Sandhills Center for MH, DD & SAS
Consumer and Family Advisory Committee
March 20, 2007
Present: Tony Wilcox Stephen Cohen Lori Richardson
Betty Pankey Ronald W. Unger Carol DeBerry
Harvey Sturdivant Debra Collins Nellie Daniels
Yolanda Nealy Al Oldham Avis Hall
Elaine Hayes Mike Markoff Linda Sparkman
Excused Absence: Michael McNeill, Ron Huber, Irma Robledo, Beth Graves, Marianne Kernan
Absent: Mike Ayers, LeAnn Henkel
Guest: Michael Watson, CEO Sandhills Center LME, Cliff Anderson, State PSR and Southeast Director of MHA, Duane Unger, Michael Bramwell, Mental Health Coordinator
1. Call to Order
Tony Wilcox called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
2. Review of Minutes
Minutes were reviewed. There were corrections made to the minutes concerning Mr. Carl Britton-Watkins with changing his name to show the hyphen and replacing his position with SCFAC from “representative” to “chairperson”. Also there were corrections to the report given by Michael Bramwell in the opening “Medicaid Appeals Process” should read as “Non-Medicaid Appeals Process”. Another change added was Michael reviewed the memo regarding the focused system review on community support services to determine if there were concerns over utilization of services. Stephen Cohen made a motion to accept the minutes with changes and Ron Unger seconded the motion.
3. LBP Update “Local Business Plan”-Michael Watson
Michael Watson, CEO Sandhills Center LME stated he was commissioned to introduce the business plan. Mr. Watson stated his Local Business Plan is due March 31st. Mr. Watson thanked CFAC for their participation in the forums and returning with helpful feedback. The Local Business Plan reflects the needs of critical stakeholders including local school systems, Departments of Social Services, Health Departments, Juvenile Justice, and law enforcement. Mr. Watson stated that he had presented the Local Business Plan to Lee and Moore County Commissioners and both counties approved of the Business Plan. The Local Business Plan is designed to guide Sandhills over the next three years (2007-2010). Mr. Watson stated that Sandhills has made a strong commitment of being an effective LME. He said that Sandhills would work to develop a stable and quality network. Mr. Watson stated that there were many challenges to implement the Local Business Plan including MIS, Service Authorizations, Service Management and Provider Monitoring. Mr. Watson also mentioned the pending closure of Dorthea Dix and the impact it will have on the consumers having to seek hospital beds further away. The main concern is what system issues closely impact the safety and welfare of the consumers. Sandhills has identified these issues and has addressed them in the Local Business Plan. The goals that will be implemented for the Local Business Plan include:
§ Community and Consumer Education-Increasing the community understanding of what the current community service functions are. Providing community education in areas of service access and crisis services. Providing assistance to family support groups and community advocacy organizations to enhance consumer and family understanding of the changing service systems.
§ Customer Service and Consumer Affairs-Developing and distributing information on consumer rights and complaint procedures, support the development of new Family Support Group in Lee and Harnett Counties, working with CFAC to develop community education outreach efforts, expand efforts at generating consumer satisfaction data with ongoing surveys, mystery shopper activities, public forums, and focus groups, promoting the development of consumer driven activities and services, and assisting consumers, families and other community stakeholders on how the system works and how to obtain information and services in the changing service system.
§ Community Access-Mr. Watson stated that Sandhills maintains 8-county community Access Points. These points provide services for day emergencies, walk-in assessments, nursing services, consumer screening and referrals and provision of psychiatric services for both children and adults. Mr. Watson also stated that the Business Plan will reflects Sandhills commitment to the continued support of these critical services.
§ Crisis Services-Sandhills Crisis Plan was developed along with the New Local Business Plan. Some of the strategies of the Crisis Plan is to expand funding allocation to consumer support, expand funding for existing inpatient psychiatric contracts with hospitals (First Health-Moore, Sandhills Regional, and Moses Cone), increase the community psychiatric inpatient capacity with the initiation of new contracts with High Point Regional and Stanly Regional Hospital, the initiation of contracts for child mental health psychiatric inpatient services at Moses cone and Holly Hill as opposed to children going to Dix.
§ Service Management-Specific Service Management strategies are to encourage the development and expansion of such “best practice” service alternatives such as Supported Employment, ACTT and Community Support, Therapy and Day Treatment for children and adolescents, continuation of Center’s efforts to expand employment and housing opportunities for consumers, expansion of the Center’s Hospital Liaison capacity to ensure effective tracking and care management for consumers, focus of Care Management resources on the identification and treatment of high cost/high risk consumers, the continued refinement of the Center’s State Funded Consumer Benefit Plan, payment and tracking of State funded services and the review of Stated funded allocation to ensure that the dollars are focused on the consumers with the most need.
