McLean County Behavioral Health Coordinating Council met April 8.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
The Behavioral Health Coordinating Council Committee met at 7:30 a.m. in Room 400 of the Government Center, 115 East Washington Street, Bloomington, IL.
Members Present:
Chairman John McIntyre; Elizabeth Robb; Ms. Sonja Reece, McLean County Board of Health; Mr. Mark Jontry, Regional Office of Education; Mr. Joan Hartman, Center for Human Services Executive Director; Judge Rebecca Foley; Ms. Schafer, McLean County Board; Brian Wipperman, Marcfirst; Ms. Lynn Fulton, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center; Colleen O’Connor, NAMI Executive Director (Livingston, McLean County); Ms. Stephanie Barisch, Center for Youth and Family Solutions; Mr. Kevin McCarthy, Town of Normal; Kristin Adams, Country Financial; Ms. Lisa Thompson, Project Oz Executive Director; Mr. David Sharar Chestnut Health Systems CEO, Mr. David Taylor, Executive Director of United Way, Diane Schultz, The Baby Fold; Donna Boelen, City of Bloomington; Matt Mollenhauer, Chestnut Chief Clinical Officer
Members Absent:
Colleen Kannaday, Carle BroMenn; Ms. Lynn Fulton, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center; Mr. Eric Thome, State Farm, Mr. Jeremy Hayes Bloomington Housing Authority Executive Director; Mr. Brian Wipperman Marcfirst CEO; Mr. Chris Workman PATH Executive Director
Staff Present:
Ms. Granger-Belcher, Behavioral Health Coordinating Council Supervisor; Ms. Ms. Cassy Taylor, County Administrator; Amanda Hartley; Recording Secretary,
Others Present:
Taylore Davis, Jon Sandage, Shannon Garlock, Rick Bleichner, Ken Bays, Aaron Woodruff, Phylis VerSteegh, Eric West, Mick Humer
Chairman John McIntyre called the called to order at 7:36AM.
Chairman McIntyre welcomed the members of the public and the first responding groups as well.
Chairman McIntyre made motion to approve the Mental Health Action Plan Motion by Boelen/Reece to approve
Motion carried
Chairman McIntyre welcomed Jesse Sieger-Walls from Tri-West. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that he has been a consultant with the Tri-west group for 8 years. Mr. Sieger Walls stated his background is in clinical social work. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that he is a practitioner with a small caseload. He has a PHD in public health and health outcomes research. Tri-west is a health and human services company that focuses on behavioral health services for children youth and adults. Tri-West has been around for over 25 years. They have evaluated SAMSHA grants and federal grants. They work with state agencies and foundations. They do everything from program evaluations to policy and planning. They have done a tremendous amount of work in Texas with the Mental Health Policy Institute, and they were the operating body a long time when it first started. They also work with Healthy Minds which is a policy institute in Tulsa Oklahoma. They are the operating body for providing all the data analysis and policy consultations for them.
Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that one of the areas that they have focused on is helping agencies and systems consider how to better improve their crisis systems. They have developed a planning tool that helps organizations map the various services and flow of individuals and anticipate costs and savings that result from changes to their crisis system.
Mr. Sieger-Walls has looked at the Mental Health Action Plan and stated that it was remarkable with all the work that has been done and the accomplishments. Tri-west is prepared to help BHCC, Chestnut, and other local agencies continue the efforts outlined in the Mental Health Action Plan in order to understand how people move through the current crisis system and to consider the impact of implementing feasible and substantial improvements. Tri-West’s approach to formative behavioral health crisis system assessments uses a combination of qualitive and quantitative data analysis to provide technical assistance that supports local efforts to enhance service delivery while also offsetting costs.
Mr. Sieger-Walls introduced Sam Shore. He joined via GoToMeeting. Mr. Shore is the principal at Tri-West. Mr. Shore stated that one of the area that he has been focused on the last few years is the area of crisis services/community-based crisis services. He stated that he is looking forward in working with us in any way that he can be helpful. Kelsey Urrutia introduced herself. She also joined via GoToMeeting. Ms. Urrutia stated that she is a senior consultant at Tri-West. She has spent the past few years working closely with their crisis work and their crisis planning tool. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that Mr. Shore and Ms. Urrutia both were primary authors in developing their planning tool.
Mr. Shore talked about the roll out of the new 988 crisis line. There are a lot of resources being marshalled to build out crisis systems at the local level. He stated that there are a lot of opportunities to take advantage of right now. Mr. Shore stated by mapping out and understanding our system that wise decisions can be made regarding our community and what enhancements make sense for our community.
Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that Lisa Tomaka and Suki Martinez-Parham are their children experts. Ms. Tomaka joined via GoToMeeting. Lisa stated when the 988 opens up she is ensuring that all the resources are available for children, youth, young adults,families, and adults.
Mr. Sieger-Walls asked if anyone had questions
Member Robb asked how long the process will take. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated depending upon the people involved that it usually takes about 6 months. Mr. Shore stated it depends upon where the community is at in terms of being ready to provide data inputs. He estimated that it will take 6-10 months.
Member Schaefer stated that PATH isn’t at this meeting, but they are now an agent of the state because they have the statewide contract for 988. Since they are now an agent of the state, they aren’t going to be able to provide data as originally planned.
Chairman McIntyre asked about the process. Mr. Sieger-Walls is the one that lives closest. He lives in St. Louis and everyone else involved live in Texas and Michigan. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that he wants to limit cost of the project and most of it can be done virtually. If they do receive sensitive data, they have ways of establishing secure connections to make they don’t violate any HIPAA conditions.
Member Reece asked they would approach the hospitals that have HIPAA regulations for data. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that sometimes they have a liaison that helps them get connected to the right person. Often times they will participate and give aggregated reports. In instances where they want to share client level data, they would have to establish a BAA.
Member Barisch stated since TriWest is providing the service to the county as a part of a contract for a grant with Chestnut and wondered how it would inform this process. Will it impact the recommendations? Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that it will not impact the recommendations. Mr. Sieger-Walls has been working exclusively with Ms. Granger Belcher on communicating what would be complimentary and supportive.
Member Mollenhauer from Chestnut stated that their hope is that the system improves and also that they learn what they are doing wrong and get better at it. In the end its the system across the county of which they are one component.
Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that they are committed to people in McLean County. He stated he believes in what everyone is doing and that is how they approach all the clients that they work with. They are mission driven to see services improve for people that have high complex behavioral health needs.
Chairman McIntyre asked what experience they have with Triage Systems and crisis response. Mr. Shore stated that a lot of his career has been in public mental health service. He worked at the state office for many years setting up policy framework for all kinds of services including crisis services with focus on the system design aspects and data. In the consulting work that they have done they convened stakeholders that wanted to have a crisis center. Through the process they spent a lot of time learning from people on the ground that included ER doctors and the people running crisis services. Mr. Shore stated that he has never led a mobile crisis team himself, but he knows the issues that they are dealing with. He stated where he comes in is the ability to look at how put the policy and structural framework in place.
Chairman McIntyre asked if the process was all going to be virtual and what can they contribute to help our system from the standpoint of first responders. Mr. Shore stated that he would hope that first responders would be at the table because they are in the unfortunate situation right now of being front line mental health crisis workers. Mr. Shore stated that the first responders that he has worked with closely have said that they don’t mind helping but they want the people who are actually trained in mental health to be up front, and it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to sign up for CIT training to improve their competencies its just that they know that is not their primary mission and that their mission is public safety and emergency medical work. They would include them as part of the discussion/solution. Mr. Shore stated that what they will be looking at will be a benefit to law enforcement and other first responders.
Chairman McIntyre asked about how they can help with our Triage Program and where we can implement it to fit into our regular system. Mr. Shore stated that they can bring examples of other places that they have worked with that have Triage Programs. Mr. Shore stated that they have worked with many different places that are doing this kind of work in other areas that they can call on as they need to and case examples. Mr. Shore stated that it isn’t uncommon for them to reach out to other colleagues and people in their professional network to bring in subject matter experts when there is an area that they’re not accustomed to.
Member Reece stated that she is interested in the relationship with private practitioners in our community that are not a part of hospitals or big systems but have a caseload that they are carrying. Is there a role that they will play in this study? Mr. Shore stated that this analysis doesn’t look so much at connecting with them, but he stated that’s not to say that they couldn’t look at that and look for avenues in order to garner their voice.
Member Reece stated that the private practitioners are players in this whole process and feels that they would want to engage in this process and be heard. Mr. Shore stated that it would be great if they were willing to come to the table and that they would like their input.
Member Barisch stated that it is important to have Primary Care Physicians and pediatricians be a part of this process as well.
