thank you uh good morning everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the Cook County Public Health and Human Services Board to order on this Tuesday March 18th at 8:30 a.m. first item is the approval of the consent agenda which includes our
meeting agenda uh the minutes financial report abstract and bills uh and the renewal purchase of service agreement with AOA for employment and training services is there any adjustment to our agenda or is there an item a commissioner would like to pull from the
consent agenda Mr chair I'd like to move to approve the consent agenda as presented thank you commissioner svin we have a motion is there support court thank you Frank we have a motion and support any further
discussion hearing or seeing none all those in favor I I opposed motion passes unanimously thank you moving on to our staff report got a whole uh crew here
this morning Andrea orus and Le Thompson and Andrea tofy and Rosio Rivas are all here this morning to to present on um opioid Focus prevention treatment recovery and uh risk reduction good morning everyone I'm
Andrea orus Public Health educator with Cook County Public Health and I'm Le Thompson I'm the Outreach coordinator at sat tooth Mountain Clinic and we collaborate with Grand Portage Human Services and Grand Portage health services and a number of other entities
under this Royal Community opioid response program Grant So today we're going to talk a little bit about the reverse site visit that we attended in Washington DC for the grant and then we'll talk through the
poster that we created for the event um and then we'll do a little bit of tying it more into a national level uh with the other two attachments that were in the board packet and then talk about um
sort of future initiatives from the r Corp Grant and other potential funding sources to continue working on prevention treatment and
Recovery Okay so so we attended the reverse site visit in Washington for the hersa grant its Health Resources and services Administration um and so we work under
the uh Royal Community opioid response program implementation Grant so we attended the reverse site visit um where they it was a lot of different breakout sessions but then also Grant specific sessions and then we presented our
poster in the granty Showcase um so that's our poster that we presented um we Let's see we attended uh different breakout sessions on medication assisted
opioid use disorder treatment crisis response paralleling substance misuse concerns youth involvement in prevention and youth substance misuse treatment initiatives um those were the ones that I could think of we went to a lot of
things um one of the more memorable points for me was sort of the reminder that in relation to substance misuse the only bottom that really matters is death and if a person has a chance to
um stay alive then they have a chance to recover so when we talk about risk reduction um and secondary prevention you know really helping people stay alive to have that chance to
recover um all right so that's sort of a rundown of the event do you have anything keep on talking any questions from anyone regarding the ventor trips this poster
is chalk full of info so well it was really big it was it was really large it was like larger than the painting behind you was large we tried to bring it home but wouldn't fit on the plane it wouldn't fit in
anything we also compared to the other posters A lot of them were very specific projects and ours was one of the few that was just like big sweeping countywide initiative which I think it's cool any of the specific projects stand
out I mean I guess you mentioned a takeaway from the but just looking for other angles I guess or do you feel like there's a lot more value with the broad sweeping or um I guess it's different for every community so yeah I
mean I would say we are I mean this won't surprise you but we're one of the least dense counties um and so a lot of the other projects just don't fit within our County we don't have those like really
you know substantial yet micro communities to work with like demographics that people are really focusing on so for us it makes the most sense to do a grander scale just because of our population size and population
yeah uh commissioner gamble you you had a question yeah thank you Mr chair I I was just wondering if there's any discussion with all the breakout sessions that you had related to um uh the opad problem and its
Origins I mean that's a sort of a broad stated but but when we look at it if if we find that it's something that we as individuals make choices for recreational or whatever um as as opposed to if it's coming through what we would consider to be a trusted agency
that is using it as a means of helping somebody in their their Wellness that uh understanding that it it changes our methodology so that we aren't creating a problem of addiction so to speak yeah there were not any breakout sessions
specifically speaking toward the origins um in some of the breakout sessions you know they the presenters talked about sort of where we're at in relation to the origins and how you know the
overdose deaths are going down on a national level and in most State levels but nothing about sort of the origin at least not any that I attended yeah I there were no sessions
specifically about that when the clinic started our we call it medicated assisted treatment program likely that term will change to be more with the times but when we started that the providers that started it did discuss
that the medical community had a lot to do with it and overprescribing um pain medications there has already been a big shift in the medical community to address that um and to tighten up on how they prescribe
those medications you you could say the harm has already been done but um because there's just so many um you know fake opioids out on the streets but
um yeah from the Clinic's point of view the reason they wanted to start this program was because they felt like they had a responsibility as the medical community to address a problem that the medical community had already caused thank you I and I think that's important in anything that that we're
facing is is understanding you know where did it originate and and are we contributing to that or not so an assessment means we have to step back and I I appreciate your comment relative to taking a look and feeling we have a sense of responsibility in this guard but I know that the overprescribing but
the the whatever that is a driver that becomes our practice understanding where did that originate uh just helps us to learn in the future we have to be careful that we're not opening up the Pandora's Box so to speak yeah yeah
thank you yeah commissioner stle thank you a few years ago when I was at one of the N conferences the the opioid cases in Southern Ohio in Northern West Virginia and all that were just Skyhigh and now
what's happened is the drug companies are being taken to task because of what they have promoted and I don't know about all of us but I know at times when a person is giving an OP because of surgery a lot of my friends say I take
one the first night and then I don't do anymore I've been given five but I only do one because I just don't want the repercussions of what I could get addicted to so um and but that's an adult I don't know you know if a younger person would look at it that wisely but
anyway thanks for being here to to work with it at in our local area Frank please thanks um I'm going to take the opportunity of having our experts here our mat experts here uh to ask a question at the last advisory council meeting we got a lot of
information about Medicaid and one of the items talked about how Medicaid covers half the substance abuse treatments in the state um but one of the things that it said was most people who enter drug and
alcohol treatment complete it and are successful in reducing or eliminating their substance use I guess it depends on what you call successful um my understanding is people who complete
a a drug a drug rehab program I think that's what they're talking about here residential drug rehab programs typically about 10% are successfully staying sober for five years uh after the first treatment and
after they go back again many do uh like 10% it'll will be sober after 5 years in the second treatment and then 10% so each iteration basically another 10% can stay sober um that seems like a huge difference between that and saying most
are success completed and are successful again depending on what you what you consider successful do you have any um any um any data on evaluating the effectiveness of mat in the in the
longer term I don't have it with me um I have you know a brochure for the clinic that has that information in it okay I would say with mat or mud um the idea is that the patient will
stay on uh in our community at Suboxone they'll stay on Suboxone we like to think of it like you would think of insulin for diabetes you know it's not something that you're going to like slowly wean yourself off of the idea is that they'll get to a nice stable dose and that will
help them maintain hopefully sobriety for the rest of their life um okay yeah thank you we also we had a really great plan plary who talked about his um recovery journey and he talked
about um you know relapsing and and you know trying not to think of that as an unsuccessful attempt but just part of that recovery journey and it's going to look different for everybody and I really like framing it that way right and I don't know how Medicaid would
Define successful exactly but when we talk about a successful recovery it really is defined for the person so they are going to Define what their success is if it's abstinence if it's um you
know if they're using two substances and now they're just using one or staying alive sometimes is the success um so really looking at it from the individual's lens so they can Define what their recovery looks
like thank you yeah great well sorry to interrupt if there was if we were going to go on to the next slide but we should ask all the questions questions here for this post okay so um next we'll sort of
go through our poster a little bit and part of the reason that we chose this was because it you know gives the broadest overview um of the last four years of this grant um so because this
was a n a National presentation we included some background information on Cook County um so I'm not I'm not going to read all of our background you can read that um but the objective of our grant
