Behavioral Health Board - Regular Meeting

I did that. All right, everyone. Thank you for your patience. A few technical difficulties. We are now calling this meeting to order at 12:25. Oh, wow.

Um, welcome to the monthly meeting of the behavioral health board. We are an advisory board to the whole county board of supervisors. We meet in person on the 4th Thursday of the month from 12:15 to 2:15 at 507 F Street in Eureka unless that day is Thanksgiving and then we meet the week week before. This is a public meeting and everyone is invited to attend. Members may participate remotely as well as in person. The minutes and agenda may be found by searching online Humble County Behavioral Health Board. We provide time for public comments early on in the agenda. Public comments need to be limited to three minutes, made in a respectful manner, and pertain to matters related to behavioral health. This meeting is being recorded. If you have any questions, contact myself, Laura Monta, or any of the members of the behavioral health board. And with that, we'll go to roll call. Sean Ber Dory here

here Montana here here Virginia Bassley Johnson here here price here Joshua He's late. He's going to be late, but he'll be We have a point. Excellent. We will now do introduction of staff and guests, starting with you, sir. And I'm Saul Lopez, Nations finance director. Welcome.

Welcome. Um, yes, Dana, go ahead. I'm Dana Hulcom. Happy to be here. Awesome. Let's go to that back row. Sharon Wolf, DHHS legislative analyst stars legislative and policy. Laurel Johnson and the enlist Scott in Chan Rice guest here

Jess Weaver pronoun she her and I'm currently a guest welcome you Emmy Fostler Rogers behavioral health. All right. And now we'll go on to Zoom starting with Jeremy Wilson and then Poporn.

Jeremy, are you there? Let's try Jack. Jack, are you there? I'm here. Uh, nice to see everybody. Uh, my name is Jack Brazil. I am a deputy director for behavioral health. And I'll throw it over to Oliver. Hey, good afternoon everybody. I'm Oliver Gonzalez and I'm a program manager for behavioral health. I oversee the behavioral health services act and I'm also our ethnic services manager. And I see that Jeremy unmuted himself. So, can I popcorn to you, Jeremy?

Yeah, sorry, I was having having difficulties unmuting. I'm Jeremy Nelson. I'm the deputy branch director for children's behavioral health and I can pass it over to Rosemary. Uh hello Rosemary Schulz. She her ACTC youth organizer and help facilitate the youth advocacy board and I'll pass to Jess.

Hi, I'm Jess. I'm with Tri County Independent Living and I'm the systems change advocate for them. All right. Thank you everyone for being here. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? With seeing none, we'll continue on to public comments. Is there anyone in the room who has a public comment? Um online public comment. Going once, going twice. All right. Moving on to action items. Uh we need the approval of the minutes from the 102325 meetings.

So move second. Thank you, Bob and Kelly. Uh the second item is approval of membership application for Jess Weaver to forward onto the board of soups. And um Jess, I know that you introduced yourself previously, but if you would just again.

Hi guys. Uh my name is Jess Weber. I'm currently studying for my social work as at College of the Redwoods and I work with our HTT organization and I'm really passionate about making sure that behavioral health is equitable for everybody because it looks differently for everybody and so I try to speak on behalf of everybody who may not have the privilege that I have to be able to share their voice. Yes. Connect. Oh. So with that, do I have a uh motion? Motion.

Motion. You motion. Is there a second? Danette seconds. All in favor approving the membership of just Weieber. by any um maze any standides. All right, that is passed. Thank you to my support team. Uh if we need to vote on the minutes. All in favor of approving the minutes say I raise your hand. I I opposed. All right. Those both.

And with that moment we've all been waiting for. I'm sad that Vernon's not here. Yes, really wanted this, but it's recorded. So, federal state budget implications and legislations. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. Congratulations. Yes.

