CESSA Statewide Advisory Committee Meeting 05/12/2025 1:00 - 3:00 pm ,Virtual (via Zoom)
Call to Order (Allie Lichterman)
- Allie Lichterman called the meeting to order at 1:04pm and reviewed OMA procedures
Roll Call (Sarah Ferguson)
- Members present: Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Candace Coleman, Allie Lichterman (designee for David Albert), Bobby Van Bebber, Rachael Ahart, Jim Kaitschuk, Blanca Campos, Emily Miller, Pete Dyer, Drew Hansen
- Members Absent: Curtis Harris, Justin Houcek, Brittany Watson, Jim Hennessy, Brent Reynolds
- Quorum is present
Approval of Minutes from SAC Meeting on April 14, 2025 (Allie Lichterman and Sarah Ferguson)
- Cindy Barbera-Brelle made a motion to approve the minutes from April 14, 2025; Bobby Van Bebber seconded the motion
- Members who voted to approve the minutes:
- Cindy Barbera-Brelle
- Candace Coleman
- Allie Lichterman
- Bobby Van Bebber
- Drew Hansen
- Rachael Ahart
- Jim Kaitschuk
- Blanca Campos
- Emily Miller
- Quroum approved the minutes from April 14, 2025, and the motion passed
State Updates (Allie Lichterman)
Response to Previous Public Comments
- Response to Previous Public Comments
- Two public comments received in April 14, 2025 meeting
- One public comment received via email on April 2025, 2025
- Allie Lichterman thanked the public for continued engagement and continuing to work with us on implementation of CESSA
- Comment #1, Marcy, relative of Femi Oyesanya, who shared a comment at a recent meeting
- Comment: How is it decided what is a behavioral health issue that could result in 988 support, and what would be simply another contact with the police? Concerned about the willingness of LaGrange Police Dept to participate in CESSA implementation
Answer: If a caller reaches out to 911, TCs work through a series of protocols and rule out safety issues, and then if they are identified as having a low-risk BH issue, they are asked for consent to get referred to 988 to de-escalate or get transferred through to MCRT if on-site response is needed. Furthermore, concerning a specific police department, IDHS coordinates with PSAPs, EMS, police departments, but CESSA doesn't provide IDHS with enforcement capabilities. They are regulated in part by the 911 State Administrator, Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board and the Illinois Department of Public Health, and then local units of government including law enforcement agencies are also able to establish some policies and procedures that are unique to that locale. All this to say: these are complex systems we continue to work on coordinating. We want the public to know which entities have authority over each part of the crisis system. Those are the entities that should be contacted concerning specific policies that are outside the scope of CESSA, but coordinated with our work.
- Comment #2, Danelene Powell-Dickens, mother of Stephon Watts
- Comment: What happens to abandoned calls for 988? Do they not make it to a call taker and what happens?
Answer: I want to clarify the difference between 911 and 988 calls. 911 telecommunicators at our PSAPs call back all abandoned calls to confirm a response isn't needed. For 988, DMH monitors data on call answer times and abandoned calls. Abandoned calls happen when a person hangs up before 988 answers, for various reasons. Average wait time is 20 seconds; max wait is 6 minutes but most people wait less than 2 minutes. We are working to reduce call wait times and monitoring call volumes/staffing very closely.
- Comment: How is law enforcement involved in planning and implementation?
Answer: Earlier, we had referred to a specific meeting with one law enforcement perspective, not the involvement of LE as a whole in CESSA. There was a meeting in March between the IL Chief of Police and IDPH that was not directly related to CESSA implementation. We are sharing the notes with LE representatives on the SAC. Law enforcement continues to participate in CESSA and serve as representatives on SACs and RACs
- Comment: What training do 911 telecommunicators get, in terms of length and quality?
Answer: We talked about the 6 hours of training, which are courses that are required just by CESSA. TCs on the whole have 40 training hours per year under the 911 Statewide Administrator office. We determined the 6-hour length based on conversations with expert consultants and stakeholder representatives, and looking at best practices in the field. That course covers a variety of topics, including CESSA and emergency crisis system. mental health topics for 911, the importance of language, respectful interactions with people who have ASD/DD, respectful interactions with people who are experiencing mental health/substance use crisis
- Comment #3 (via email), Femi Oyesanya followed up on his previous comment
- Comment: Asking about La Grange Police Department and routing calls based on address history.
