DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board
245 West Exchange Street, Sycamore, Illinois 60178

March 16, 2009

                                Approved

Board Members Present:  Charles G. Rose, Cynthia Luxton, Eileen Dubin, Bob Krogman,

                                             Donna Schoenfeld, Doug Fraley, Thomas Kirts                        

Board Members -Excused Absence: John Rogalin

Board Members - Absent:  None

Other Persons Present:  Barry Schrader

Office Staff Present:  Kathy Ostdick                                                                          

1.  CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order by the President, Mr. Rose, at 7:09 p.m.

2.  AGENDA

Ms. Schoenfeld moved to approve the agenda; seconded by Dr. Kirts.  The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.

3.  INTRODUCTIONS

There were no introductions at this time.

4.  MINUTES 

Mr. Krogman moved to approve the minutes of the February 2009 Board meeting; seconded by Ms. Schoenfeld. The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.

5.  COMMUNITY INPUT

Barry Schrader gave a short speech.  He wrote a letter to the editor on Sunday and had 15 responses on-line in the first 3 hours and most seemed positive.  The Chronicle wrote an opposition response and there were 12 responses to that article that were negative.  Barry received a phone call from a woman who took her adult son to the Hospital emergency room with a schizophrenic episode late last night and the hospital made him wait for 3 hours, said he was stable and sent him home.  At noon the woman called Barry to say that her son was again agitated and what should she do?  Barry told her to call an ambulance and take him back to the emergency room.  She thought Barry could help her.  Barry said he needs to tell people to call 911 and go back to the ER.  Barry said the woman said that there was only a doctor on the floor but no psychiatrist examined her son. Barry is going to help the woman file a complaint with JCAHO regarding this event.

6.  CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ms. Ostdick pointed out a new ACMHAI newsletter.  Also, VAC is having an annual volunteer celebration on April 16th and the Board is invited. 

7.  FINANCE REPORTS

Mr. Fraley moved to approve the March 2009 agency claims in the amount of $159,267.94; seconded by Mr. Krogman.  The motion passed unanimously on a roll call vote.

Mr. Fraley moved to approve the March 2009 office claims in the amount of $556.34; seconded by Dr. Kirts.  The motion passed unanimously on a roll call vote.

8.  BOARD MEMBER ISSUES

There were no Board Member issues this month.

9.  OFFICE REPORT

Ms. Ostdick reported that the County is going to have an Open House for our new building on 5/12/09 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.  A representative from each office will be meeting in April for a planning session and Ms. Ostdick will inform the Board of that plan at that time.

Ms. Ostdick said she had been wondering when and how much we will be paying for utilities, IT support, phone, cleaning, etc., in our new office.  We have been aware that we would be paying our share of these invoices.  On Friday 3/6/09, Ms. Ostdick asked Karen Grush (Health Dept Administrator in charge of Home Care) if she had heard when and how much this expense would be.  She then showed Ms. Ostdick a memo from 7/23/09 from Gary Hanson to the CMHB, ROE, the Vets, and Home Care, stating what everyone’s share would be and that our share would be approx $18,000 per year and that we should add an additional line item for that expense.  The Executive Director did not incorporate this into the budget.  The budget was submitted to the Board and approved on 7/21/08.   It was supposed to be given to the Finance Dept by 8/1/08.  Even though the time frame was short, and the Board had already approved it, the Executive Director should have changed the budget.

There are 3 line items totaling $13,200 that should have been eliminated; Sycamore rent, telephone and internet for Sycamore.  So, we will only be $4,800 short.  There is plenty of money in that category, so there is nothing that we need to do now.  For the 2010 budget we will have to adjust those line items. 

Also, Ms. Ostdick received an email from Gary Hanson as a heads-up that finances for 2010 will be significantly tighter due to the economy and pension/IMRF issues.   We are not now aware of what the County is doing to look at this issue.  Ms. Dubin was asked if she had any more information.  She said she did not.  Ms. Ostdick will call Gary Hanson to ask what the next step will be.

The Board will decide at a later date if they will give the agencies a heads-up for GY2011 when the GY2010 contracts are sent.

10.  COMMITTEE REPORTS

Executive Committee: 

The Executive Committee discussed the Board office policy for vacation and time off.  The policy will be discussed further at future meetings.

Also the Bylaw regarding the term length of officers was discussed.  Ms. Luxton has made a proposal that will be discussed in New Business.

Finance Committee: 

The Finance Committee talked about a new APN that the Gordon Center is going to hire.  She has not taken her Certification yet and Mr. Flora was wondering what Grant dollars to use.  The Board decided that it was fine to use the APN Grant money.

Also, in February, the Gordon Center had requested that money be shifted from some purchase of service programs to others.  The Board returned this request back to the Finance Committee.  The Finance Committee had denied all requests and Mr. Rose called Mr. Flora to convey that information.

The Committee also discussed the GY10 allocations, which we will discuss in New Business.  The Committee also is requesting that the Youth Service Bureau and Safe Passage attend the April Board meeting for further clarification of new programs.  The Drug Court request is appropriate and will not need additional information.  The Gordon Center request for psychiatry funding is being denied until further information can be received.

Dr. Kirts brought up the concern that appropriate personnel are not being hired in the psychiatry area at the Gordon Center.  Ms. Luxton said that she believes the real problem in the community is psychiatry.  We are not bringing in the level of people to sustain the services.  Mr. Rose felt that if anything is to be learned further from the Gordon Center, that the CMHB should be involved.  Dr. Kirts would like to know what professionals in the psychiatry field with 5, 10 or 15 years experience are getting paid and how that relates to the Gordon Center pay scale for the same positions.  Mr. Fraley feels that one problem is that there is no coordinated effort to solve the problem.