Hi, everybody. I'm Nancy Stark. I'm a legislative policy manager for DHHS. Um, happy to be here today to present a little bit about state and federal legislation. See if this slide. I don't know. Joe, I'm gonna have to say next slide. are very important. All right, next slide. Thank you. Um, so the legislative and policy unit, that's me, myself, and Sharon, who's going to share a little bit about state legislation. Uh, we support the mission and vision of Department of Health and Human Services. We largely track state and federal legislation and budgets for their impact on health and human services. Um we track state waiverss. We uh help develop the annual legislative platform for the board of supervisors consideration. And we act as a quick and easy legislative leaison to our local representatives. Next slide. All right. Um we do that largely by working with our state and federal associations. I'm going to go through some of this pretty quickly because I know we got a way to start today. Um, so I just want to say that I will send out the PowerPoint uh later and our contact information is on the last slide. So as I go through quickly, don't worry, there'll be time for questions at the end. And always always feel free to reach out to me, text me, email me, call me. Um, your input is very valuable to Sharon and I as we uh look at state and federal vending legislation. Next slide. Uh so broadly what we look for in legislation is an opportunity to reach our mission which is to reduce poverty and connect people and communities to opportunities health and wellness. Uh obviously we look at funding right more or less shifts in funding uh new mandates without funding and generally

policy changes dealing with uh county health and human services. Next slide. So, I'm going to start at the federal level because this has been uh really the most challenging year that I've experienced for health and human services in the last 20 years. Um, it's we started this year with Doge. I'm sure you're all familiar with that. We lost about $3 million in public health funding that was meant for a building a new public health laboratory and for community seas uh monitoring and reporting. Um, lots of loss of federal staff that impacts us. We've lost our contacts. We've lost data and technical assistance. Uh and obviously the recent government shutdown which impacted Calresh benefits for a lot of people. Next slide. Uh have to have to talk about HR1. It is by far the most impactful bill that we've seen in healthy human services since since 2010 when the patient protection and affordable care act passed. Um so I'm not going to hit every bullet point on these slides, but please feel free to reach out. You've already heard a lot about this in the news, right? Um, broad array of tax provision, significantly increased funding for immigration enforcement. Um, it's going to have a big impact on our local clinics and hospitals. And I'm going to focus on this last bullet point, which is slide. Uh, so for Calresh, let's start with Calresh because a lot of these take effect immediately. Um we've got about 30,000 people in Humble County that are currently enrolled branch. Next slide please. Uh first it expands work requirements for able-bodied dependence with able-bodied adults without dependence or what we commonly call a um first it expands uh work requirements for Calresh

for people up to age 64. That's a big chunk. Um, it eliminates exemptions for people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and former foster youth. Uh, next slide. Um, limits eligibility to US citizens and green card holders. So, historically there's been a nice list of people who are exempt from CalFresh work requirements. Many of those were eliminated in HR1. Next slide, please. I'm sorry. Yeah, you can go back. Can you can you can you repeat the side? I'm sorry.

Yeah. So, there are currently some people in order to qualify for CalFresh benefits are subject to work requirements, but a lot of people are currently exempt from those work requirements. HR1 eliminated those exemptions. So, people will be uh either subject to work requirements or lose uh like the last slide around immigration. uh people will no longer be eligible to apply. Next slide. Uh also in uh impacts the county budget, we will be responsible for a larger share of the administration costs. Uh this will be a well over $1 million hit annually to the health and human services budget bill. Next slide. Uh and we uh lost our CalFresh healthy living program. So, for many years, we've this community has received about $300,000 to do uh nutrition, education in the schools, um prevention, physical activity, safe routes to schools, senior fall prevention. Uh that money was eliminated on October 1st. Um we will no longer have those programs going forward. We can use some of that funding until it runs out. Um but these programs will be eliminated. Next slide. So just bottom line, HR1 as it deals with CalFresh, the CalFresh benefits um will be harder to get and to keep for many people. Fewer people will qualify and benefit levels won't keep up with inflation. Uh next slide. Uh medical. Right now we've got about 56,000 people enrolled in medical in Humble County. For perspective, before the Affordable Care Act or what's commonly known as Obamacare, we had about two 24,000 people. So the ACA

really expanded that option, that opportunity for health coverage in our in our county. Of the 56,000, about 22,000 are considered ACA expansion. that is the the people the population that's enrolled in Medicaid based on income not on age or disability. Next slide. And I and I'm noting that because a lot of these impacted that group. Um so HR1 starting in January of 2027 HR1 limits eligibility to US citizens and green card holders much like the Calresh provisions. uh those 22,000 people who are enrolled based on income, they all need to reertify eligibility every six months instead of once a year. So that's a that's a big impact on people, right? You have to resubmit every six months. It's a big impact obviously on county eligibility too, right? Next slide. Um work requirements. HR1 for the first time medical is going to have work requirements. This will start in January 2027, possibly later. Uh there's a lot of work that needs to be done in HR1. It's a little bit of flexibility in there to make sure that our IT systems and our systems are up and ready to go. Technically, these begin January 2027. Uh it does require that uh in order for that group that's enrolled based on income to continue to qualify, that'll be to uh either work, volunteer, or go to school 80 hours a month or the equivalent of the federal minimum wage times 80 hours. So that's about $580 a month in earnings. And again, this applies to those able-bodied adults that we were talking about ages 19 to 64. Next slide.