um is to build the capacity of the Grand Portage and Cook County Community to provide their own culturally relevant evidence-based prevention treatment and recovery program programming and services using a Community Partnership
framework building on existing resources in the community and expanding current Partnerships so um what we looked at was you know really taking the valuable Partnerships that we have in Cook County
already from previous initiatives including covid um and building on those to create uh better prevention treatment and Recovery resources or more comprehensive um our Consortium members
are listed there there are a lot of them I'm not going to read them all out but there you know are local schools um Grand Portage health services Grand Portage Human Services oski um we had some Regional Partners
like harm reduction sisters out of duth um and all those other ones um I got a sue purchase is that a yeah so that is uh Sue purchas is the director of harm reduction Services okay and when we went
through our draft versions of the poster we had to take all of the words harm reduction out and replace them with risk reduction because of the federal mandates that came a little while ago um
so we were trying to figure out how to properly represent you know the collaboration that they did but we couldn't put their name on the poster thank you so sue purchase from harm reduction
sisters yeah awkward right yeah yeah we yeah it was um yeah so let's see we are um the major goals are to were or I guess are to expand culturally
appropriate and evidence-based prevention programming for Youth and community members build infrastructure and capacity for evidence-based and culturally appropriate treatments strengthen the network of non-clinical
supports to individuals seeking or living in recovery connecting them to tools and resources in the community so under the Grant I acted as the prevention coordinator and leave acted I say acted like it's over it's not over
um acts as the treatment coordinator and then Mike Flatley from Grand Portage Human Services uh was the recovery coordinator but he's transitioning into a new role so um but throughout the bulk of the grant Mike
was participating as the recovery coordinator um some of the progress that we made um so in the sort of Realm of risk
reduction and prevention we chose to that they wanted to have some data on the poster so we chose to highlight some of the um no oxone kits naron kits the leave behind kits and Fentanyl test strips
that we distributed in the community um the initiative on community members being trained in Naran or Zone Administration our um initiatives around youth mental health first aid and adult
mental health first aid and then the prevention programming and supports that we provided to schools and local youth groups so um some of those examples are
um we supported uh with with the funding for this grant directly under prevention we we supported youth programs like North Point um youth passes to the YMCA we supported some School summer
events like canoe trips um the LGBT qia 2s plus youth group um and then we also did some larger initiatives around stigma reduction in
media where I met with the different media outlets and sort of provided them information on how to talk about um treatment prevention and recovery without being further stigmatizing and then if you've seen the
giant billboard coming into town for 988 that wasn't funded by our court but it was born out of the our cor initiative um and that's part of a larger campaign that we are sort of working on called be there there's a portion of the Public
Health Website that is devoted to ways that we can support each other or other people or youth specifically um let's see some other initiatives under the prevention and risk reduction
are the overdose prevention kits inside the county uh buildings um we've done a fair amounts of community outreach and education via the different media outlets and then um um
School newsletters and uh student survey data presentation so when the last round of student survey Minnesota student survey data came out I did a presentation on that data for our local area and now
that uh the schools are just completing the new round of surveys so in 2025 there will be new data around that um and then for youth Mental Health First Aid we were able to use some of
our funds to get two uh School staff locally trained to teach youth Mental Health First Aid so we're working on building the capacity for them to be able to provide that training more often in the community instead of having to bring trainers from outside the
area that's prevention yeah um for treatment we expanded our mat services is um so there used to be a waiver that the providers had to get in order to prescribe Suboxone that waiver was waved in order
to make it easier for um providers to start uh you know working as Matt providers um just because it is so successful uh so we went from two providers to now we have four providers
working working within that program we also expanded services to gr Portage Health Services to remove that barrier for people um so Dr Samson who does a lot of the work up in gr Portage um went to the tribal council and spoke with
them about the program and got that approved um and our map program has grown from 11 to 17 enrolled patients um we did some interviews just to find out how people felt about the program things that we could do to
improve um we've created more resources that they get um upon starting um yeah our our program's a little different we don't have a lot of patients coming in in crisis it's a lot of people transferring from a treatment
facility or from another suboxone program so we have a relatively stable um patient demographic um but we've done some work with the Native American Community Clinic in the cities they have a very robust program um and
they've met with our providers a couple of times just to talk about how they might deal with patients coming in in more of a crisis people who are maybe still actively um testing positive for Fentanyl and how to get them started successfully on Suboxone so um
yeah so when we look at the recovery progress um a little weird cuz you know Mike's not here to present the work that he did but we wanted to make sure it was represented in the poster um so gr
porage Human Services already host sobriety Feast twice a year um which is not a direct initiative out of the AR Corp Grant or used from the AR Corp funds actually
um but you know it help the program itself helps to build capacity around those events um and then the additional Narcotics Anonymous groups we uh partnered with
um Brenda the co-occurring case manager in phhs to host uh and the judicial branch to host the first warrant resolution Day event in our County which um had one person come to so we called
it a huge success um and then they um they started working on further plans on their own outside of the work that we were doing under the our Corp Grant so that's you know a huge win
also um and then we also used our Corp funds to provide uh reflection treatment and Recovery books to people who are in um utilizing peer recovery Support Services in the mat program or receiving
Services um in phhs case management so um they have you know more of the tools and resources that they need and Brenda and Mike you know were really well-intentioned about the different books and resources that they chose we
also used our Corp funds to purchase um backpacks that have a different assortment of personal care supplies for people who are transitioning into or out of treatment settings because sometimes you know when you're coming in or going
out of those settings you don't have even your basic you know Supply needs met so we have those available um also and when we look at sustainability the
AR Corp Grant um sunsets in August so um we have a few different initiatives that we are also working under in conjunction
with our Corp and um you know when you look at prevention and treatment and Recovery you know all of these other um grants and initiatives they all are so well connected that you know it creates a pretty smooth transition
we um have a substance misuse and suicide prevention Coalition that started it was one of the requirements on the work plan for this our Corp Grant and it took 3 years but we are up and
running and may will be a year um and so the group has spent a lot of the time sort of with bylaws and setting up the processes and infrastructure but now we're moving into um cannabis education
initiatives um is sort of the big thing that we're focusing on next as well as asset mapping in our community looking at what are those um assets that we have that promote protective factors around substance misuse and
suicide um and then under the Minnesota Department of Health community-based substance misuse and suicide prevention Coalition grant for youth specific
prevention work we are uh Rosio is working to build a youth Coalition um that will work closely with the Coalition that we already have in place so the prevention initiatives that we um
create are really youth-driven instead of you know grownups saying this is what we should do so uh we're making progress on that we also um thanks to all of you are able to use our opioid settlement
funds for further initiatives um in the risk reduction area and prevention area one of the initiatives that are coming up next is a uh collaborative lockbox distribution between Grand Portage
health services Grand Portage Human Services Sawtooth Mountain clinic and phhs so we are Distributing lockboxes um focus towards families with young children or Elders in our community who have young children in their household
so they can securely store their medications um it also marries well with the Cannabis prevention if people are you know recreationally using cannabis you know keeping that locked up is important also
um uh Grand Portage Human Services received separate funding but they're expanding their uh peer Recovery Specialists in their organization and then what did I miss on there oh uh saic Mountain Clinic
received um a Hera Behavioral Health Services expansion Grant um so we just hired a behavioral health director and we are soon going to be hiring another um therapist so that will put us at six
total um and that Grant also uh builds capacity at the clinic for more peer recovery work so um I don't know what that's going to look like yet but um yeah it's a exciting grant to
get yeah so some of our future risk reduction initiatives will come from some of those funding sources that I as well as some funding sources from Sawtooth Mountain Clinic around uh sexual