Answer: 911 TCs use information provided by the caller to determine the nature of the call and determine dispatch response. In the case of the call discussed here, the 911 call center did not receive information that pointed to a behavioral health crisis, so the call was not screened for non-diversion. Right now, CESSA is piloting non-diversion for certain calls, but that may not have been relevant for this specific call. We do want to emphasize there are other ways to access the alternate response. If you want to connect a person directly with mental health support, you can call 988 directly, who can de-escalate or connect to MCRT. For this specific case, you can contact the local mobile crisis response team, which is Pillars. They operate 24/7, 365. You can also create a profile with Smart 911, so emergency responders can have specific information when they respond. The village of LaGrange does have this service.
- Legislative Update
- SB2500 is steadily moving forward
- After passing the Senate unanimously, passed House Mental Health and Addiction Committee on May 1; placed on the calendar for a second reading
- Two high level topics:
- Extends CESSA implementation to 7/1/2027
- Creates protocols for permitting mental health provider involvement in the involuntary commitment process
- Funding and system change update
- Still able to draw down on AARPA dollars; working with providers to spend currently available monie
- At this point no impact is expected on FY 2026 funding due to braided funding
- Business as usual and IDHS will continue to communicate as regularly as possible
988 Campaign Updates (Sally Huffer)
- Maps show
- Impressions (by thousands) and clusters of outreach being done throughout the state
- Locations of billboards throughout the state
- Media channels (e.g., CTA and TVA) being utilized in each region
- Other strategies have been digital signage in gas stations and convenience stores, outreach to community-based organizations
- Recent updates made to 988illinois.com; partner toolkit and downloadable materials are available
- April: 1,238 clicks on the landing page; 32% increase from previous month
- Question from Dr. Lorrie Jones: What is the latest guidance in regard to the LGBTQI community and 988?
- Allie Lichterman: There was a leaked memo stating there was potential to cut the LGBTQ+ line for 988. Nothing has been finalized but IDHS is doing due diligence to prepare if that should happen. IDHS had a discussion with 988 providers to discuss the training that the general 988 call-takers get, to make sure we can properly support LGBTQI callers. The general response was that all of them do provide training and they should be able to help anyone regardless of identity. Still, we are analyzing if there are gaps that need to be filled between general training and training for callers who work the LGBTQI line; we want to make sure everyone gets LGBTI-specific training. All of the providers are eager to work on this. We are thinking about it and want to continue to support this population/get this training regardless of the funding situation.
Crisis Hub Updates (Dr. Lorrie Jones)
- June Behavioral Health Crisis Continuum Forum
- Virtual forum over three dates: consecutive Wednesdays June 11, June 18, and June 25, from 9am-12 pm
- There are currently 100+ registrants for each session; capacity is 500
- Due to virtual format, the forum can be marketed widely to a larger audience
- Please share with your colleagues and network
- Meeting between IDPH and Chief Gault
- Minutes and meeting summary have been sent out; Hub welcomes feedback
- New Regional Coordinator starting May 12, 2025
- Brittan Harris, Visiting Senior Research Coordinator/Specialist
- Will be working with regions and quality assurance as we move towards implementation
- Planning for FY2026
- In process of doing strategic planning internally and with State partners
- We expect to report back in June meeting what this looks like: plans for FY 26, timelines and benchmarks, breadth of work anticipated over the summer months
- We are recommending that SAC pauses in July (as in previous years) but comes back in August so that we can jump-start implementation
- We also want to meet with Protocols and Standards regarding the Interim Risk Level Matrix during the summer
- More details to be provided in June meeting
- Question from Rachael Ahart: Who sent out the email with the minutes from IDPH?
- Sarah Ferguson: It would have come from dhs.dmh.cessa@illinois.gov; it went out on Friday May 9 with the draft minutes, agenda, and Chief Gault meeting notes.