uh there will be some people who will be exempt from those work requirements and I've bolded two that particularly for this group um people who are participating in drug or alcohol treatment programs uh people who are linked to SSI right if your medical is linked to your SSI the work requirements don't apply to you though um and foster youth up to age 26 these are folks that uh that will not have to uh prove prove that they've worked 80 hours to to continue to qualify. So there is a good list of exemptions uh that we'll be working with. Next slide. Bottom line, HR1, it's going to increase it takes us it sets us back in our mission to reduce poverty. Right? It's going to increase poverty, increase food insecurity, increase the number of uninsured. It impacts our local hospitals and clinics. Uh and we'll likely increase I got to apologize. You don't invite the legislative manager for a good time. You know, invite the person you invite to the party this year for a good time. Thank you for being quiet about that. Next slide.

Next slide. Thank you.

Um, so what's next on the federal level? Uh, as we've probably all heard in the news, Congress did pass a continuing resolution to continue the funding of the federal government through July 30th. Um the good news is is that they did attach the uh agriculture appropriations bill to that continuing resolution which means that if we are faced with another government shutdown on January 30th, SNAP benefits or CalFresh benefits will not begin today. So that that's one piece of good news. Um and as you've also probably been hearing in the news lately, uh we do have some federal housing funds at risk uh starting in October. And I know that uh we've seen some press about that and uh some conversation at the board of supervisors level has happened to that. Um so now I'd just like to introduce Go ahead. Next slide. I'm going to introduce Sharon Wolf and she's going to talk a little bit about state legislation that passed this year.

Thank you very much. Next slide. So these are laws that were passed in the last session. Well, first of all, they introduced 2,833 bills. Uh, we tracked 284 of those. Um, along the way, there's a number of the bills because the California works in a two-year session. There's a number of the bills that were introduced that didn't really go anywhere this last session, but can come back in January. So, we continue to watch those. Some will come back, some of them won't. Um, and then the board of supervisors submitted over 50 letters to our state and federal representatives in support of our programs. So, they're they're terrific. We can get them to support those positions as needed, which is great. Next slide, please. So, some of the bills, and this is just some highlights of a number of the bills, but SB77 is probably one you've heard about because it really affects the behavioral health board and your ability to use the um tele meetings in this. So, it continues a lot of the flexibilities, but um it's got some weird quirks to it, and it's passed. It's in the law with a promise to come back and clean it up next year. I don't know what that means by the cleanup because it didn't specify these are the the areas that we really need you to clean up. So, we're going off what we know of right now. Um, and just know we're hoping for clarification to come out. It'll implement July 1st and 26. Um, the board of soups will have to be involved to give permission if the behavioral health board wants to utilize these new flexibilities. And we we'll be able to go through some of these nuances later. We created a cheat sheet and provided it to the executive board that they have um and that can be shared with what we know from the language right now. Um with the caveat again that they're coming back to clean up this and I'm not a lawyer. So it's our best

interpretation from the legislation going forward and county council and other groups that we work with are going to put out their information that we'll be utilizing um the AB898 for furs. Um, we're excited for this one, CWDA, because it expands the electrical usage of the FURs program. So, if we have our local program, um, our local folks, they're going to be able to be utilized for more than just the state hotline calls. Um, I guess counties have been asking for this flexibility so they can use it based on what their local needs are. Also, they expanded it to family maintenance. Um, so that's good. family preservation, voluntary and family maintenance. So, um that's a good change. There is a reduction in the budget prefers. Um but they said that it is right sizing the budget prefers and it shouldn't have programmatic impacts. Yes.

Um I'm sorry if I missed this, but what does FERS stand for? I'm sorry, I shouldn't speak in acronyms. Family urgent response system. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me. Um so first which is much more fun to say. Next slide please.

Okay. AB309. Um this one just removes the the um end date already for the syringe and exchange authorities. Just removes it. So takes that out as an issue. That's great. Um AB1037. This is also on opioid response and giving um you know some shity to people that are administering nlloxxone. Um so that's a good one. It eliminates the requirement that they receive any training. Um great yeah that is the intent to expand the legal protection for anyone who's delivering the lock zone in good faith to somebody who is apparent to it.