health and then we also have some cannabis prevention funds um that we can use in you know prevention when we look at prevention you know we sort of don't focus on one specific substance like the AR Corp Grant is a opioid response Grant
but in the world of prevention you know we look at that uh through a wider lens of you know what are the shared risk and protective factors for substance misuse and suicide and how can we um you know decrease those risk factors all around
so you have any questions about that Comm sterley thank you Mr chair I'm intrigued with the lock boxes how will they be distributed so we are going to they are mostly going to be distributed through Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Grand
Portage house services and gr Portage Human Services and then Public Health and Human Services case managers I have a sort of draft uh media release going and I I think you know the goal is to
educate the community that they're available um they will be offered to people or people can ask for them or there will just be the option to connect with me and request one if you know if you don't have an appointment at the clinic or at Grand Portage Health
Services um so there will be um it will be through those Avenues but you know the the real important piece is to let the community know that they exist so they can find them through those Avenues I was just
thinking about different ends of the county you know the West End East End and then yeah this area yeah right yeah look we'll look forward to the release of the news then yeah Mr Campbell yeah thank you Mr chair
um with regard to the uh behavioral specialist and the therapist with those hires as a result of an assessment said we need those positions uh from the service standpoint and or did they uh
arrive at the decision to make those hires due to the grant monies that were available um we had a a substantial weight list at the clinic for people waiting to do a diagnostic assessment so start therapy at the clinic and then the
most recent um CommunityWide Community Health assessment yeah um I think the last couple have identified mental health as one of the top priorities so um taking on a new provider is expensive for the
clinic and so um the grant enabled us to hire two more and also do some construction to make offices for all of them so as a followup with that that grant money as far as how long that
funding is available when you create positions uh it would make sense that if you're looking at grant money to do let's say a study and Analysis or whatever in the community to determine need your experience given the fact that you have a waiting list tells you
something certainly but then if you apply for Grant monies and sometimes there's restrictions with those Grant monies that you can be used in this kind of application but typically if positions are funded through Grant monies there's a beginning and an end of that and uh so if the analysis that is
done by the clinic says that we can we can fund based upon identified need that isn't ongoing and Grant monies can help to facilitate getting the you know place the space whatever but that's basically my question just understand
understanding that analysis and and how Grant monies are going to continue to fund the position without that burden going back to the clinic well at now that they are hired and as they take on patience then reimbursements from those appointments will pay for the positions
so the grant helps us you know expand the program and then it will be able to sustain itself through patient load I can I can speak a little bit to the assessment process too so the county and the clinic and the hospital all have
different assessment processes on different timelines so we have one that's very general for the whole County and Lis correct mental health and well-being has come up for the last two cycles since I've been here um and the clinic and Hospital also do an assessment for healthcare needs
specifically um and they just completed that so there are these overarching assessments and the part of the goal of them is to do exactly what you said commissioner Gamble and guide decisions on what types of services to pursue what types of grant opportunities to pursue
with something like a provider there is this expectation that yes insurance reimbursements and reimbursements in general for this service will help cover some of the cost on an ongoing basis but um you know the grant funds can help get people to fill the positions initially
or to build some of the infrastructure and physical space that is required to add new Services into the clinic um and then the clinic on an ongoing basis is is looking at you know what the fill rates are for those appointments for those providers um and their finances
and then we're as uh for the community health assessment also revisiting that assessment on a regular basis to see if needs have changed um and then both I know um the clinic and then myself and public health with Allison are also always keeping an eye out for grant
opportunities that fit with the findings of those assessments so we're always keeping our eye out deciding what's worth our time and energy to pursue given how much the funding is and how long the grant term is but that assessment really guides what we decide
to pursue in terms of additional funding to bring into um the community into the our programs thank you for the the background on that it just the assessment is of course um a critical part of determining Direction how to we
respond to identified need and when you find Grant monies that help you and facilitating that the fact that part of that assessment based upon your response is an evaluation of the the fee structure that will help to keep it sustainable those are all all good
factors they don't always work in in our decisions because when Grant monies become available we see opportunity and and but we need to look at in the bigger context and that's why I appreciate walking through that thank you Frank did you have a question I did
just a just a comment you talk about the number of community members who are trained in nooo Nan um I know that all the EMTs certainly throughout the various volunteer fire departments are trained as are the
emrs um and that can be a substantial number when you look countywide um I don't know if firefighters are in particular I will ask at the next training uh but there's no reason why that cannot be incorporated in one of the in one of our regular regular
trainings for those who aren't medical medical firefighters um so I was just going to suggest that that might be an Avenue uh for a another expansion and of course we all have our nooon and Naran kits in the training and
along with the stuff that's on the ambulances so we also carry it our jump pets yeah we um identified fire departments as sort of that next phase of um emergency response entities to connect with uh fire departments and
search and rescue we're sort of the next two entities um it's I think the main barrier has been um time and meetings and you know like to get all of the pieces to fall together for each of those entities has
sort of been a struggle but you know we keep you know we make progress but um if you have an in I would connect with you and Andrea C if I'm wrong here but we offered this training at a previous Emergency Services conference right yes
we did yeah I don't know if it's on for this year though the is but no I mean an alone training I think because it's short it's hard the Emergency Services conference has you know when you think about breakout sessions they're a
specific length of time so fitting them in appropriately um but we have have a local trainer um I mean we have multiple local trainers so uh typically what we do is we work with highered and they
they do the monthly naloxone trainings nooon and Naran trainings in conjunction with their CPR in first aid or you can do it by yourself or by itself um the nxone Narcan training is at no cost
because we use the opioid settlement funds to provide that to community members um but also the Rob Wells who does the training at higher ed he um has gone to other specific entities directly
to do that training for their employees so yeah for the fire departments it would be very easy because we have we're meeting together for training twice so you can take 15 minutes out of that it just has to be coordinated with the fire department and that would be fantastic
yeah and they all have of course their own EMT yeah people who could do the training right there right so that's just a question to contact me I'll connect with you I'll let you and I'll let you know if uh if the firefighters are carrying carrying the uh the KNX
Zone and are trained in it yeah and if they're not we have it got it Rowan did you have something uh Frank addressed it I was just going any other questions or Alison Andrea did you speak at all to our
planning efforts around a public health vending machine as a next phase of this work I know we're still very much in a planning stage so don't want to put you on the spot there no I did not speak to that so um we potentially have some we
do have some additional AR Corp funds that are not spent across the Consortium so um Laura palumi who is our sort of Grant director I don't actually know what her role is is called Project Director um
who is now still partially employed through UMD College of pharmacology she um when she realized that we had these additional funds suggested that we work on a public health vending machine which we had
talked about previously throughout the years of the grant but then decided you know since we don't have immediate funding for it we would sort of put that conversation on hold and we did the cabinets in the bathrooms here and then just recently we expanded to the
cabinets at the community or the bathrooms at the community center so um we over the last month or so we sort of went through some conversations around this public health vending machine and um identified what
the potential barriers are um as well as what the you know the potential positive outcomes from it right so what we decided was that we are going to move forward with the public health vending machine as a pilot program uh for one
year to determine um one of the struggles that we had was a location to put the machine because you have to have a dedicated internet you have to have dedicated electricity somebody has to sort of oversee the you know just the
workings of the machine in general and then somebody has to oversee the refilling of the supplies as well as the sustainability on the cost of the supplies so there's a lot of stuff that goes into the public health vending conversation but a one-year pilot