CESSA Communications Discussion (Dr. Lorrie Jones)
- Draft flyers (shown on screen)
- Most recent draft changed from 5 versions to 1 version
- Unable to get more specific at this time regarding implementation updates
- The content of the 5 flyers was mostly the same; only differences between flyers were audience name and photo, since goals were the same
- Feedback implemented from April 14, 2025, SAC meeting
- Added definition of crisis counselor for 988 and MCRT
- Removed repetitive language
- All 4 goals are relevant to all 5 audiences
- Feedback?
- Cindy Barbera Brelle: Looks good
- Next steps
- Ready to push this out after accepting final SAC comments/feedback
Technical Subcommittee Updates
- Technology, Systems Integration, and Data Management (Jodie Bargeron)
- Baseline assessment project
- Looking at 2024 data to understand what was happening before CESSA implementation began; to be used for future comparisons
- Draft and deliver the Baseline Assessment Results report by Fall 2025
- Provider Data Collection and Reporting Database
- Will allow providers to submit respective information about the crisis system
- Ongoing collaboration with DMH and software development is under way
- Looking to have alpha testing completed in the next few weeks
- Will have more details on implementation when alpha and beta testing conclude in FY 2026
- Training and Education (Terry Solomon)
- 1,238 people have completed the Core Pilot Trainings as of May 2, 2025
- PSAP Telecommunicators: 428
- 988 Crisis Counselors: 157
- Mobile Crisis Response Team Members: 600
- Other: 53
- The Subcommittee drafted Core Training Plan Policies for PSAPs, MCRTS and 988 Crisis Counselors which are currently under review
- The Verbal De-escalation training for PSAP 911 Telecommunicators and 988 Call-takers will be held live virtually on May 22
- The training will be available on demand to all pilot sites by May 30 on the Crisis Hub's training site
- Protocols and Standards (Mary Smith)
- Subcommittee met on April 17, 2025
- With updates on the pilots and other information shared at the April SAC meeting
- Next meeting is May 15, 2025
- Focus continues to be the pre-tests and pilots and any issues that require troubleshooting
Pilot Updates (Mary Smith)
Priority Dispatch
- Update on Pilot Initiation
- Five sites launched April 1st
- Two sites launched May 1st
- Three additional sites planned launch date is end of May
- Weekly meetings with PSAPs continue
- Bi-weekly meetings with Centerstone and MCRT continue
- Priority Dispatch
- Follow-up Issues
- Addressing issue with administrative access to IT system
- Discussion re: third party callers
- Role of police social workers
- Working internally with APCO subject matter expert around updating protocols to include questions similar to those incorporated into Total Response protocols
- Finalizing pilot sites
- Preliminary Call Transfer Status Update as of 5/7/2025
- 82 calls transferred from 911 to 988
- Majority of callers' concerns were addressed by 988 crisis counselors
- Call time with 988 crisis counselors for calls in which the call was coded as crisis "de-escalated" averaged close to 15 minutes (calls not coded as "de-escalated" are not included)
- The 82 calls include one or two callers known to 911 who call frequently, so they're not all unique callers
- We are working with 911 to discuss how to encourage caller to call 988 directly
- 4 calls were referred to MCRT for an on-site response
- 3 calls were transferred back to 911
- Allie Lichterman: Thanks to all of you who are meeting with PSAPs weekly to support them with this shift. Any questions about the pilot?
Regional and Subregional Updates (Brenda Hampton)
- RAC Summits/Town Halls
- RACs are continuing to hold their events
- Mix of fully virtual and hybrid
- Some events engaged 100+ community members
- Subregional growth charts showed updates to SRC formation
- Total of 13 SRCs across 5 regions with new 4 SRCs since last SAC meeting
- We anticipate more SRCs coming on board in the near future
- Discussion: Role of Police Social Workers (Brenda Hampton and Lorrie Jones)
- Police social workers: Licensed clinicians working with police departments as needed
- The role of social workers has come up with pilots and we have been aware of police social workers supporting police work
- Kathleen McNamara (Association of Police Social Workers) in our Expert Consulting Group represents police social workers
- Various funding sources: some are employees of police departments, and others are employees of mental health agencies deployed to work with police departments
- Various types of roles: some oversee peer support programs, some do mainly follow up after a crisis has been managed, some go out with police on calls, others respond unilaterally without police, some do community outreach, some do wellness checks
- Various time commitments: not all are full-time
- In working with pilots, we've discovered some pilots are relying on police social workers versus pushing calls to 988
- We are in the process of developing a survey to get more information on the scope of the issue
- Seeking input from this group on what we should be asking in the survey; survey results will inform policy decision about how police social workers interact with CESSA:
- Jim Kaitschuk: Can you clarify what you mean when you say decision?