Next slide please. AB416 um requires behavioral health director to include emergency physicians as a category in the 5150 designation group. So certain professionals that can be designated. So this adds emergency physicians to that group. Um that was something that they had been asking for for quite a while. So everything else that applies for the training in 5150 still applies. that just adds in this group as another eligible group for doing that. SB27 was the big hair on fire kind of bill this year and it did pass. It expands care eligibility to those with bipolar one with psychotic features diagnosis except for psychosis related to current intoxication. That's written in the bills. Include that. Um, it also does a number of other changes to kind of expedite and make a smoother process on the IST provisions into care court. Um, and that is felony incompetent to stand trial, fist and misdemeanor incompetent to stand trial. Missed. So, fist and we love ours for everything. Um, so they're they're trying to expedite that process as well. um also allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to complete the um mental health affidavit for the care petition expanding that group. So we're going to be seeing a lot of information as this rolls out. This goes into effect January 1. What we don't know and what nobody's been able to figure out is what's the impact of that? Is it going to be significant? Is it going to be not so much? Just yesterday there was a care court working group meeting and they had a representative from the department of state hospitals talk. They said that of the state hospital population only about

8.8% has bipolar one or two. They didn't differentiate um and 77% has um schizophrenia with psychotic symptoms. So their input was we don't think it's going to be a huge number that will qualify for this under this expansion. You know, take that with a grain of salt. We really don't know, but that's about the best numbers we've got at the moment to look at. Next slide, please. AB338. This is a full service partnership bill. So, it prioritizes certain populations as just presumptively eligible for the full service partnerships. Um, and so we have a list here of these are the groups that are now presumptively eligible for. Um that's working with our uh medical providers that provide the full service partnership services. Um c the county this is an important one because of the funding for it because there's no additional funding for this. Um so counties are not required to enroll an individual if it's been exceeded their capacity to do so.

This is the one that uh excuse me. Oh no please. Uh this is the one that the commissioner uh brought up at the last meeting and has spoken to the board of students about. So I just wanted to pause and mention that. Um so it's not really an opt in or opt out. It it's more of a um a capacity, you know, how many full service partnership slots we have available. Yeah. Um, just to clarify, is it someone who meets all of these criteria or any of these criteria with serious mental illness and any of these bullet points or is it all of them?

They have to have serious mental illness. Um, but then if they then fit in also to one of these categories, they have a priority presumptively eligible. The others are also eligible. Um, but they don't have the presumption of eligibility automatically. They're they're working to prioritize specific groups for the services. Everybody remains eligible for it, but they're trying to to elevate certain groups into getting the services knowing that the funding is limited is about the best. Next slide, please. Okay. So, this is this is your warning for the next session. And this is right now our hair on fire bill. This one was introduced the last session. It already has passed the first house. So that means it's already been voted on in one chamber, been approved, gone to the next house. So it's already halfway through the process and there it sits. It's hanging out there. So January 1st, uh we believe this will be coming back. The author of the bill, um Senator Mabar has said she's bringing this back up in the same form and wants to move it forward. So we're watching this. They want to add every single condition outlined in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I'm so glad I wrote that in because I would never remember that. Um, any condition that is outlined in the DSM could qualify you for conservatorship if that condition makes you gravely disabled. So, it's it's interesting hearing them talking about it. One of the examples they give is caffeine addiction in the book. Technically, that's in the DSF. You would have to then be disabled by that caffeine addiction and unable to perform the daily functions of life, which could happen if you didn't have your caffeine. I isolated that that's where it gets really brave. And this is a push that they are Senator

Navar is working really hard on pushing forward some of the like the care court and the mental health diversion and those bills that Senator Eggman previously had. She's no longer in in the chamber. Senator Menjabar is really working in that field in that area. And what she's looking for, and the concept is good, is not to allow people to fall through the cracks. You have a medical disorder and we're going to let you fall through the cracks because of this other criteria kind of a deal. So, I understand the intent of what she's trying to do, but of course, there's a lot of concerns on expanding conservatorships generally. Um, also it changes some things with the care court process permitting the original care court petitioner to participate in developing care agreements with consent of the respondent. Um, that that's allowed right now in the care court, but it specifies this in the language um to try and allow the families in particular to remain involved in some manner with consent. Um, but this is the bill you'll be hearing about and we're going to be keeping a very close eye on in the upcoming session in addition to anything else that they're going to introduce after. But next slide, please. Sorry. Can you Oh, yes. Back one.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I often think of questions very late. Um, this is interesting that it has been sponsored by the state association of psychiatrists. I guess I'm a little surprised about that. Um, any thoughts on that? Well, looks like he was saying what I was saying that seems