program um that we will present to the building committee uh to our our goal is to uh put it inside the courthouse for a year and figure out um you know what
supplies people are using and what they're not using um you know get some Community feedback on those supplies are there things that people want versus you know what they don't want um while we explore other potential
locations um We The Machine you know is not light but it is movable um we're going with an outdoor machine so we have more uh freedom of location one of the barriers for our community is
that there are not a lot of places that are open after 5:00 um so find trying to find a place where people can access these supplies 24 hours a day has been really difficult so they make an outdoor machine that is temperature controlled inside and
outside the glass is temperature controlled we just don't know um from the communities that I've connected with that have the outdoor machines they've only had them through one season so we're a little bit nervous on like the longevity of the cold weather over a
number of years but you know it's a pilot so we'll see how it goes we have um a list of uh personal care supplies risk reduction supplies um that we will
start the machine with in the beginning and then so look for some public feedback on you know how we want to change those supplies but more you will get more information after it goes through the building
committee all kinds of hands here Frank please and again from the from the volunteer fire departments I believe all fire departments have a vestibule which is open okay you need the pass key to get into fire trucks and Equipment AR a
a mudroom a vestibule there um and they would all have Wi-Fi they would all have electricity and it would be protected from the weather and and available 247 yeah just an idea and we did we did talk about that um we and I will connect with
you on that also uh part of the part of the um when you look at planning like it has to fit right so one of the potential locations that we looked at was inside of Northshore health because you can technically gain
access to that building 24 hours a day after 10: p.m. you have to be buzzed eight or 10 you have to be buzzed in but when we walked around with the measuring tape to figure out where it might fit there was really only one location that
worked because of how the size right so um you know taking that into account also is yeah also want people to feel comfortable using it so people aren't like often accessing the Fire Halls you
don't want them to feel like they're you know they you want them to be able to feel a little bit Anonymous and they might not feel that way if it's someplace a little out of their way I don't know yeah I can add one of the things we talked about in making it a pilot is just giving ourselves more time
to have conversations with different organizations that could be potential sites so the pilot would be one year on site um but that'll give us a full year plus the time it would take for the machine to actually come which we're
looking into I think the fall at this point um so we have now given ourselves like a year and a half to have conversations with different entities because there are a lot of logistics to figure out and we want to make sure that we're not rushing through the process um and if it doesn't work you know we
haven't said we're going to keep this here forever it doesn't work it doesn't work but I think we're trying to set it up and be planful so that we can see what works and what doesn't and then see if there are ways that we want to shift either the location the supplies in the
machine you know any number of variables that go into this project um could change over time so that's the the rationale behind using this as a pilot year right and we also um were because
we had talked about this over three years we were reluctant to just say no right um and Grand Portage Human Services has separate funding to do to install two uh vending
machines that they're working on also so part of what you know we talked about was well what if you know they're you know they're really well accepted and people are using them and then people say well why don't we have one anywhere else in the county and well because
Andrea said no didn't feel right I worked through all my anxieties around the public health vending machine and we are officially moving forward as a pilot as a pilot yes and we're going to keep studying what works
and what doesn't so that we can hopefully be as successful as possible in the long term with this nice commissioner gamble did you have something yeah thank you Mr chair so with the comparable communities that you did talk to what's the longest that
anybody has had this provision available um you know I don't know because the only information that I was looking for was um if they had an outdoor machine how it stood up to the weather okay um so the two entities one
uh they were two Public Health departments out of Wisconsin one of them installed theirs in September and the other one was November and they have they had you know at this up to this point had no concerns um but I don't
yeah I don't know the answer to that that's for first part of the question and what what I wanted to understand is that in you're exploring this is is what you've learned you know from their experience that when you start something obviously that we haven't done before
we're going to look and find out what can we learn from others that have done this and they said well you don't want to put it outside we thought that too were da da da or uh we found that this was the type of things that were used most um or da d da d da whatever anyway
so I guess from our standpoint of just being informed and understanding it's it would help to know what other people's experience has been to the extent that they've had it um because this is a pilot program we we try to position it
based upon the information that is available to us and then we evaluate and see how it works but if there's something we've learned from somebody else my curiosity just says what what have we found in that regard but yeah I think it so I don't you know like I
haven't developed or you know put any of that information together in a comprehensive present presentation yet but when we go forward with connecting with the building committee and um you know the different collaborators that we have you know all of that sort of
backstory information will be included because you have to have some context to make a decision right yeah yeah now add the outdoor machine gives us the flexibility of having it indoor or outdoor if we get an indoor machine it has to be indoors if we get an outdoor
machine it can be either location so that was one that was the reason by behind going with that machine over the indoor um and the other um kind of I would say community that's in a somewhat similar position is boy Fort they also
received our court funding and have had Public Health fending machines for a period of time so I think that's a community that we could learn more from because they've a little bit further into this process than we are um the only thing I've heard so far is that
just having that point person designated to managing the project as it unfolds is really important because somebody needs to be you know watching the stock making and and keeping track of the data for the for what's being used and what's not and just really taking ownership of it
so that was I think the advice I got via Laura who's the Project Director for the grant having also worked with boy for in the past on a similar project yeah and we've been um asking a lot of information from the
person who helped get the machines going in Boyce for she's been a huge help um even though she's not in that position anymore she's been a huge help on sort of the logistical side understanding you know the the things that you need to
think about in advance before you move forward so great commissioner Starley did you have a question uh what's the ballpark cost of one of these machines and is it like the size of a Volkswagen bug or is
it like the size of a refrigerator box um no it's like 35 42 is inches uh I don't have a large vending machine yeah I mean yeah it
looks looks like a vending machine yeah it it kind of looks like a snack machine right um and then so it's not h huge it just you know has to when you look at potential locations you have to you know cuz I a lot of people suggested outside
behind the courthouse and so but when I went out there to look there's not a lot of places that are clear enough that's not blocking a door or blocking a walkway or you know creating accessibility issues or snow removal issues or snow removal issues right um
and approximate cost of the machine so the outdoor Ma machine I'm just going to Ballpark cuz I don't have it right in front of me but the outdoor machine includes its own Cellular Connection and the data tracking app and it's like just
under 9,000 I think yeah for the machine itself so that would be building the machine out they have to um you know fit each coil slot to fit the supplies and all of that stuff um um yeah so that
would be the initial cost thanks and that is will be funded through the AR Corp Grant as well as a bulk of the initial supplies that we purchase and I will add that's a part of our sustainability planning as well as
looking at ongoing funding sources for maintaining the supplies within the vending machine as well as the Staffing Resources to track and maintain those as well oh yes hi please Andrea yeah I would like to ask I have two questions for Andrea
and you can speak about what are the triggers of opion addictions and substant misuse and then what does the vending machine offer I'm going to answer the easy one first the vending
machine um so for the vending machine we again I don't have that pulled up but what we did was we looked at the supplies that um Pam had sort of come up with with boy Fort and then um what
supplies you know from uh the the few different entities that we connected with um so we would be looking at um nasal Naran we have some cold weather supplies like hats and gloves um
deodorant HIV test kits pregnancy test kits pregnancy tests thank you condoms um we all three different types of condoms in like a little packet with
uh lubricant and then we have some snacks we have um insure a protein drink fent sunscreen fentanyl test kit too fentanyl test strips um in packages of five what toothbrush