The possibility of a task force to look at the psychiatry issue was discussed.  Mr. Rose is suggesting that the hospital, CMHB, the Gordon Center and all psychiatrists be involved.  Dr. Kirts is still interested in seeing dollar figures of other professional’s salaries and how they compare with what the Gordon Center is offering to potential employees.  Mr. Rose will follow-up.

Personnel and Nominations Committee: 

The Personnel and Nominations Committee did not meet in March.

11.  OLD BUSINESS

Behavioral Healthcare Unit Closing forum:  Mr. Rose felt that we had a great turn-out and that we should be proud of that fact.  Ms. Ostdick typed up the comments, included individual letters dropped off to the office, Mr. Rose drafted a letter to the Planning Board, and everything was mailed on Friday.

Ms. Luxton felt the forum went very well and was informative for the Mental Health Board and for everyone else.  Where do we go from here, if anywhere?  She also still feels that psychiatry is the issue and is concerned that there isn’t a collaboration going on and that appropriate communication is not there.

Mr. Rose feels that it is tough to lead a task force if we take a position one way or the other.  His feeling is that if we are to take a leadership role, we need to be neutral.

Ms. Luxton said she recalled the Hospital saying at the forum that it was important to have in place the appropriate services for patients being transferred out of the community and when they returned to the community, to assure a continuity of care.  She is also concerned that admitting patients on the med-surge floor may not be the best alternative.  The staff is not prepared or qualified to handle those types of patients.

Mr. Fraley asked if the hospital has a partial hospitalization program.  Dr. Kirts said no and that they haven’t had anything like that for about 10 years.  He also said that they have not looked at that model again that he knows of.  Some places that model does work.

Ms. Luxton said that she keeps coming back to the way the hospital went about closing the unit.  We don’t know if there is a model of care for patients leaving or returning to the community.  Do we sit by or play a role?

Mr. Fraley feels that we should continue as we had last week when we provided a forum for the community.  We should proceed with a meeting between the hospital, Ben Gordon Center, doctors and our Board.

Mr. Rose clarified that when the hospital met with him to inform our Board of the closing, they were not asking for our input, just informing us.  Mr. Rose felt that there wasn’t much we could do to stop the hospital from filing their letter of intent, but that we could facilitate gathering opinions and comments to give the Facilities Planning Board more information.  He also feels that the taskforce should deal with that population with the unit closed.

Ms. Luxton thinks we should ask the hospital what their plan is after the closing.  Mr. Fraley asked if it was feasible for a number of patients with mental illnesses to go into a med-surge floor and be treated effectively?  Dr. Kirts replied that it was complicated.  There is a model that supports this, but he has never studied the concept.  He did know, however, that the places that use this model, do train their nurses quite extensively in this area.  He didn’t think Kishwaukee Hospital was thinking of doing this. 

Mr. Fraley suggested that in terms of clarity, Mr. Rose could meet with the Ben Gordon Center and the Hospital to see if we could facilitate forward movement on this issue.  We have a concern regarding future services and we would like to know what their thinking is.  We do not want to take a stand. 

Ms. Luxton suggested that our Board invite the Hospital and the Gordon Center to our meeting to answer questions that we still have.

12.  NEW BUSINESS

GY10 allocations: The proposed allocations are in two sections, line item 8201 and 8205.  Most of the programs are requesting to be rolled over.  There were several new programs.  The Gordon Center APN program and the 3-Position program will need more discussion.  Also Safe Passage’s Medical on-call program needs further information.  Ms. Wiseman, Executive Director of Safe Passage, will attend our April Board meeting to explain this program.  The Multi-Agency purchase of care programs were discussed.  It has been suggested that dollars be set-aside in a new Multi-Agency program for psychiatry that will be on hold until further information is obtained regarding psychiatry in our county.  Line item 8205 allocations were reviewed.  Mr. Jason Nicol, Executive Director of the DeKalb County Youth Service Bureau, will attend our April Board meeting to discuss his new program request for GY10.

GY10 Allocation Hearing - need and who:  We have already discussed this above.

By-laws:  Ms. Luxton explained that she has felt for a while that the terms for officers have needed to be reviewed.  She is suggesting that the term stay at one year, but that each officer can serve for four years.  Momentum can be lost in dealing with long-term issues when officers are replaced too often.  The Board cannot vote on this until the next Board meeting. 

Another issue that came up in discussing Bylaws is the committee structure.  Ms. Luxton suggested that Personnel issues be re-directed to the Executive Committee.  The Finance Committee will remain the same.  The possibility of a new committee to monitor Outcomes, etc., after our Community Assessment is finalized was brought up.  The Executive Committee will discuss this further.

13.  NEXT BOARD MEETING:  4/20/09

14.  CLOSED SESSION

Ms. Luxton moved to go into Closed Session; seconded by Mr. Rose.  The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.

Ms. Dubin moved to return to Open Session; seconded by Dr. Kirts.  The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.

Mr. Fraley moved to give Kathy Ostdick a 2% merit increase, which along with the 2% COLA received in December 2008 amounts to 4%, retroactive to her anniversary date; seconded by Dr. Kirts.  The motion passed unanimously on a roll call vote.

15.  ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:42 p.m. by consensus.

Respectfully submitted,

 _________________________________

Charles G. Rose, President                                                       Kathy Ostdick, Recording Secretary

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