there is there is there appears to be a push by uh there's a particular doctor out of San Diego that and Dr. Miner Miners I think who's working very closely with the mayor of San Diego and also Senator Benjavar and Senator Umber he's considered a subject matter expert on these things. he is pushing for essentially like medical conservatorships kind of a thing. Um so we're watching that's concerning of course um but that's kind of the impetus behind this is we are going to have the

it's not really a group of people that doesn't understand the cost like they should understand the implications about were were you saying you were wondering the same thing? Yes. Yeah. Why would they be or and not only the cost but the the impact of that like the example you gave is so preposterous.

It really is. It really is. In the care court convening meeting that they just recently had, they u they did the first annual report on care um which is not as interesting as you would think it would be, but they had this this doctor was testifying there as one of their subject matter experts and talking about these are the changes we need to do to care court. These are some of the tweaks right along with SP 331 that's all kind of coordinated um as the Bush goes forward but hope we should be hearing more about this as January takes off. Um but yeah, I was surprised with that as well and noted noted it for that reason. Yeah,

I might be going down a rabbit hole here, but I just think in my experience, folks with dementia tend to go on probate services when they're not able to care for themselves. This adds dementia to OBS. Yeah, that's what I'm I'm kind of thinking like we've always looked at that as like a medical conditional and and your example just as a comment like it's it expands the ability to take people's rights away and that's sorry. Yeah. If someone disagrees with the medical recommendations by someone, do they have the right to disagree with that or Yeah.

Yeah. And I read in the one of the journals of social work that came out recently that the part about the gravely disabled to include alcohol use disorder or chronic alcoholism that the psychiatry people feel like people who are so disabled because of their alcohol use disorder or chronic alcoholism actually probably do have mental health major mental health disorders too. And so that I mean I I mean whether or not that's true in every case is debatable, but the psychiatry people thought that was very compelling, right? It brings up the issue of where do you then provide the treatment, right?

Yeah. Yes. Were they going to conserve all these people too? Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally.

Sounds like agree completely. So I can tell you from my experience recently I've worked with uh I think three or four people that are in care. Um and it's not something that's lightly uh just freely given out. It's um very it's meticulously um overseen by uh an attorney as well as county council. Um, and so, uh, they're not just, um, yeah, you can file petitions, but but there's decisions that are being made by people people other than just doctors and stuff. So, just because someone files a care petition doesn't mean that you get it. You get it. I just wanted to share that because

that's a good point. Yeah, that is a good point. And if a So, it sounds scary. It is, but there's there's parameters. It is um that the workload associated with adding all of these folks, right? It it won't we won't be able to do that work. The court won't be able to do the court doesn't have funds currently uh to meet the needs, right? There's conversations that are happening right now around capacity issues that we're seeing around airports. So this it's ridiculous.

It is a compounding factor most certainly the public guardian is required for every single person that that they are working with to consider care or other mental health diversions as part of their process. So every everyone they're working up their report for they have to do that additional evaluation. You know it's it's a lot. It adds up to a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm sorry to ask preemptively, but is your contact information at the end of this slideshow? Okay. Good. I would love to keep up with your guys's evolution as a response to this. Oh, you bet. This is this going to be a fun topic of conversation going forward. So, yes, absolutely.

Yes. Well, and I I just want to like call attention to the fact that everyone knows that the other parameters that NY's presentation of increased poverty, all of those things lead to mental health issues and concerns like they are societ you know responses to societal issues and so to increase those

and then to conserve I yeah does seem to be a little kind of nefarious picture. It is. It is. All of it is related. All of it is combined. We're taking pressure from every angle. Most certainly going forward. So that makes it really difficult. Um and then you have of course in January we're going to have the state budget come out which is really not looking great. So there's a lot of hits coming from a lot of directions. Questions on this monstrosity?