toothbrushes and toothpaste kits yes uh socks that's all I can think of right now but there there is a comprehensive list that I can share with you and will be included in the proposal to the building committee you know sort of the that initial round of supplies that
we'll be starting with and what was the other one what are the triggers of opid sub or if you can speak about the anything like uh feeling uh into an
addiction or that would like look for recover you know like mental health violence is not just recreational uh choice right um so it's not just recreational choice but because that is a really big question I sort of don't
know how to answer it right now um I think that you know when we look at um risk factors you know it's having a safe place to live having people that support you
um a welcoming environment um sense of Bel a sense of belonging thank you so I think I think I just don't know the answer I can't say it right now I think it's just not a simple answer there just
so that's why I often we'll talk about risk and protective factors so what are the things that makes it more likely that someone will um misuse substances and perhaps face Addiction in their life and what are the things that would protect against that so it's it winds up
being these two kind of big laundry lists of what you can promote to make it less likely that a person would misuse substances and what you can try to prevent or and so another thing that you may have heard about is this idea of adverse childhood experience so there
things that might occur early in one's life that would make somebody more likely to experience substance misuse later in life and so we talk about trying to reduce adverse childhood experiences or promote positive childhood experiences that's kind of
looking at prevention from the very beginning of a person's life um and we could absolutely provide more resources into what those lists are I don't want to try to brainstorm off the top of my head cuz I don't want to miss some important factors but we can absolutely
provide more context to the board and um to the public on that thank you I was struggling there thank you uh any other questions thank you very much very work
um a lot of emotions a lot of uh assumptions a lot of uh stigma um and so I just really appreciate all the work that's being done um in the community and all the Partnerships and you know takes a village for
sure add one more thing is that you know what coming out of covid we saw at multiple levels that substance misuse was a worsening issue and so I actually can frame this up as something that's
been on you know mental health and substance misuse has been on our health assessment as a priority area for a very long time but coming out of the pandemic this also became a community recovery issue and I say recovery and in this sense I mean what do we see coming out
of this Global Health phenomenon locally and so this is one of the things we kind of shifted internally to focus on coming out of the pandemic we were not doing prevention work during the pandemic we were doing covid response work we were hosting vaccine clinics we were doing
contact tracing and this has been a big shift in our work as a department I just think it's important as we're on the 5year anniversary now to kind of reflect upon the fact that this is one of those public health issues that we saw really intensify coming out of covid and so
this is one of the ways that we've been able to to Really uh address that in our work as a team so yeah it's it's well said um also just thinking I guess putting it in context of Co um and the isolation that that we all or
many of us experienced or felt and and maybe continue to even after 5 years and just how that is a risk factor um for substance use and misuse not having that sense of belonging necessarily um and so I see I see the the ties there pretty
strongly too thank you commissioner thank you Grace for those closing words it's really beautifully stated thank you to our presenters I think it cannot be understated how significant it is our our work in partnership in this area and how much capacity we've built in the
last five years four years under this grant as Grace said we were doing very little substance misuse prevention work as a department prior to 2020 and now we have two staff essentially dedicated to this work and that is is significant and
the amount of community capacity that we've built through the nxone trainings through IR Ed our efforts to saturate the community with these life-saving medications is is really big so thank you all for being a part of this work yeah one one last thing that I'd
like to share and I think i' have with this group I don't recall and you're probably more pry to it than I am but we hear so much about adverse childhood experiences and I really believe that it's there's a lot of benefit in addressing those and trying to prevent those but then I also heard uh a little
more recently I guess in the last 6 months or something about benevolent childhood experiences and the impact those can have um on everyone children I guess um and and how that can either um
compensate or or help you know heal from adverse childhood experiences and just how powerful those are and so creating sense of belonging our community with youth and uh and just groups in our community can be extremely powerful um
and I'd like to lean into that a bit more if we if we can in our work and I know that we are um but we can never uh do too much of that I don't think yeah and there's also you know conversations around uh benevolent adult experiences
and sort of you know you know you may have had adverse childhood experiences but as an adult you know what are those benevolent experiences that can help to you know build up your resilience in your wellbeing so um you know as we look at
our asset mapping in our community Through the Coalition you know we um you know a large focus is on youth because you're looking at that Upstream prevention but you know when you look at prevention you really have to look across the age span so um you know
talking about those benevolent adult experiences is important too yeah so thank you that could prevent benevolent adult experiences could prevent adverse childhood experiences and you know the we can have a positive Circle instead of always a negative spiral but we can
spiral up is that a thing I'll also make a pitch for our prevention Coalition which I don't want to take Allison's um invitation away from her I know it's something she's going to integrate a little bit later into her director's report but we have board members participating in so many groups and
committees and one of the groups that we are hoping to get representation on is our prevention Coalition which meets every month and Dives deeper into the topic of things like adverse childhood experiences or benevolent childhood or adult experiences and tries to really
work through what some um next steps would be and it's across sectors we have representation from Faith communities churches or churches schools um nonprofits um and so we're hoping that we wind up with a board representative
who can continue to report back to this board on what it is that's happening in the realm of vention so Allison will talk a little bit more about that with her report but just wanted to throw a pitch out there for the fact that this work continues and that we're not doing it alone so thank
you all right thank you thank you have a great day thank you all thank you and um that does move us to our director's report here um includes staff updates and agency updates all right
good morning good morning since our last meeting we have brought on one new staff within the department Sarah eisenreich started as our mental health coordinated crisis response worker uh Sarah will be on the agenda next month for an
introduction so you all will get an opportunity to meet her a little learn a little bit more about her background uh she is deep into the onboarding process getting set up with our department-wide trainings and also uh learning our new
electronic medical record that we have invested in for crisis response and substance use disorder treatment services so very glad to have Sarah on board and to have someone in that position as we're continuing to move forward with formal delivery of those
Services through a DHS Grant contract also in Staffing updates we conducted our second round of interviews for the adult and Homeland community Based Services Supervisor following Martina Johnson's resignation and
transition to the Department of Human Services and hope to have a hiring decision uh either before our uh April Public Health and Human Services board meeting or at one of our regular board meetings in the weeks ahead we conducted Children's Mental
Health case manager interviews last week and are expecting to make an offer this week and the only other vacancy right now is within Children and Family Services we had to repost a case manager position after that uh offer was
extended and then declined so we are reconnecting with candidates for interviews we do have a few new candidates to consider for that position as well so starting to see a little shift in the volume of applications coming in which is is
positive as always I've included an organizational chart in the agenda materials to reflect those changes since our last meeting any questions on staff updates before I move into agency report okay I would like to start by
acknowledging that March is National Social Work month and would like to read for you all a proclamation from the National Association of Social Workers I'm going to skip through the wear asses as it's very formal I'll read
the first one and then I'll eliminate the rest hopefully not too awkwardly uh so again this is from the National Association of Social Workers whereas people have entered the social work profession for Generations because they genuinely care about helping improve the
welfare of people families communities and our nation this year's Social Work month theme is social work compassion and action and embodies the fact that social workers go through years of Education and Training so they have the skills and expertise to transform their
care for others into action that brings positive results the social work profession has worked for generations to improve living conditions in our nation with social workers successfully pushing for Social Security a 40-hour work week Medicare and minimum wage social workers
have helped this nation live up to its values by successfully advocating for equal rights for all people no matter their race sexual identity gender gender expression culture or religion social workers follow a code of ethics which sets as the primary mission of the