- Lorrie Jones: Decision about how police social workers fit into CESSA. CESSA is very specific/prescriptive in referring to mobile crisis response teams to address crises that law enforcement should not have to respond to. One question might be, if we have social workers responding on their own, is that an acceptable non-law enforcement response, even if they work for law enforcement? Should they be looked at differentially if they are working in law enforcement versus for community agencies? Also, how do we collect data? Do we have to recommend another change in the statute to accommodate their participation? Those are the kinds of questions that come to the forefront.
- Jim Kaitschuk: That's helpful. I think as someone who has experienced mobile crisis in Sangamon county [which is what the county calls their police social workers], they are hugely helpful on the ground because there's no time gap. I don't know why we would cut them out; it's a matter of how to include. Mobile crisis here in Sangamon, they ride along with police officers and sometimes they are on their own.
- Allie Lichterman: That's 100% the conversation we want to have; how do we integrate police social workers, municipal programs, and other things we could not have anticipated when CESSA passed? Before we do that, how do we collect that information on where the police social workers are and what are they doing? We want to make sure we know what's happening, what language we're using, and how to help law enforcement understand what kind of information we need.
- Rachael Ahart: You shared that, in the pilots, some sites are utilizing police social workers in lieu of utilizing mobile crisis response. What was the feedback or direction given to those particular locations?
- Lorrie Jones: I would rather not go into specifics about a particular pilot site but the point is that it raised the issue. So, we wanted to have further discussion. We could talk to the site and see if they want to disclose, but we want to give sites some degree of anonymity.
- Rachel Ahart: I more meant, was there a general redirect to the site in terms of how to point them back to procedures and see how we can utilize 988 as we set out? And then, on the back end, incorporate police social workers?
- Rachel Ahart suggested questions
- Are social workers at a particular agency required to ride with law enforcement or are they able to respond on their own?
- Are all calls they respond to routed through dispatch? Or are they self-dispatching to calls for service or follow-up care?
- What are the social workers doing at that agency and what is the level of training?
- What sorts of assessments and interventions are they able to do, and is it with law enforcement or separate?
- Kathleen McNamara: I'm a police social worker and I serve as an expert consultant to the CESSA SAC. Thoughts on this: we have 95 to 100 police social service workers. Cindy and I have been in touch, and I've sent to her the current list of police social work programs. I think that whatever survey we come up with needs to go directly to the people on that list rather than chiefs or regional people in the RACs to get efficient answers. Does that make sure?
- Lorries Jones: Yes, absolutely.
- Kathleen McNamara: I agree with Rachael that, for those that are embedded in PDs, employed by municipalities, the way we dispatch is that if 911 is called and police feel social workers could be helpful, we are called in to attend to the scene after the scene is secured. That is the model for embedded social workers. For the contracted agencies, that is going to vary, and I think that's where you'll see variation.
- Lorrie: Are they able to engage on their own?
- Kathleen McNamara: Our involvement always starts with a call from the police. For example, if a call from a familiar caller goes to 911, then we will get invited in by the police. The familiar caller can also call us directly if they know we are here. I would be delighted to help craft these questions for the survey and make sure we get them to the social workers as efficiently as possible.
- Cindy Barbera-Brelle: We will continue to work together to get all the content that we need.
- Pete Dyer: The flow with our police social workers, are we considering this being added once CESSA goes live in 2027 or are we looking at putting this in play now? My understanding is that all 590 providers are grant-funded. In Schaumburg we have several social workers that respond with police and it's a whole different approach. We've established relationships with most of our behavioral health patients here and our social worker has a vehicle designed to work with these patients. When would we think about embedding them into the process? With the 590 provider, we don't know how long it would take them to respond, whereas here we'd have our social worker there within 5-10 minutes.