I mean so many but no. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The next one is Thank forward. There we go. So, there are federal bills that get introduced and sometimes actually pass, but most of the time they don't. So, I'm tracking couple of hundred of federal bills. I p picked out a couple of examples of some good ones. We would like to see some of these pass, but um they do get introduced. Then fundraising emails get sent out and you never hear from the bill again. It never it never goes anywhere. But sometimes these bills do get picked up and added into other legislation. We've had in fact the first program was done that way. The family urgent response if it was grabbed and attached to a larger piece of legislation to get approved. Um but here we've got one removing the IMD exclusion for payments and increasing behavioral health public safety services. Okay. the Peer Support Act, working to to increase the peer supports. Terrific. I'd love to see this one move. Again, they're introduced. Um, but haven't picked up this one. The Peer Support Act has both a House of Representatives and a Senate bill. They're identical bills that they're moving through both houses. And these are bipartisan bills.

There's cold. You just haven't done any of that.

You could go to the next slide, please. strengthening Medicaid for serious mental illness act includes an allocation of funds. That would be great. Um and then this last one, the support pack. This actually passed and I for the life of me can't figure it out what's happened since. It passed both chambers on 919 and I don't know what's happened since. I there's a default that says if it's not signed within I think it's 10 days um it automatically will take effect. if it's not signed or vetoed within that days. The government shuts down. I don't hear anything about it. I've looked this up and nobody seems to know what is the current status of this. So, it is I believe that it has gone into effect just by default. And as soon as I can confirm that, I'll let everybody know. Um because we want that that reauthorizes the programs. That's a good thing. We want that to And next slide, please. And then because so often Sharon and I lately have bummer some happy spies. So these are just pictures from the recent press conference that Senator Magcguire held on investments in behavioral health facilities in Humble County. So I I just like to leave that happening now

and we'll just leave that up there for now. Um, but the last slide does have both mine and Sharon's contact information. Feel free to reach out anytime to either one of us. Um, we we work as a team. So, um, your input is very helpful to us as we're looking through these bills. Um, I'm sad Vernon's not here today. Vernon and I talk weekly about legislation. So, um, I look forward to connecting with him later and making sure that he gets the slots. Um, happy to take any other questions and thanks for having us here today. Um, even though we're not always got happiness hopefully a little bit back, you know, maybe in a couple of years,

have a little better information. Thank you guys for your Thank you very much.

Almost a year and 20. That's a tough job. Thank you. All right. Next on our agenda is discussion items responses to ACTC recommendations and Kelly Johnson. So, I'm trying to remember what month it was that we had the HCTC recommendations proposed in here.

August. August. Okay. And so it's taken us a while to come back to this because with uh holidays and the executive committee meeting. So anyhow, the executive committee meeting met and reviewed the feedback from the session where we brainstormed ideas about the three main recommendations which as a reminder um the three main recommendations were to meet in more accessible places, create an outreach coordinator position and uh creating opportunities for mentorship for new uh behavioral health board members. And so uh we started with reviewing all the recommendations for meeting in a more accessible place and I was actually really excited about the idea of making it you know in different places and and then the more we've talked about it logistically it feels very challenging to have it rotate from different locations and having the requirements that we need for audiovisisual and I thinkable buildings and so We also talked about in the past we've tried to make the meetings rotating and what we found is that it actually takes a few months for people to get on the ball with the change of location and we saw that in past because we keep track of attendance and for each meeting that the attendance actually decreased when we moved to other locations. Um, we've also been able to add Zoom as a component to the these meetings. And so now there is that option for people that aren't physically able to meet in this location. And so we really unfortunately have um don't find it feasible to move the location at this time. Um but we do have some ideas about how to increase

uh attendance and um just information and access to these meetings. And that kind of goes into the next point around creating an outreach coordinator position. Uh we worked with the HHS media to create some materials. I don't have enough of these to go around, but if you don't have one and you're interested, uh, feel free to take one. And also, we have these great little business cards and they have QR codes on them. And so, we really encourage people to post these wherever you work or you go or in community places where people can learn more about the behavioral health cord. There's also a behavioral health coord email address that's dedicated that is filtered by Joe, but then he will uh forward it to the behavioral.

Oh, okay. Oops. That wasn't supposed to go out.

Apologies. Thank you. Um so our thought is that by creating these materials and all of us working together to talk about the behavioral health board, engage people and invite them to come and join us and uh distribute the materials in places where all people not just transitional age youth but people throughout our communities can access it. uh will hopefully increase knowledge of the behavioral health board. Jess, do you have a question? I was just going to say I think that as of now with these materials it would be wildly successful if we can do regular intervals of people checking in with maybe where they were able to present to or um if anybody is possibly interested in joining because one of the problems that personally I had is that without knowing um Amy or any of my friends of transitional age youth it would have been very intimidating I guess even though this is designed to a publicly accessible meeting when somebody doesn't have the prior knowledge of advocacy or um some of the inner workings of what a board and board of supervisors might look like especially concerning the further distance like tribal communities.