social work profession the enhancement of human well-being and meeting the basic human needs of all people with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of those who are vulnerable oppressed and living in poverty the social work profession is one of the fastest growing professions in the
United States with more than 800,000 people expected to be employed as social workers by 2033 social workers in all parts of our societies including schools Social Services agencies veteran centers and government are helping people family and
communi secure services and policies that they need to thrive social workers are at the Forefront of pressing issues our nation is addressing including increased needs for mental health care especially for children and Adolescence and substance use disorder treatment and E increased
economic and political division social workers are one of the largest groups of mental health care providers in the United States and are pressing for a social work Interstate licensing compact that will improve Mental Health Care delivery in our
nation social workers help protect millions of children from abuse and neglect provide services and support which help strengthen families that are under stress and help create new families through adoption research proves that the presidence the presence of social
workers in schools hospitals and assisted living facilities improve education and health outcomes and quality of life for students patients and residents social workers continue to stand ready to assist our nation in overcoming present and future challenges
including ending gun violence improving health care and mental health care for all and urging lawmakers to adopt immigration reforms I want to take a moment to recognize the social work professionals within our organization who show up
every day every month to do this tremendously challenging but meaningful work also to acknowledge that we aren't alone in delivering Social Services in this community we rely on a network of local and Regional social service providers including at our schools
hospitals tribal Human Services and state operated facilities as well well it seems appropriate we do a round of applause all [Music] right so thank you for let me take a moment to read that and just acknowledge
the the diverse range of services provided by social workers both in our community and in our nation thank you uh in terms of work going on in the department we are conducting some social media outreach on Medicaid and potential
cuts to Medicaid services how that would impact the Cook County Community locally based on the number of individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid services um Andrea tofy our Public Health educator
who is working specifically in emergency preparedness Infectious Disease Control and healthy housing programs will be representing the department at the lpha or local Public Health Association Department today at the capital later this week so excited to hear more about
her experience engaging with lawmakers down at the state capital our Statewide Health Improvement coordinator Christina Matson attended a Regional food Forum within the last month to do some networking with other entities in the region who are working
on food access work May is coming up which is a busy season for Christina and her work in terms of the safe routes to school and bike safety work that she leads with other Community Partners and she's also participating in
a regional lactation Summit in May so just a snapshot at the diverse range of of UH responsibilities within Christina's scope of work leaders from our department are participating in the visit with Senator house child later
this week so again looking forward to do some advocacy around the areas that are identified within our community health Improvement plan as well as some of the legislative priorities laid out by the Association of Minnesota counties local Public Health Association and Minnesota
Association of County Social Services administrators I want to give you all heads up that looking ahead to the April meeting I will be out of the office and we'll have to miss our meeting so I'm in conversation with our leadership team as well as chair Mills about planning for a
more condensed board meeting in April my plan at this point is to forego any staff presentation and I I don't foresee that we'll have any items for board action that will be pressing in April but if so I will work with Rowan to present those at a regular board meeting and I will L
of a director's report submit a written report that will cover any staff and Department updates so feel free to reach out to me if you have any concerns or feedback about that plan for our April meeting uh lastly as Grace indicated if you're feeling really energized and
excited about prevention work we are seeking a commissioner representative for our local prevention Coalition and I don't know how you'd like to approach that to your Mills if you'd like to have a discussion now take action or if you would prefer to have
some time to consider reach out to me or another member of the public health Team our coalitions are open so you'd certainly be able to attend um barring any you know group too many Commissioners attending the open meeting
law violation thank you that was escaping me for a moment if maybe one or two of you were interested and wanted to attend the coalition to get a sense of what they're doing that would be an option as well they do meet this afternoon and monthly on the same date as the Public Health and Human Services
board meeting that meeting is held at Cook County higher education but we also have hybrid Arrangement available if you prefer to attend virtually what time is that at uh let me pull up my calendar I see movement over here it's
from 1: to 2:30 so it conflicts with the Personnel committee which would be an issue for those Commissioners representing on that committee I saw movement over here is we're both on the Personnel committee so please thank you
can you give and maybe it's just me that doesn't have a clear understanding of the role and responsibility as far as our involvement uh so if we have an overview of that uh that would be beneficial and again it might just be me that is not
aware of the nature of that Coalition thank you for your question commissioner gamble I would happily send out the bylaws meeting Charter to the group so that you have a sense of the mission of this and I think it might be beneficial if if we had that and then looked at
schedules and Alignment prior to making a decision today absolutely absolutely and then as with any other commissioner appointee to a committee one of those primary functions would be bringing those updates back to this board to be able to share with the other Commissioners and the community your
perspective on the work that's happening within that Coalition and probably add it to our committee report there but that would be yeah that'd be great to get that info and um and and then we can discuss at our next meeting I'll follow up with that after our meeting thank you very much absolutely oh yeah we could do
that for April there you go while you're not here we can make that decision I trust you all to make a sound decision around commissioner representative so yes but I will follow up with the the charter and a summary of the work of the
meeting I believe um that that the prevention Coalition is um is on ey Compass along with the other committees and coalitions we're working to move all of our great all of the groups that we convene or lead as a
department onto I Compass to really increase that public awareness and transparency around our work so I can point to that and then I see I have a message coming through from Grace Andrea has also indicated that she
would give a one-on-one Orient ation to the commissioner who attends regarding the prevention Coalition so you'd have the opportunity to meet with Andrea in advance to learn more yeah get caught up great thank you and thank you Andrea yeah thank you and thank you for
the ask too right I think that's it's really important to have that um to to identify the the the group and and just the benefit of having um more representation as well as just the lines
of communication there particip and that's it for Department updates I can just give a brief overview before we move to item five items for board action on the grant agreement with the Department of Employment and economic
development so this grant contract item 5A we're seeking that the Public Health and Human Services Board approve and execute the grant contract with the Department of Employment and E economic development for childcare Economic Development work within Cook County this
is our third year of receiving Grant funds from the state I expect that commissioner storle will have some updates to share from the recent Child Care Coalition so don't want to go too deeply into that um I will also mention that Nancy was on the radio recently
Nancy ding our children and family services supervisor who is still carrying the bulk of the workload around our community child care initiatives uh recently recorded an interview with wtip that's published on their website it provides a great overview of where we're
at three years into this pilot project of uh providing essential supports to our child care community and providers to help uh address the Gap in available slots for families so that they can
work any um questions around this uh request if not I'd entertain a motion here Mr chair please i' like to make a motion to request that the PHH HS board execute the grant contract with deed for
the child care Economic Development thank you commissioner svin we have a motion is their support I'll support thank you commissioner white we have a motion and support further discussion hearing or seeing none all those in favor I I
opposed motion passes unanimously thank you very good well that moves us on to our committee reports um start with the active living steering committee commissioner white okay I
notes uh active living steering committee I missed that okay because there some conflict with I'm sorry no no problem at all um anything from aeoa no okay and
then aha yes um they are now passed uh signing the signing the contract to have the building so they've got that ironed out so they have a
secure place to conduct the services for uh emergency mental health for for kids so that's been done and then they also um the other thing oh no that was the other place