Member McCarthy stated that he is excited about this opportunity. He asked about what can we expect at the end of this process. Also asked what the recommendations will focus on. Mr. Sieger-Walls asked what would be helpful for everyone. Do we want a report, a brief, or a presentation that focuses and facilitates a discussion for next steps? Mr. Shore stated that we are unique because we already have a body of people that have come together that have been focusing on behavioral health issues in the county.
He stated the county is a step ahead from other counties that they have worked with. Mr. Shore stated that they would be building on work that we already have been doing. Mr. Shore stated that they have created a planning tool based on what they have learned, and it will help us see things through the lens of our current system and the critical data points that should be monitored and tracked. The tool will help us look into the direction that we need to go and what needs to be changed to get the system to perform differently.
Member Schafer stated that in the Mental Health Action Plan update there are quite a few recommendations for the crisis system already so how does it play into what we have already decided from talking with law enforcement and first responders. Is it going to be an expansion or deeper dive into what we already are doing? Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that there is volume data in the action plan but it’s not complete for the entire system the way that they use it. Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that they aren’t going to contradict what has already been done.
Member Schaefer stated that we should contact CJCC on some of the data that they have.
Member Schultz stated that when there looking at the systems, they are going to see the lack of state resources or regional resources especially for acute care. It is creating first responder issues. She stated that everyone needs to be paying attention to the initiative that the governor has started around transforming mental health and behavioral health services for children and youth. It is critical to pay attention because our ED’s are locked up and our crisis response is bogged down because there is no available resource to plug in to stabilize these kids and families.
Mr. Shore stated that he hopes that whatever is discovered through this process becomes leverage information in had to take beyond McLean County and make compelling cases for the resources.
Member Hartman stated that she wanted to make a comment on behalf of Mr. Sieger Walls’s team. In the past when she worked at Chestnut they worked with the state, and they had a state project that Mr. Sieger-Walls and his team were the evaluators for. Chestnut didn’t employ them the state did, and they came in and worked with them. Ms. Hartman stated that they were so helpful to them to create change in their own processes without making them feel like they should have been better. She wanted everyone to know that having worked with them in the past she found it very beneficial and when she was at Chestnut, she recommended this project, and she still recommends it in her new role at Center for Human Services. She feels that it is important for us as a system that does crisis that this process will help us to really figure out where we can do it better and where we can collaborate better.
Mr. Sieger-Walls stated that they want to see McLean County succeed and want the BHCC to succeed. He stated that means that people are getting help. He stated that they want to the stakeholders to succeed as well. They take pride in how they work with stakeholders and if they move forward, they see themselves as ambassadors for McLean County.
Chairman McIntyre congratulated everyone for what they have done so far. He appreciates the commitment to the community and to our mental health areas. He stated that there is still a lot of work to do. Much of what we have done has had dollar signs assigned to it and some of it we haven’t spent. Out of the 54 recommendation in the Mental Health Action Plan 13 or 14 had monetary components to it. Chairman McIntyre showed the 2015 Mental Health Action Plan’s checklist of things that came about back then. There are things from that plan that we have been able to accomplish and things that we haven’t been able to accomplish. Chairman McIntyre stated that we have got to get some things coming together one way or the other and maybe the people from TriWest can help us with some of this, but he still thinks it means everyone coming to the table to discuss where we are, what we can get done, why can we not get some things done, and what is it going to take to get things done. We need to figure out ways to collaborate and people are going to have to start to take it upon their organizations to take some things on their shoulders and move it forward. Chairman McIntyre stated that any way that we can find to work together is why he thinks we are all here and what we can do. We need to get some implementation done. He feels that youth is very important and any way that can find to help all ages is very important. We should revisit intensive outpatient and see what we can do. Mr. McIntyre stated that some things came out of our original plan maybe more that we realize. He stated that maybe the revised plan if nothing else was a way to take a moment and reassess our status report and our inner relationships between different organizations and how we can do some things to get together.
Chairman McIntyre thanked Mr. Sieger-Walls coming. He also thanked Ms. Granger Belcher and Ms. Taylor for all they have done.
Ms. Granger-Belcher stated that several members of our council stepped forth and expressed interest in pursuing a system of care grant SAMSHA grant for child and adolescent youth. There are many people that have stepped up and into this process. Following Monday, we will have a clear direction of where we are going with this grant. At our next BHCC meeting there will be an update on where we are going and what we will focus on.
Chairman McIntyre indicated the next meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 10, 2022. He asked if there was any other business, hearing nothing he thanked everyone and adjourned the meeting at 8:54a.m.
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