§ Quality Management-Quality Management strategies include the carrying out of annual program reviews of all providers, in the Sandhills Area, the monitoring of the progress in achieving national accreditation for services delivered, work to develop “Provider Report Cards” based on results of monitoring and performance review data, implementing training and technical assistance efforts.
§ Provider Relations- Provider Relations is a critical development in the new LBP. Some strategies in this area include sponsoring of provider training, implementation of provider monitoring and training efforts, establishing additional methods to enhance LME/ provider communication, encourage the providers to implement “best practices” and continued efforts to refine Sandhills website and database resources.
Mr. Watson stated that the goal of Sandhills for the next three years is to focus on managing the system in a more comprehensive and effective manner by providing the community with education, developing crisis services with more capacity, maintaining community access to services in every county for consumers, provider monitoring and utilizing best practices. Mr. Watson reiterated his appreciation of CFAC providing independent feedback from the eight forums held in the Sandhills Center region. Mr. Watson concluded his presentation with questions and answers. Motion was made by Ron Unger seconded by Carol DeBerry to accept the Sandhills Center Local Business Plan as written. Motion carried. Also approved was the “Request for application for Homeless Mental Health Housing Initiative” that was presented to CFAC during the February meeting.
4. Peer Support-Cliff Anderson State PSR and Southeast Director of MHA
Mr. Cliff Anderson of MHA introduced himself to the CFAC. Mr. Anderson works 7 out of our 8 counties. Mr. Anderson presented and opportunity that would be beneficial for the CFAC members as Peer Specialist. There will be part-time paid positions available 20 hours a week. Peer Specialist will be based at each of the MHA’s 7 PSR programs (Wadesboro, Rockingham, Pinebluff, Buies Creek, Sanford, Asheboro and Troy). Some of the responsibilities of these Peer Specialists will be outreach to adults with mental illness, facilitate support groups and assist with evening consumer drop in programs. Mr. Anderson also encouraged the CFAC members to spread the word about the WRAP (Wellness, Recovery, Action, Plan) training. Mr. Anderson also encouraged the members to sign up and attend the WRAP trainings located in Wadesboro, Buies Creek, Asheboro, Sanford, Troy, Pinebluff, and Rockingham. The following CFAC members have been registered at their respective locations and plan to attend the WRAP training classes:
03-28-07 -Rockingham - Betty Pankey
03-30-07-Wadesboro - Carol DeBerry, Lori Richardson
04-04-07 - Troy - Linda Sparkman, Harvey Sturdivant
04-05-07 - Sanford - Stephen Cohen, Ron Unger
Members who will be interviewed for Peer Specialist positions were Lori Richardson and Betty Pankey.
5. Mental Health Coordinator-Michael Bramwell
Mr. Bramwell gave a brief update from the state. He stated that Sandhills LME is doing exactly what the State is asking LMEs to do. Priority for the state was to stabilize the community, crisis services, standardization across the system and employment and housing for consumers. The second update that Mr. Bramwell gave was about the focus system review and audit. The State was unsure of how it’s going to affect the system. The third update was the State’s concern of the psychiatric hospitals. USDOJ has entered into an agreement with the State regarding the condition of the state hospitals and the discharging of consumers. He also gave a 4th update on the Legislative Oversight Committee. Mr. Bramwell stated that there would be more funding available to provide Technical Assistance. The 5th update was given on the CAP MR/DD Waiver. The State has reconsidered and is now stating that the family members can provide up to 217 hours a month for services. Encouraged the CFAC members to view the website to find out more about Evidence Based Practices.
6. Surveys
Mr. Wilcox asked the CFAC members to take some time to fill out the Sandhills Center CFAC Liaison Satisfaction Survey.
7. Committee Reports
Carol DeBerry and Harvey Sturdivant gave reports. Carol gave reports from the Program Planning and Operations meeting at Sandhills and the SCFAC. Harvey gave a report from the Client Rights Committee meeting.
Also there was a motion made by Carol DeBerry that the CFAC members receive the $20 stipend for each CFAC related meeting. All members agreed to this motion and the motion was accepted.
8. Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned. The next Sandhills Center CFAC meeting will be held April 17, 2007.
Respectfully Submitted