um that was the big thing okay that was really the big thing and was primarily zoom and the uh that's it that's not a very good one but there was not a lot of new things that happened yeah well having the the
building is pretty key right pretty key lots of hours went into that yeah oh yeah well I think it even started way before me yeah that's yeah it's it's familiar to me so I'm glad that is ironed out um um Arc Arrowhead Regional Corrections
commissioner Gamul that's coming up this week thank you um oh please did we talk about what we did at the last one um I know but I will say that we we toured um the meat processing
Place good food that's all I've got to say that was something different than my previous um service on that that committee that we're always talking about pigs and uh so uh was impressed with the leadership the
gentleman that's a head butcher there and he came from Grand Rapids Minnesota and he said that he was uh taking a job at uh nerk and he was going to teach inmates how to use knives
so that was his exact quote but yeah well well-run facility and it it gives an option for the um uh public to be able to access you know meat products and they do a lot of processing for Farmers so I I can tell
you in my experience working with nerk that the the legislature is has always been impressed with the operation there and uh the farm nature and creativity that you know goes to encourage and help people to get back
into society and so it's it's a very good program yeah I happen I happen to note too that there are no longer my understanding and things could have changed there are no longer butchering schools in Minnesota um so it's only on
the job training so those skills are particularly I think useful for yeah for um and I just happen to randomly hear on the radio that there is a push we're going to have a butcher butcherman
shortage yeah coming up so yep we got a lot of shortages in a lot of areas and because of the nature of the demograph it it is it's it's true but it's anyway so yeah that that and uh
just the statistical overview that we have and we have a very good uh statistical analysis she does very good work and keeps the board informed so that the information and decisions that are made are made with with good information so great there's been a lot
of transition and in individuals but individuals that I had the privilege of interviewing in my first term that are now on positions of leadership so good people and it's neat to see that those people have moved up in in the organization and yeah well respected so
a lot of value in that continuity too that's excellent um all right Child Care Solutions subcommittee commissioner Starley thank you Mr chair yes we did meet last week um we hadn't met in a while but things are getting moving
along now and just want to remind you what the committee's purposes um for child care to support and grow the workforce in uh Co County and Grand Portage and then to explore ways to make our wage enhancement a program
sustainable for providers and for child care more affordable for families so we just approve the um 385,000 178 um monies that will go toward all of
these programs and more that I just mentioned um an updating on the providers as of February of this year we have 27 providers um we have 149 licensed slots have uh 82 children that are being
served and cooperation station is temporarily closed right now but they're working on getting that going again with the group of people um the future of this right now we agreed is maybe to go out into the
community a little bit more to find out with the um businesses and um lodging Community what are some of the non-traditional hours that their employees have that would affect the
child care and um what is needed there and where are they located and so that's kind of um for me in the West End to do a little more digging into that just to see you know what those businesses uh would need and then also you know um
transportation and geography is Buri you to a lot of families also and I don't know what we could do there but it's something to discuss and and to look into and then with our new apartments and developments um perhaps would there
be some type of child care within the apartment development and we've heard a little talk that that possibly will be in one development so you know as we progress into other ones if that is part of the um developers wishes to be able
to do that I know with you know with uh Birch Grove having the modular homes behind the school that's a perfect setup for um folks to maybe be involved in something there if we can find another room right now we have great success
with um babies up to age three in one room but we'd have to would have to see about that for more involvement you know in the west end but anyway there's always good topics to talk about and fills up our hour and a half really fast yeah thank
you um let's see Community Health Board uh we have not met since our last meeting uh moves on to the local mental health advisory Council um panel okay y
we met um March 11th a week ago and we have a a big well I was reelected to be the chair and um the rce here is I forget who I believe uh
Heidi Heidi will be the the vice chair um which was good and we have talked about there was a regional Behavioral Health needs assessment that took a whole year and the report
is available online it's the Region 3 um there's an executive summary combined summary and it we're in it plus Northern Minnesota and several different communities and talking about what what is available and what we need for mental
health and children and it was really very I think it was about 50 pages so I'm not going to go through it but I think anybody has the desire it's available online and that would that be going to
our site yes so the the full report and executive summary were included in the local mental health advisory council meeting materials which are publicly available on the website meeting portal you could navigate to the local mental health advisory Council and find a copy
of that report if anyone would like a printed or emailed recort report I'm happy to support that as well I think that was our main discussion was it was a big we talked about lot yes I'd like to add to that because Britany um Anderson from Grand
Portage um her suggestion was that Cook County should do their own because she she wondered if there were Native kids that were actually involved in this initiative and um because when
areas can't read my writing urban areas have many needed resources in place to offer them but we here in Cook County are not we don't have the same uh assets available to us and uh from Allison
McIntyre she said the Hub was ided as an asset for mental health services in cook count I wrote that down yeah I thought it was uh noteworthy that that was named
as a particular Community Asset for that cohesion and community building that's so important in supporting resilience and Recovery while some communities have drop-in centers as a part of their Mental Health Service delivery system
that's just not something we have here but the the Hub is a close approximation when to draw people in they have really good popcorn all the town and other good food right but any time of day they have popcorn yeah commissioner G yeah thank
you Mr chair that um that report that's available um that's an assessment that was done locally um has a similar study been done you know regionally or within the state
and the reason I'm bringing it up it it might be helpful especially for the community but I think as decision makers as well if the findings of that study could be um uh discussed as to what we learned from
it and how it compares to see if regionally or you know with within our County how we are comparable and what some of the you know conclusions or assumptions we could make based upon the findings of the study in that comparison
so any any time that we're doing a study as we heard this morning it informs uh the direction we choose to go to address the identified needs and it would be under it'd be helpful to understand it in a context that has some care comparables because there might be some
things that come in a rural community like we have with all of the accessibility to uh things in nature and stuff like that that mitigates some of the issues that you don't get in a in an urban community but I think
understanding those findings and using some comparables and then our plan of action it would be a good discussion it's vice versa though this was the regional study this is the regional and we need the local one or at least Britney was suggesting it question
yes yeah there were no big urban areas I don't think unless maybe Grand Rapids would be the biggest but I think du likely the largest metropolitan area covered in the survey and it was uh the arrowhead Behavioral Health Initiative region so that's the counties and tribal
Nations within the arrowhead of the state of Minnesota and I would say the closest equivalent that we have on a local scale would be our community health needs assessment that Grace mentioned this morning which also identifies mental health and resources for well-being as a primary priority
yeah um to your point commissioner gamble I something that I shared in the meeting that I thought would be really interesting to look back at is the assessment that was conducted in 2017 so when I was brand new in the director role a regional needs assessment study
had been conducted by the University of Wisconsin Superior the same entity that conducted This research and prepared the report so from my perspective I think it'd be really interesting to compare those two and see what a shifted both in terms of resources and in needs over that period of time regionally yeah
thank you thank you yes that's all oh okay thank you uh well I could say one more thing one the very end of the report also commented that individuals can help other people by phone calls or
helping people that you know might need something and just it doesn't have to be done by only professionals but Community um reach out and call some health needs are you know can be done by a lot of people so that's good to keep
and I think we do have that here a lot too yes we do have we do have a strong strong community and strong sense of community uh restorative justice committee commissioner Gamble we meet this week we did the initial
meeting I don't know if we had the review on that but this was our first you know get together the last time we had had met uh so basically was getting to to know each other and and the purpose and when we're at the public um