It um it can be very intimidating which is a type of access restriction. So I think that if we were to have interval checkups then this material could see success. I love that and we'll talk a little bit more when I get to the mentorship part about ideas around mentoring people as well. So I thank you for bringing that Dette two full comment.

Um so um this this meeting for quite some time has talked been talking about doing some educational stuff um uh in our community. And so one of the things that um I'm asking because I've noticed that uh sometimes I see our behavioral health um noted in the Moscow or wherever. Um, but like substance abuse, the substance abuse committee meeting has uh started having some people come in and do some little educational stuff. And I think that if we um are welcoming to if this is open for everybody, then um we could put in there that hey, if you you know, if you want to educate yourself on this or this, come to attend this meeting. And I I think that um I was I was I was gonna talk about that ask about it later on, but

yeah. Is that are we able to put that out in the community? Absolutely. That's what these are for. Exactly. Because it doesn't seem to a lot of I'll I'll I'll scratch that. Okay. Um, I want to I want to make sure that that I before I because I like I want to welcome like every like treatment program people that work in treatment programs that I want to be educated on fetal alcohol syndrome or whatever it is that we have coming in um for the substance abuse group like it's important that we invite our peers our Okay, so that's great. Thank you Jess.

I was wondering if I could possibly let this flyer be passed around. It's um something presented by HTTC and it's community partner visioning for um specifically this first event is for the future of the youth advocacy board. But I am spreading it as far as I can throughout my social work um group that I work with. And so I I just think that it could be a great opportunity for on the flyer specifically. It says community partners and service providers are also and I think that it could be a really great networking opportunity if anybody would like to attend on behalf of the behavioral health or we could always use more attendance. And Jess, you can also always forward that those kinds of materials to Joe or to the behavioral email. Okay. And then

I think Rosemary did Rosemary sent it around and I think she's dropping it in the chat here too.

Oh, perfect. Great. Yay. Um I also I've thought about this for a while. Um I was on the behavioral health board before the pandemic for a while and at that time we went several times to the board of supervisors directly our benefit or people on a board like me and presented things that we wanted to do and I think a lot of times the public might be more interested community members might be more interested in the aspect of um make you know doing advisement to the board of supervisor ers. And I wondered if we ought to, Natalie, you might know this, but I wonder I wonder if we might want to try like twice a year or something like that to have prepared and have somebody actually go and be on the agenda for the board of supervisors to make a report about what we've suggested, what we're doing, that kind of stuff. or or or you know otherwise I don't think I don't have as big a sense as a board member for a while couple years now again that we're doing that very much. We're we're certainly talking to Connie and she knows and she comes but I don't know the board of supervisors thing gets kind of cloudy now but we went on Tuesday and Laura presented on our annual report

which was really fabulous and it it outlined everything we've done over the last year. Um it was amazing. Yeah, she did a really good job and Vernon was there and you were there. Yeah. Yeah. So we have and heavy and Laurel. Yeah. But do we do that in a planful way? Yeah. So we have an annual report. Oh, just annual. Okay. Yep. And I've I asked for input. So anybody wants to work on the next annual report, which will be on time. And I have some great ideas. Maybe we're going to do a skit. Okay. Really? Well,

I want to bring a focus. Um, I'm still in the middle of the response to the create an outreach. I didn't mean to cut you off. I just want to redirect back to That's okay. Um, the other thing about the outreach thing is that we can also request for DHS media to use to put posts on social media about the behavioral health board.

But what I wanted to say is I've been carrying these cards with me. I've already been through probably 50 of them. I keep asking Laurel to give me more cuz I leave them at places that I go and uh the Baby Heights apartment building down the street that has half DHS folks, half veterans, I've been forbidding them there. There's flyers up. I really think the more we involve all folks from our community, especially people with lived experience to participate, the more useful our board will be. So, I encourage you all to do that as well. Yes. Do you guys ever do any tableabling at like Friday night markets or anything like that with that? Volunteers. Yeah,

a lot of the Vernon's been a lead on that. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of community events. Margarite was just talking about being at the recovery happens event last month. September. September. Jeez.

