DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Health & Human Services Committee met June 1.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met virtually via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Chairman Porterfield called the meeting to order. Those Members virtually present were Mr. Scott Campbell, Ms. Rukisha Crawford, Mrs. Karen Cribben, Mr. Larry West, and Chairman Chris Porterfield. Ms. Kiara Jones and Ms. Maureen Little were absent. At the time of roll call, a quorum was established with five Members present and two absent. Ms. Maureen Little arrived shortly after roll call.

Others present were Deanna Cada, Jerry Helland, Mike Neuenkirchen, Pete Stefan, and Kathy Lampkins.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

It was moved by Mrs. Cribben, seconded by Mr. West and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

It was moved by Mr. West, seconded by Mr. Campbell and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from the May 4, 2020 Committee Meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no public comments made.

PUBLIC HEARING: STATE OF ILLINOIS 5311 RURAL/DOWNSTATE OPERATING ASSISTANCE GRANT APPLICATION

Chairman Porterfield opened the Public Hearing at 6:33 p.m. to obtain public comment and consider the economic, social, and environmental effects of the application for Public Transportation Financial Assistance under Section 5311 of the Federal Transit Act of 1991, as amended (49 U.S.C. §5311).

Mike Neuenkirchen, Vice President of Operations at Voluntary Action Center of DeKalb County, explained that the purpose of the assistance is to continue to provide demand response transportation services within DeKalb County, commonly known as TransVAC.

No other persons presented themselves for the Public Hearing. Chairman Porterfield closed the Hearing at 6:39 p.m.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING EXECUTION AND AMENDMENT OF FEDERAL 5311 GRANT AGREEMENT

This application, if approved, provides funding for the County’s rural transportation services such as TransVac and MedVac. The County has been applying for these funds for the past sixteen years and these funds are used for services outside the DeKalb/Sycamore/Cortland area. When funds are approved they are passed through the County to the Voluntary Action Center along with all responsibilities and liability. This assistance program combines Federal and State Funds.

ACCEPTANCE OF A SPECIAL WARRANTY AS A CONDITION TO RECEIVE SECTION 5311 FUNDS

When the County applies for Financial Assistance it must also agree to certain conditions. These conditions mainly deal with ensuring that the County would not be in competition with any private transportation service and that union employees of those companies would not be adversely affected by the awarding of the financial assistance.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION APPLICANT ORDINANCE

This is a housekeeping Ordinance that directs the County Administrator to execute on behalf of the County of DeKalb Grant Applications and Grant Agreements to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

It was moved by Ms. Little, seconded by Ms. Crawford and it was moved unanimously by voice vote to forward the two Resolutions and one Ordinance to the full County Board recommending their approval.

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH BOARD ANNUAL REPORT– Link to Annual Report DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board (DCCMHB) Executive Director Deanna Cada and Board President Jerald Helland joined the Committee to provide them the 2019 DCCMHB Annual Report.

Mr. Helland began the presentation by reviewing a recent documentary he watched on Mr. Fred Rogers and how it relates to transitioning in today’s uncertain times and how the DCCMHB and its funded agencies will be so important to help during the transitioning period.

Ms. Cada reminded the Committee of the Mental Health Board’s Mission: “Through leadership and funding, the DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board supports access to high quality behavioral healthcare services for DeKalb County residents.” Ms. Cada stressed that the Mental Health Board really strives to live and breathe their mission. They want to make sure that the MHB is ensuring that services are available to the community. That is one of the things that they really tried to do during the COVID-19 pandemic and during the State Budget Crisis; is to make sure they’re not losing any of the services in DeKalb County.

The following 2019 highlights were shared with the Committee:

- The DCCMHB is a stable funder to local agencies who provide service to DeKalb County residents in the area of mental health, substance abuse disorder and developmental disabilities.

- For Grant Year 2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020), request exceed funds available by $232,055. Twenty-three agencies received funding for a total of $2,318,100.00 for the GY20 allocations.

- DCCMHB moved their grant application process to an online platform, Fondant Technologies. GY21 will be the first year utilizing the online program.

- The Mental Health Board worked with local agencies and statewide initiatives to plan for impacts related to the legalization of recreational cannabis, which Ms. Cada assisted the Health & Human Services Committee with earlier in the year.

Ms. Cada also highlighted that the MHB in April of 2019 hosted a “This Is My Brave – DeKalb” storytelling event where local residents living with mental illness tell their story through personal essay, music, or poetry to give hope to others. In May of 2019, they also had the opportunity to host an “On the Table” event, as part of the Kennedy Forum initiative. The most popular topics that came out of the vent were Adolescent Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Post-Vention. The event has had to be postponed this year due to COVID but the hope is that it will be able to take place in October.