Public Safety at the AMC legislative session uh restorative justice was the primary focus of our discussion in that and the gentleman that had been the Pres presenter there had been a presenter up here with our restorative justice but
that was before I had been here but um certainly a lot of discussion and how we maybe set up some Regional centers and things to deal with some of the issues that um allow us with the whole concept
of restorative justice to not make it uh through the judicial system as as far as penalizing or through the typical Court approach but trying to restore through a consolatory approach and
um uh so that that was uh it certainly is is a good concept and a lot of discussion that just says how how do we do this and and the results that we can measure when we see the people that are the uh perpetrators and
those that are the victims come together and have those discussions and that's just that's just a healthy thing it's everything's about relationship and so it's very good but we have that meeting this week all right thank
you uh Council on Aging commissioner white we we already did that didn't we yeah David and I were both there we know what's going on oh no uh David had been invited to come to hear hear about what the Council on Aging is and so they gave
them an overview of the where they were few years ago and how they were structured and how they became a very uh strong working board in the some of their uh challenges and uh what they offer they were very appreciative of his
attendance and um they are still seeking a grant writer so and they're essentially living on the edge at this moment I mean they have plenty of monies but they've got to secure some
funding to continue go to go forward they their reveres their reserves are all good but not you can't live on your reserves forever you have to have money coming in as we know so um they're going
forward with the fundraisers and they have a great many donations every month from citizens so it's a good group and now and they are a real asset and they still do have good
popcorn and uh we're hoping to get them on the committee the whole um agenda um in the in the not too distant future here and um the number that stuck out uh to me was they need I think $100,000 by August for operations I was like oh boy
that's a big lift um but they have done it before and they are doing like you said a lot of fundraising and and looking for the the the grants that are out there but but it is very challenging a working board is very admirable not
always the most sustainable um and especially when you're talking grant writing that's that's uh that's that's little that's next level challenge there so um but we'll we'll discuss more I
guess hopefully April's Comm the whole um emergency preparedness committee commissioner Sol thank you commissioner um so as um we think about emergency preparedness one of the
concerns that we have CommunityWide is as our fire season approaches and um we have um questions about um US Forest Service personnel and their availability um there are lots of
emails and phone calls that are coming forward about concerns how are we going to manage a potential fire this spring so I just want to acknowledge that we've received a lot of inquiries and that we are going to address those and I imagine um we'll be going around the county
doing a lot of emergency preparedness events um again this year um important to note that um Senator hosch child and representative scraba will be here this uh Friday and one of the things from an emergency preparedness standpoint um
that will be shared and I believe believe um administrator Watkins and also um our director of Emergency Management Mike Keyport will be talking about the impact of federal funding to Emergency
Management and also um the need for some small weather radar unit uh somewhere here in Cook County but um they will be talking to our representatives and Senator about that and um there has been
a uh Senate bill that has been introduced to address part of this um so we will keep our eye on that and keep our community informed thank you uh healthc care planning committee
commissioner story we have not met okay and N anything anything right into that yes well they had their big conference out in Washington DC I chose not to go this year because of things that are happening out there felt I could be part
of the resolutions and uh continue with my zooming and um but just a a brief little update on the topics of the uh conversation and workshops that they had one was on uh mental health and well-being from crisis to
Solutions um protect funding for core local public health and preventative programs County role in food systems and then dealing with Federal Regulations on mandates
funding um constraints and then administrative burdens with all of these regulations so there's always you know the Forefront sentence with all of us is looking forward with a partnership between the federal and the
county um but as a result of our discussing all of this over the year than what happened with um the federal government um hinting that there might be some cutbacks with uh Medica Aid we
sent a letter I'll just briefly talk about the letter it's a bipartisan membership from organizations all across um the United States with Governors State legislators cities and counties were committed to working collaboratively to strengthen the
Medicaid Program so that states and localities can continue to meet the needs of the resident effectively we write to express our proposed over our proposed changes possibly to Medicaid financing and
requirements that would significantly impact the state and local budgets Health Care infrastructure and millions of Americans who rely on this program it's a federal state local and partnership we feel that the policy
changes that mandate specifically eligibility requirements and changes in physical makeup of the program threatens the Medicaid Effectiveness and reduces the state flexibility in program design some
changes have costly implications leading to significant coverage losses for beneficiaries an increased medical debt and unclear long-term savings the Congressional budget office estimates
that half of those losing Medicaid coverage under such changes the folks would become uninsured and leading to higher debt so we look forward to continuing our work together as intergovernmental p
u Partners to enhance the Medicaid Program and ensure that states and localities can effectively serve our residents that's the letter we sent so we'll see how that's
going fingers crossed yeah thank you thank you uh Northeast Minnesota office of job training commissioner Campbell the first meeting that I would have been able to attend happened during
our legislative session so my first opportunity to re-engage with this uh organization will be Thursday okay um let's see Northshore collaborative we have not yet met um uh PHS advisory Council Frank thank
you um at our last meeting earlier this month Allison gave us a briefing on the impact of Medicaid to the county and it was substantial uh one out of four County residents are receiving Medicaid
U Medicaid assistance a total of 7 million for the county um over $1,200 per capita over the entire over the entire County and in Minnesota Medicaid's the single biggest payer of health care costs even bigger than Medicare which was a surprise to
me therefore changes in Medicare Medicaid excuse me substantial impact and we don't know what it is yet and that's why Allison is keeping such a close eye on this um we also discussed a proposed amendment of bylaws uh eliminating a one-year
requirement for vice chairman we're going to take that up at our next meeting um and in an association with that we're planning a recruiting drive to Broad broaden advisory Council membership and participation bylaws allow between six
and 25 members currently there's about 12 members half of which are provider members the B laws also provide for the fact that one-third of the members of The Advisory Council shall be representatives of those persons
receiving Services provided by the Public Health and Human Services Board I believe there are like zero of those at this point um in addition they must include representatives of private providers if such providers exist in the
county I don't think there are any Physicians but I know that there are a lot of Allied Health Professionals in the county and that's one of my suggestions uh as we're doing our our pre- meeting brainstorming um is to uh
uh is is to Target uh the Allied Health representatives for membership on the advisory Council um there's also question of discussion far as the budget goes about why mental health placement expenditures at State Opera facilities are so variable um
$40,000 in 2022 to to over $480,000 the very next year 2023 uh which makes it extremely difficult to budget for um and that of course is because we're dealing with very small
numbers but high impact for each additional person served and somewhat unpredictable um and finally the public health fund sub funding um Public Health fund subcommittee will be receiving reports
from grantees from last year's Grant Cycles coming up in April and I'll be happy to report on that next meeting thank you um let's see food access Council um I think I maybe already reported on this we had a small kind of working group um
going over Mission Vision um and and and what the what the group is um hoping to to be there for um and uh I guess I'll just keep keep reporting as information comes
um but basically to provide um affordable healthy food for our community is is the long and short there and and this council is hoping to network the players that can enable
that um last thing is the good of the order anything um Allison please something I didn't mention in my report that I'd like you all to be aware of is that we were invited to participate in a healthc care assessment action planning
process with Northshore health and sat Toth Mountain clinic so we have staff that are a part of two different working groups that are tasked with improving Healthcare access communication coordination across Health and Social Services agencies within our our County
those prior priority areas are streamlining care coordination and documentation processes and developing a communication plan regarding health both resources we'll look forward to sharing more about that as it unfolds only other thing I'd add is it's
my daughter's birthday today hey happy birthday do she like cake or pie or ice cream I think she likes it all oh okay just like her dad yeah uh but otherwise we're we've come to the end we we are adjourned here have a great
where's where's food that we bring suppos to go oh to drive oh in um Jan's the