McHenry Times

McHenry County Mental Health Board met November 26. 

Here is the minutes as provided by the board:

Board Members present: Mike Baber, Rachel Boldman, Tracy Champion, Sam Melei, Cathy Ferguson, ConneebMeschini, Dawn Pruchniak, Sarah Wilson (6:09), Paula Yensen

Board Members absent: None

Others present: Ann Aiello, Peggy Lamont, Carolyn Sweeney, Lupe Ortiz, Margie Patel, Sam Tenuto, CeCe Horan,bMaria Morrill, John Buckley, Mandy Bohort, Shaun Patterson, Scott Block, Jane Wacker, Pat Peterson and otherbinterested parties

1. CALL TO ORDER - C. MESCHINI

2. PUBLIC COMMENT– Connee Meschini called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Roll Call was taken. Ann Aiello – spoke of behalf of Epilepsy Foundation and their quality provision of services.

Peggy Lamont, Board of Directors, Epilepsy Health Management - spoke on behalf of staff of local epilepsy services Carolyn Sweeney – spoke on behalf of Epilepsy Foundation and epilepsy services

Lupe Ortiz, Margie Patel – spoke on behalf of Youth and Family Center of McHenry County

Sam Tenuto, Pioneer Center CEO - provided an update on Pioneer Center and the Homeless Center

CeCe Horan, Amita Dir. of C&A Services – thanked the Board as they open up the addition to C&A Services

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - FOR ACTION

Cathy Ferguson motioned to approve the Minutes of the October 10, 2019 Special Board Meeting, October 17, 2019 Special Board Meeting, October 22, 2019 Regular Board Meeting and Minutes of the November 4, 2019 Special Board Meeting. Seconded by Sarah Wilson. A ROLL CALL VOTE WAS TAKEN. Rachel Boldman – Yes, Tracy Champion – Yes, Cathy Ferguson - Yes, Sam Melei – Yes, Dawn Pruchniak – Yes, Sarah Wilson – Yes, Paula Yensen – Yes, Michael Baber - Yes, Connee Meschini – Yes. All in favor. Motion carried.

4. PRESENTATION - EPILEPSY AND BRAIN INJURY SERVICES

Scott provided a statement regarding the epilepsy issues:

“As we are aware of by some of the public comments this evening, there is still a great deal of anxiety around the additional providers involved with proposed local epilepsy and brain injury services.

I acknowledge that anxiety, and would expect nothing less when families are focused on how to maintain access to healthcare services for their loved ones.

It is my understanding that some families have felt that their voice was not represented during the MHB diligence process. To that end, I’d like to alleviate that concern by referencing the long history of public comments praising Dr. Rossi’s care at numerous MHB public hearings and town hall meetings. Because of those comments, the MHB was well aware of the prominent role Dr. Rossi has played in many family’s lives and more importantly, how local access to care needed to be secured and stabilized.

However, as I have stated many times throughout the past month, the domino effect of events leading up to tonight started because of a vulnerable Epilepsy Foundation business model. McHenry County families are fortunate to have an institution such as the MHB with resources to stabilize access to care through a network of established service providers willing to step up and meet the challenge. In most other communities, the doors would have been shut as of October 18th with limited, if any concern, over planning for future services.

From the moment that the MHB learned of Epilepsy Foundation’s plan to close its doors, MHB priorities have shifted to maintaining access to services while developing avenues to care that are aligned with conventional regulatory standards and applicable laws. Specifically, avenues that are not straddling the line of Stark Law violations, that are well aligned to conventional standards, that are less vulnerable to changes in the healthcare environment, less reliant on single sources of government funding, and so on and so forth.

In the many conversations I have had with Dr. Rossi over the past month, he himself recognizes the decision points that have faced the MHB and the “why” behind the MHB’s current approach.

I would have liked to have this plan in place sooner although there were many complex moving parts that demanded diligence and time including Epilepsy Foundation and Rush working with their respective legal teams to determine how patients would access medical files post Epilepsy Foundation closure on November 30th. As late as yesterday, the MHB received, and on behalf of Epilepsy Foundation, mailed 506 patient letters outlining the steps to take to receive care in the wake of their closure.

Finally, the MHB recognizes a disruption in care is not anything anyone prefers or looks forward to, but in a vulnerable healthcare market which is constantly evolving, change has become an expectation. Beyond the noise, in every crisis there is opportunity, and the current opportunity is to maintain and stabilize a multi-tiered approach to care. 