- Lorrie Jones: It's a great question and my answer is that we're required to implement the statute as it is. The process for change would be to try to introduce some amendments to the legislation to allow for this to happen legally under the statute. Practically, in terms of, can we move forward with some modifications before getting the statutory authority to do so? We'll have to weigh things as we go along. SAC may have an opinion or role in this, and we'd have to run it up through IDHS and our general counsel before we say it's officially okay. But, there's a goal of CESSA to create alternative responses. When CESSA was written they were very prescriptive of what the response would look like. We know the limitations of the one specific model, that mobile crisis response can't get there in a timely manner throughout the state. We know some jurisdictions have moved forward with their own response, so there is some opportunity to bring more responses under the umbrella prior to the statutory authority, but we need to figure out the extent. As long as we're reaching the goal of having a behavioral health response without law enforcement if it's not necessary.
- Allie Lichterman: Responses are popping up that were not incorporated into the original risk matrix and into the original law and now we have to figure out how to make it all work together. The overall theme I'm hearing is knowing how people are doing this now, and why are they doing it that way. Is it statutorily required? What can be modified? What can't? Those are the big questions we will need to figure to move forward with programs such as police social workers.
- Blanca Campos: A lot of these programs were started awhile back before CESSA planning, like CAHOOTS in Oregon which has been a model for many of us, and now we are in this position where we have to figure out how to incorporate it all. I have a specific provider in mind; they partnered with the police department and had one of their social workers embedded at the police department and they would respond with law enforcement in situations they determined it would be beneficial if a social worker was present. They also have a mobile crisis response system and they're a crisis responder for SAAS, for kids' crisis services, and they respond independently without law enforcement. I would want to get these providers' input in this survey into what they've been doing since they've been doing it for such a long time, and how they think we can incorporate and streamline these programs into our work. I would like to see these providers participate in the survey.
- Allie Lichterman: I know we've been talking about how to keep this survey short so it doesn't take too long to respond, but this points to the need for continued engagement, perhaps another survey down the line. It also points to asking about acuity of call they can go to, because we know that once police are there, social workers are able to go to a higher acuity of call and have different restrictions around privacy laws and HIPAA. That can change the game in a municipality.
- Kathleen McNamara: I want to thank Blanca and Dr. Jones for acknowledging that police social work has been a profession for almost 50 years and we have almost 100 practitioners doing this work, working with crime victims, working with people with severe and persistent mental illness. It's our desire to be involved despite not being included in the beginning. I'm glad, and it looks like we are progressing towards that. I also want to say that one way that would make sense to link up with police social workers would be for RACs to look back at referrals to police social workers. So, if an MCRT goes out to respond, to consider having some sort of referral process so police social workers can do the follow-up, especially for something that involves domestic violence, court advocacy, or linkage to long term care.
- Jim Kaitschuk: I don't have any issue with reaching out to the social workers to get their perspective. I also recommend a survey to go out to agency leaders for police agencies to see what their plan is and make sure they have long-term plans, to have their vision for how this looks going forward. If the social workers have a change of leadership, will the program continue? What's their long-term planning?
- Lorrie Jones: Thanks Jim, it was not our intention to send it to police social workers only. I think Kathleen wanted to make the point that they should also be included, but they won't be the only people we survey.
- Allie Lichterman: That's an interesting question though-which police leadership see this as primary purpose work, and which don't? How is that different across the state.
- Lorrie Jones: Jim, we might circle back to you as we talk about survey distribution.
- Jim Kaitshuck: To answer your question Allie, I think you will find that agencies with the wherewithal and resources to do something like this, will do it. The problem is that not many of them have that.
- Allie Lichterman: Is it more resources? In my experience, with Chicago Police Department, they didn't necessarily see it as their work or their expertise, and they'd like for something else they trust to exist if possible. They thought they don't have the training to train others to do this, but they would welcome it.
- Jim Kaitschuk: I think it's a resources issue and the availability of social workers, and a group of social workers interested in doing with it. It's a combination of a variety of things.
- Kathleen McNamara: Speaking for those of us employed by municipalities, the majority of us hold master's degrees and clinical licensure. We can handle high-acuity situations and we do all the time. The issue we have is funding. For example, if a mobile crisis response team was looking for a police social worker to respond instead of someone from the MCRT team, then that person is not responding as a police social worker, but for 988 or MCRT. I think that could be an issue for sure.
