form two subregional committees at this point
  • 1st SRC formed in Christian County area approx. 1 year ago
  • 2nd SRC formed more recently in Norman and Sangamon counties (Christopher Mueller & Phil McCarty)
  • Existing relationships/goodwill and strong, engaged PSAP administrators in the community have helped the SRCs get off the ground
• Christopher Mueller (Morgan County): These have primarily been an educational opportunity.
• Phil McCarty (West Central Joint Dispatch): My area is more rural than where Chris is, but that doesn't mean we don't have the same challenges. I have been pretty immersed in CESSA and so have many of the people in this room. But that's not the case across the state, so education is important.
• Emily Legner: The education that takes place in these SRCs is so imporrant, because although it's second nature for many of us, a lot of people don't know about this.

Regional and Subregional Updates (Jessica Atassi)

• Approximately 10 subregional committees have been vetted by RAC vote; more are in the process of forming.
• Blanca Campos: How does the communication flow, in terms of these hyperlocal meetings and the RACs, so that we are all aligned?
  • Jessica Atassi: We are still finalizing that. We usually have at least one RAC member who participates in the SRCs and stays up-to-date. The SRCs are not subject to OMA like the RAC, so we are still figuring out the best reporting structure as they evolve. We welcome suggestions.

Next Meeting Dates (Director Albert)

• Virtual on Monday, May 12, 2025, 1-3pm
• Virtual on Monday, June 9, 2025, 1-3pm

Public Comment

Public comment from Danelene Powell-Dickens:

• My family and I really appreciate everyone coming up to the plate to make a difference. For the ones that don't know me, Stephon Edward Watts' mom. And we really appreciate this, and I wish his dad was here to see this. We appreciate it sincerely from the bottom of our hearts because you are doing the work not just for us, it's so that this never happens to other individuals and people who have loved ones.
• For Craig Williams, what he was saying regarding the 90% pace of 988 calls that was done within 20 seconds. My concern as a mother that makes several calls to 911 not because my son was being cruel but because he has a disability and we have doctors and social workers who suggest call 911 because my husband is not here anymore, and we need them to help put him in the ambulance. Not because he's a child that walks around this area, this child didn't go outside, but because of his special need. What do they do with the 5% abandoned calls? I know we are working hard to get to 100%. For the time being what are they doing
• For Jim Kaitschuk, he is disappointed there is not a police representative there, that he's not here. When he's saying that it doesn't represent police officers, I feel that law enforcement should be here to be part of the forum.
  • Director Albert: He was referring to the way we talked about a meeting we held in the past but not this meeting, not the present.
• For the training for PSAP, training was just 6 hours. Do they get a refresher course every year? For the two officers who murdered my son, Feb 1, 2012, they claimed they had training. They had video training where they could just fall asleep. I used to work for a police station. I have done training. How is this training going on? Do the telecommunicator get more than 6 hours? A real estate agency has to do training every two years. These individuals save people's lives. I hope they get more than 6 hours of training and that they get it every year. I am making a statement to hope that something can be implemented later on.

Director Albert: We will get back to you with responses. We'd be happy to take your additional questions and respond to those as well. Thank you for reminding us why we are here. Thank you for being here.

Public Comment from Marcy:

• [chat] Hi, I'm with the family of Femi Oyesanya who posed the first question about CESSA in LaGrange. Who decides if the call is a behavioral call? Lagrange has often been told it's behavioral. Yet, they send officers with guns drawn?
• I posed the question earlier in the chat, because I was surprised to see that Lagrange police was one of the places you guys were doing the trials with. I am part of the family of Femi Oyesanya, and he was the one that wrote the letter that was the 1st question posed or read today.
• How is it decided what is a behavioral issue and what would just be any other kind of contact with the police? Because with the La Grange police department, and we have letters from them, there is no clear-cut way to get them to say that's behavioral.
• They have been out to the home many times, dozens, and they have at least transported my daughter to a behavioral psych hospital or to the local hospital at least a dozen times. Yet every call is with 4 or 5 police officers with guns fully drawn. I mean, you would think that we are a terrorist organization. You know you can try to get them to do something else but if there is no clear definition of when it's behavioral, so how do we?
• What are the exact words that we're supposed to say? Because the history shows that these "behaviorals."
• It has such an impact on the family. First of all, we're $60,000 in debt just trying to fend off 3 felony charges from police coming out there, and saying, "she grabbed us, she kicked us." Not to mention, you know, when she finally goes into intake, the cost is always more because it's escalated. We're about $80,000 we've shelled down in the last year on that.
• So, I'm not really understanding CESSA. I thought I understood the law. I thought I understood it in its inception, and as it was starting to be organized by the different counties in the State, but the more it got pushed back and pushed back, it seems that the police department started saying, "well, it'll never be implemented, or we don't have to implement it." And then the La Grange case, you know, he said, apparently, that it was. This was to a particular call. But it's not, it really isn't. It's the overall way that they run this program. Well, they don't run the program, and they pretty much have given us a letter saying that there's been a lot of incidents in the past. Yeah. And most are all behavioral psych incidents.
• I'm trying to figure out what we have to do to get this to a 988 situation. There are no mobile crisis response teams. As a citizen, as a resident, as someone whose daughter was almost made in this last case to literally leave the village, leave her home that she's lived in for 15 years, are there any suggestions? Because I was surprised to see La Grange participate. The attitude that we get in writing is, "we don't have to. We can wait this out." This is a community with a lot of resources, and if they have no desire to really look at this, then what about the poor communities around the State?

Dr Albert: Thank you we will take this comment and bring it back. Thank you for sharing your family's story.

Adjournment

• Cindy made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Blanca seconded. Director David Albert adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.