With that said – tonight we have invited Independence Health, Northwestern Medicine, and Rush Medical Center to provide the Board with an overview of their respective service lines and plans to accommodate new patients. Please know that Dr. Rossi was invited to attend and would have liked to have been here but cannot because he is traveling. In support of Rush Medical Center’s commitment, he and I have been in contact throughout the past several weeks and as recently as today. We have a shared understanding that should the 3-provider model being presented tonight move forward, Rush is prepared to enter into a contract directly with MHB to preserve access to case management and telehealth/clinic services while they work to develop a sustainable long term infrastructure. I will speak more to Rush programming shortly but at this time I want to invite Independence Health & Therapy and Northwestern Medicine to the table to discuss their respective service lines.”

A. Independence Health & Therapy (IHT) - John Buckley, Maria Morrill represented IHT.

B. Northwestern Medicine (NWM) – Shaun Patterson, Mandy Bohort represented NWM.

C. Rush Medical Center (Rush) - Scott spoke on behalf of Dr. Rossi.

Mike Baber questioned the on-call service ability of this program – Shaun Patterson of NWM noted that epilepsy doctors are on-call to care.

Mike Baber questioned the programming to support the families – John Buckley and Mandy Morrill responded in the positive that there are programs in existence to care for all ages.

Dawn Pruchniak questioned previous model that included nurses and linkage with school nurses. Mandy Bohort spoke to the nurses available within the system, Shaun added information on the school nurses.

Cathy Ferguson spoke about the Epilepsy Foundation’s pharmacist that participated in the tele-sessions. Mandy noted that pharmacist would not sit in on services but NWM does have access to pharmacist and can train them for this.

5. OLD BUSINESS - FOR DISCUSSION/FOR ACTION

A. Epilepsy Foundation Letter

Scott noted the 2019-11-08 Epilepsy Foundation Letter within the Board packet. MHB did receive Epilepsy Foundation’s FY19 Funding Reconciliation and considers all contractual matters for the period of December 1, 2018 through Sept. 30, 2019 closed. October and November funds will be reconciled by December 30, 2019. As late as 9 p.m. yesterday a list of equipment and assets purchased by MHB was presented to him for review.

B. 201911-80 Epilepsy and Brain Injury Services - FY20 Funding

Scott reviewed the Decision Memo presented to the Board on packet page 20. He noted the 3-tiered model approach to Epilepsy and Brain Injury Services. He has had contact with Epilepsy Foundation of Chicago, GEFCC, and is engaged in on-going discussions with Dr. Rossi of Rush. Additionally, Lou Bird Foundation reached out to him about their mission to provide funds to those that cannot afford epilepsy medication.

Cathy Ferguson confirmed that the contract is with Rush Medical Center for a Case Manager.

Paula Yensen asked if the open house would be held with panel discussion. Scott noted that the parties concerned are considering evening dates of Dec. 18/19. The meeting would be facilitated by Scott Block at the MHB.

Cathy Ferguson motioned that the McHenry County Mental Health Board, Board of Directors directs the Executive Director to develop and execute FY20 Funding Agreements with Independence Health & Therapy, Northwestern Medicine, and Rush Medical Center as follows:

Independence Health & Therapy:

          Standard Purchase of Position/Grant Agreement $115,000

          Pay-for-Performance Agreement by $262,500

Northwestern Medicine:

          Standard Purchase of Position/Grant Agreement $38,000

          Standard Fee-for-Service Agreement $50,000

Rush Medical Center:

          Standard Purchase of Position/Grant Agreement $85,000

Seconded by Sarah Wilson. A ROLL CALL VOTE WAS TAKEN. Rachel Boldman – Yes, Tracy Champion – Yes, Cathy Ferguson - Yes, Sam Melei – Yes, Dawn Pruchniak – Yes, Sarah Wilson – Yes, Paula Yensen – Yes, Michael Baber - Yes, Connee Meschini – Yes. All in favor. Motion carried.

6. REPORTS

A. President's Reports - C. Meschini

Connee noted the People in Need Forum event on January 25, 2020. The flyer is included in her President’s Report. She noted, as the SAC member, it was disclosed that the first county marijuana dispensary will be located on Queen Anne Road in Woodstock.