Mental Health 1st Aid continues to be a priority for the DCCMHB to ensure the citizens of DeKalb County have access to information about how to assist with mental health and substance use disorder situations in the community. The workshops are always very well attended and feedback is positive. They are offered to adults and teens for free. Over 300 community members have been trained thus far. In addition to Mental Health 1st Aid, the DCCMHB continues to promote mental health awareness in a number of ways.

Ms. Cada provided the Committee with the Community Mental Health Board’s Comprehensive Three-year Plan and One Year Plan for a program of community mental health services and facilities for person with a mental illness, a developmental disability, and/or a substance use disorder pursuant to 405 ILCS 20/3e(1f). The One Year and Three-Year Plans are developed to guide the direction of the DCCMHB as the Board moved to complete set goals and objectives. The goals and objectives of the DCCMHB work in concert with the regular work of the Board; to provide funding to programs that work in the area of mental illness, development disability and substance use disorder.

Last year’s One Year Plan was to provide access to services for 0-7-year-old children in DeKalb County and to provide a comprehensive needs analysis to determine gaps and areas of strength. I May 2019, NIU students from the Department of Public Administration completed a Capstone Project on behavioral healthcare needs for 0-7-year-old children and their families. The recommendations presented were:

- Intervene with the child at their school

- Treat the parent utilizing both a general parent broad based skill program and a targeted program for parent of children with diagnosed mental illness.

They also worked to determine benefits/challenges to development of a local system at care for young children. The DCCMHB contracted with consultant Stacy French Reynolds, Anchor Advisors, and a visual artist to create visual maps of information shared during focus group discussions. Three focus groups were held throughout DeKalb County on November 21, 2019. Third-one people attended focus groups including school representatives, behavioral healthcare representatives, community members and others. The visual maps and focus group information will be analyzed by partners from the Public Health Department of Northern Illinois University resulting in recommendations for next steps. The planned completion of the project will be Summer of 2021.

The second initiative that they worked on was to assist with mental health/law enforcement initiatives with DeKalb County Law Enforcement partners and support Crisis Intervention team (CIT) training for local law enforcement partners. They started off strong by thinking they were going to fully support law enforcement with expenses related to mental health; a law enforcement specific grant program is in development to allow for funding opportunities beyond CIT Training. What they found was there were a lot of issues with sending officers to training for 40 hours. They thought it was going to be just a financial issue but they found out it was a lot deeper of an issue than that. The Board pivoted and developed a grant program that can be applied for anything that could be helpful for law enforcement to work with any individuals with mental health needs. As part of the Grant Year 2020 funding allocations, Ben Gordon Center, a part of Northwestern Medicine, received funding to hire a Mental Health Liaison that works with two local municipal police departments (DeKalb & Sycamore) to assist with mental health calls. These positions will be evaluated at the conclusion of the FY2020 funding period but has been funded for GY2021.

Ms. Cada reviewed the 2019 highlights of the Mental health Board Community Involvement:

- 2020 Census, Complete County Committees

- DeKalb County Basics – Ambassador

- DeKalb County Opioid Prevention Program

- Housing Authority of County of DeKalb – Commissioner

- Illinois Violence Coordinating Council

- NIU NNGO Nonprofit Advisory Committee

- Association of Community Mental Health Authorities of Illinois – Membership Co-Chair

Ms. Cada lastly briefly reviewed the Fiscal Year 2019 budgeted expenditures for the Community Mental Health Board. 90% of the expenditures go to program allocations.

The Committee thanked Ms. Cada and Mr. Helland for their time and all that they do for the citizens of DeKalb County.

SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY APPLICATION PROCESS

Ms. Cada shared that she believes they are now ready to move the Senior Services Tax Levy Application Process to an online format. This would be the same online format that is currently being utilized by the DCCMHB and the DeKalb County Community Foundation so all of the current agencies that apply are already familiar with the online application.

Mr. Helland shared his experience with using the new online application format.

Ms. Cada explained to the Committee that if they were comfortable moving forward she would begin moving the application to the online format right away. Then, she would return in September to show the Committee what the application would look like. At that time, they would be able to change or adjust anything on the application they want to ensure they receive the exact information they want to make their allocation decisions. She also pointed out that moving to the online format will make capturing specific data a lot easier as well as give the ability to print reports and set up payment installment programs.

Once the application has the Committees’ blessing, they would receive their initial training on the program in November and then in January of 2021, the agencies would be able to begin applying online for the Senior Services Tax Levy Funds.

There was a unanimous consensus from the Committee to move forward with the online application platform for the DeKalb County Senior Services Tax Levy Funding Allocations.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Campbell, seconded by Ms. Crawford, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:30 p.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/min20-hhsjun.pdf