- Lorrie Jones: Thanks everyone, it was a robust discussion and it will be the first of many. We will send a draft to some of you and have a more in-depth discussion informed by the survey.
Next Meeting Dates (Allie Lichterman)
- Virtual on Monday, June 9, 2025, 1-3 pm
Public Comment
Zachary Gittrich made the following public comment:
- I have a couple things regarding social workers and police. I don't see any conflict in the legislation as long as they follow the specific prohibitions. There was a co-responder pilot program that was created via Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth and includes places like Peoria but does not conflict with CESSA because it's specifically sending social workers to assist with survivors or witnesses of crimes-not CESSA-related incidents, so not non-criminal related complaints.
- I wonder-and I think this has been mentioned-about areas where there is both police social workers and a mobile crisis team. So, Peoria does have its own police social workers, but then it has its own separate mobile crisis team. How do you decide who goes to what? It could be that police social workers could respond to requests directly from the police-so if the police are dispatched somewhere and they realize "hey, this is a CESSA-related call, and we should mental health people here," they could call their own social workers that would come out and then handle that situation. Meanwhile the mobile crisis teams would be dispatched from PSAPs. Those were mainly my thoughts regarding social workers and police.
- The other issue I want to talk about is some of what Darren Gault brought up, specifically the two court cases that were mentioned in the document that was received, about the limitations that they perceive the police have when it comes to involuntary commitment. The two cases cited were Armstrong V. Village of Pinehurst, and Scott V. Smith.
- Armstrong V. Village of Pinehurst was regarding a situation where a severely mentally ill man had eloped from a hospital. His involuntary commitment papers were later signed after the police had made contact with him. Within 30 seconds of the officers being notified of his involuntary commitment papers being approved, they tased him 5 times while he was stationary, holding onto a wooden post, and not clearly a danger to anyone, so they would call this passive resistance to a lawful order. They did eventually remove him from the wooden post. It is alleged that Armstrong was choked somehow, and when Armstrong was completely subdued, he was blue in the face and died from this interaction. The timespan between police being notified of his commitment papers, and his death was 6 min.
- The singular sentence that Gault quotes from this decision, where it says, "any force that causes harm is contrary to the mission of protecting the person" is immediately followed in the order written by the judges by another court case it is referencing, which is Drummond v. City of Anaheim, which says, "[for] a mentally disturbed individual not wanted for any crime is being taken into custody to prevent injury to himself; directly causing that individual grievous injury does not serve the officer's objective in any respect."
- So, the phrase, "any force that causes harm is contrary to the mission of protecting a person" is specifically referencing grievous injury to a person that is not a threat to anybody else, is passively resisting, and/or is just being put in for involuntary commitment. The Armstrong V. Village of Pinehurst case also goes on in multiple places to actually say, "Yes, you can use force to effectuate an involuntary commitment order. You just can't tase them 5 times and potentially, choke them to death. That's something that we think should be beyond what you're able to do." And these officers were granted qualified immunity in this case.
- The second case, Scott V. Smith involved a man who called the police to help and was killed despite complying with the police's initial orders. Basically, a brief summary is that Roy Scott called the police for help, but he did not receive it. Las Vegas police came to the scene. Scott was unarmed and in mental distress, though he complied with the officer's orders, and was not suspected of a crime, the officers initiated physical contact, forced Scott to the ground, and used body weight force to restrain him. Shortly after, Scott lost consciousness, and he was later pronounced dead. So, the courts have ruled-and Scott V. Smith had nothing to do with involuntary commitment---but the courts have just ruled that there's a limitation on the amount of force that you can use for involuntary commitment, preferably not force leading to death. But it's not saying that you can never use force to effectuate an involuntary commitment.
- Lastly, I noticed that all of the recordings of all past meetings were taken down off the website. I know there's been some question of whether they should continue to be put up, because it's not technically an OMA requirement. I don't really understand why the past ones would be taken down. I do find those incredibly useful, and I would like it, not only if all the past ones were put up for all of the regions and the SAC, but also any new ones because I think that those are very useful, and it's in the spirit of transparency and accountability. Thank you.
Adjournment (Allie Lichterman)
- Allie Lichterman adjourned the meeting at 2:33pm.