The December Mental Health Board Regular Meeting will be held on Dec. 17th, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Connee wished all a happy Thanksgiving and thanked Scott for all of his efforts to maintain epilepsy services.

B. Director's Report - S. Block

Scott reviewed key points from his Director’s Report:

 Unallocated budget is $85k. MHB ED met with the local Appointed Public Guardian to continue development of a Frequent Users of Services Program to meet MHB’s FY20 goals.

 To cultivate workforce recruitment and development opportunities, MHB created an automated Behavioral Health Internship Directory on its website which is now active.

 There were 110 attendees at the MHB Network Ethics Training and 88 attendees at the Cultural Competence Training both which took place on November 1st.

 MHB electronically distributed its 2020 Network Training Survey. The survey closes on November 30, 2019 and results will guide FY20 MHB Network training activities. Annually MHB received over 200 responses.

 Trauma Informed McHenry County Implementation efforts: 5 Focus Groups including members of Network Council, Intake Coordinators, Substance Abuse Coalition, Family Violence Coordinating Council, and Healthy Community MAAP are scheduled for December 9th and results will be synthesized to inform ongoing implementation efforts. ACE Interface facilitator training is scheduled (35 attendees) on Feb 12-14th. The ACE Collaborative is providing the presentation at the Family Violence Coordinating Council’s March Symposium.

 Live4Lali will be offering increased mobile harm reduction services such as supply distribution, naloxone training, treatment navigation, peer support services, etc. due to receipt of Inspiration Outreach Foundation funding for the purchase of a re-furbished food truck.

 A Crystal Lake Alano Club member visited the MHB with pictures that show the building renovations that were spearheaded with MHB funds. The $17k in MHB funds were leveraged to raise over the $80k needed to complete the project. The only renovation remaining is the parking lot.

 MHB developed a FY20 Independent Contract for the continuation of Kaizen Health Transportation services in an amount “up to” $75,000. Nineteen MHB funded agencies are registered Kaizen users. For FY19, Kaizen Transportation expenses were allowed to incur beyond budgeted dollars and will likely fall beyond the $30k Executive Director allocation limit. Safeguards have been put into place for FY20 to accommodate the projected overage.

 Next meeting date for Ethics and Compliance TBD in January with agenda items: Year End FY19 Outcomes, FY19 Year End Audits and Annual Compliance reports, FY20 Audit Schedule and a revised Records Auditing and Monitoring Policy.

C. Finance and Audit Committee - S. Melei

Sam reported that the Finance and Audit Committee met last week. They reviewed the Treasurer’s Report, compared the current system “Fundware” with new D365 system being used by County. MHB will continue to run reports on both systems to ensure accuracy. The Committee also reviewed the Funding Allocations Policy with respect to the ED’s ability to allocate funds regarding specific providers. The Committee felt that the policy should remain the same for now. The Committee discussed Active Shooter Insurance and asked Scott to review and research this matter.

D. Network Council - C. Ferguson

Cathy reported that the Network Council’s October minutes are in the Board packet. The Council met yesterday with the law firm of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle who provided a presentation titled The Impact of Cannabis Legalization. Possession vs. usage, right to have drug free environment, employee vs. volunteer were just a few of items discussed.

 Scott provided MHB updates on year end information and organizational highlights

 Task Force reports were provided with a new report from Age Strong

 Homeless Shelter and Old Firehouse Assistance Center closure (OFAC) were discussed. Scott noted that 50 clients were using the services, 41 mistakenly thought they were banned from PADS. OFAC was used for showers and case management – services that are available at PADS in Woodstock.

 Scott added that New Directions Recovery Home owns the KVR property and will allow PADS to remain longer to allow for a seamless transition.

 Substance Abuse Coalition (SAC) reported that the number of overdose deaths is down this year

 Suicide Prevention Taskforce (SPTF) noted this year’s 21 confirmed suicides; 3rd consecutive year decrease

 IDD Taskforce is discussing the possibility of adding another group home

 There is no meeting in December, the next meeting is Monday, January, 27, 2020 at 8:30 a.m.

7. CONSENT AGENDA - FOR ACTION

A. 201911-76 Treasurer's Reports for the Period Ending October 31, 2019

B. 201911-77 MHB Monthly Bills - $1,433,162.74

C. 201911-78 Updated MHB Vendor List

D. 201911-79 FY2020 Cost Allocation Plan

Cathy Ferguson motioned to approve the Consent Agenda, items A, B, C and D. Seconded by Rachel Boldman. A ROLL CALL VOTE WAS TAKEN. Rachel Boldman – Yes, Tracy Champion – Yes, Cathy Ferguson - Yes, Sam Melei – Yes, Dawn Pruchniak – Yes, Sarah Wilson – Yes, Paula Yensen – Yes, Michael Baber - Yes, Connee Meschini – Yes. All in favor. Motion carried.

8. NEW BUSINESS - FOR DISCUSSION/FOR ACTION

Jane Wacker discussed a new business item regarding Insurance Coverage and Premium Summary FY 2020. She provided a handout of information on cost and coverage to Board members for their review. Board members concurred on the summary provided.

A. FY19 Mental Health Board Highlights & Accomplishments

Scott reviewed some of the year’s MHB’s highlights and accomplishments in FY19.

 In December of 2019, the MHB received the Community Behavioral Health Association's Ellen T. Quinn Memorial Award for Agency Achievement. The Award recognizes novel approaches to delivery of behavioral health services and efforts toward industry excellence.

 MHB satisfied Series 2010-B debt certificates to reduce interest expense and maximize facility use. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 MHB is approved to represent behavioral health providers on the County Department of Transportation’s Public Transportation Advisory Committee. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 Increased marketing strategies to include a Facebook Page communicating relevant MHB activities and communitywide efforts. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 Went “live” with the D365 Enterprise Resource Planning System. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 In partnership with the County Department of Public Health and local healthcare agencies, provided leadership in planning, funding and execution of the 2020 McHenry County Healthy Community Study.

 Sponsored the Volunteer Center of McHenry County/Northern Illinois University Center for Government Strategies training series geared toward strengthening not-for-profit board and business practices. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 The MHB strongly believes it met and exceeded the County Board Resolution Authorizing the Approval of a Formal Budget Policy for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 which states a budget shall be developed which “represents an earnest attempt by all departments and this County Board to develop a budget that is drawn with the cognizance of current economic conditions and future economic trends.”

Community Services & Support

 MHB allocated funds and led a collaboration with schools to address the mental health needs of area youth through training 30 local school professionals in Youth Mental Health First Aid Training (YMHFA). YMHFA is designed to teach adults how to help adolescents (age 12-18) experiencing mental health/addictions challenges. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 MHB sponsored two 40-hour Recovery Coach Training workshops. These workshops trained eighteen attendees to become Illinois Credentialing Board Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialists. This enables these individuals to facilitate a strengths-based recovery support approach for people with addictions, or in recovery from alcohol, other drugs, or mental health concerns.

 MHB allocated funds and is leading McHenry County in its journey to become Trauma Informed through a partnership with Health & Medicine Policy Research Group. Health & Medicine Policy Research Group is proud to be a founding member of the Illinois Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Response Collaborative. They work with diverse partners to reduce ACEs and promote healing and wellness in the community.

 Established an Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy Program and Autism Resource Center – Driven by the Autism Needs Assessment. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 Allocated funds to increase Recovery Residence/Sober-Living beds. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 Allocated funds for a Year-round Homeless Shelter. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan and the Continuum of Care to End Homelessness Strategic Plan)

 Expanded access to the Kaizen Healthcare transportation solution. (Referenced in MHB 2018-2020 Three Year Plan)

 Funded Amita Health’s development and continued expansion of IOP / PHP levels of care for youth.

 Allocated funds to develop a dual diagnosis clinic for individuals dually diagnosed with intellectual/developmental disabilities and mental illness.

 Allocated funds to increase treatment access to intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization levels of care for youth aged 8–12.

 In response to HB4594 -The Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act – Rev. Effective July 1, 2019, the MHB conducted diligence and ultimately allocated funds to stabilize services provided through the Children’s Advocacy Center.

 Upon loss of State funding, MHB intervened and renegotiated terms of the Epilepsy Foundation of North Central Illinois contract to continue services and engaged in extensive development activities to maintain access to services moving forward.

9. MEMBERS' COMMENTS

Cathy noted that during the Network Council meeting Suzanne Hoban of Family Health Partnership Clinic commended Scott for all of his work towards maintaining epilepsy services in the County.

10. PUBLIC COMMENT – none.

11. ADJOURN – Sarah Wilson motioned to adjourn. Seconded by Sam Melei. A VOICE VOTE WAS TAKEN. All in favor. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

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