Time is flying. Okay. So, the other thing that we're talking about doing is um Oliver, our BHSA coordinator, when he does his community out community outreach meetings that he can also bring these materials and he goes all over the county. And so, Oliver, I really appreciate you if you're willing and able to do that. Yay. And then we also talked about creating a toolkit on outreach best practices, tips, talking points, etc. for all behavioral health board members to have as a resource. And so that's something that Laurel Johnson and I and maybe executive committee members are going to work on so that when we bring on new behavioral health board members, we can provide that as a resource. And then lastly, not lastly, but next, I'd like to talk about the mentorship. So, we really like the idea of mentoring folks that are interested in attending these meetings and possibly becoming members. And I just want to acknowledge that this is the first time in a very long time that the board has had full membership. And I think a big part of it is having a chair and members that are doing that already and mentoring. And uh we want to increase and improve on how we're doing that. And so what we'd like to do is start with the executive committee members, which is Laura as the chair, myself as vice chair, and Sean Berger as the second vice chair. Uh that also includes behavioral health administration. Uh to be mentors to people that are interested in joining. And so our goal is to meet with people individually face to face to introduce what to expect and invite them to come

to the meeting and mentor them through that process. And so these cards and as we're all engaging with people in the community that we think might be interested in participating, you can always direct them to us and um do a warm handoff like do you know send an email with both of us and introduce us something um to connect us and we'll be happy to meet with them and usher them into through the process. We our thought is like we can start there and then revisit this conversation in six months and see how it's going and if we want to add or change how we're doing things. I think that was kind of the gist of

what we talked about. Is there anything else you would add? The only other thing is that we we were going to talk about having a retreat sort of an onboarding retreat so that all of the newer members um we did this a few years ago but we're going to do that I believe March is what we're doing. So that will also be it's a good time where it's a public meeting but also we had last time Annie came and talked for a little bit and then left and then we just get to know each other and that that will help us be a complicit board. So that's really excited. Can can I just add one comment when we were talking about this at the exact meeting and I'm not going to remember where the requirement was, but I think we also realize that there's some direction that we're not allow we're required to have um a consistent location of ages,

right? And so that's part of like new regulation for the board which also impacted I think the decision about burnt coins. And I and I agree though in terms of like the professional building feels a little intimidating for people to capture. And so I I get the the feeling around that. And so I think that's where we can all come in and making it a more welcoming um safe space for folks. And I think that if we all kind of put that out there.

Yes. Um I did. Yeah. I think that part of the third recommendation wasn't just like to the onboarding part, but it was actually mentorship once you're on the board because like so if if you know if you are kind of curating that new membership then maybe that person can be that point person. Absolutely. And just by kind of creating that um uh continued facilitation of how to navigate these spaces 100%.

I just failed to mention that part. We we don't want to build in a required have to meet once a week thing because we all have full-time jobs and that's going to be difficult. But yes, like if I take on a mentee, then I'm going to be their point person as long as they totally want and need that, you know. But I we decided that the once a week meeting would be difficult. But texts, phone calls, emails that was listed in I have the the typed notes from Alex and it said meet with mentee one time per week and we agreed that one time in person ahead. Yeah.

Is what we have capacity for. And then obviously email, text, phone calls totally moving forward. Yeah. I think we were talking about yesterday. We were like a monthly like before the meeting if you wanted to punch base and Sure. It's going on tomorrow. How can I? Yep. What should I know about that? Would something else from yesterday you want to bring up or?

Okay. Well, unfortunately, Dasia could not be here. She knows more about this subject than I do, but um she has been specifically researching the people or and percentage statistics of humble that face different physical abilities. So I just want to um reiterate that that was part of the um motivation behind trying to find a more equitable space. But I think that as long as we make Zoom as prominent as it could be, I know that there's been lots of interesting discourse around the use of Zoom in any sort of public meeting. So I think that as long as we present the fact that that is an option for people that it could be more successful. I'm just I think that if we were able to include it in some materials then always encouraged especially specifically right now can be really useful because I think that well me and others think that more people with um different physical abilities have lots of coinciding behavioral health or ex or not behavioral health but behavioral health expertise that we love to share. So I just think that's everybody's welcome then.

Yeah, it could go a long way. Can you clarify the which part would you want to be included in? I guess specifically right now it's important to recognize that we do encourage people to join by Zoom. That's pretty much that that's it. Yeah, I guess it doesn't I think it says it on the flyer, not the card. Okay. Yeah, the top of the flyer. Yeah, let's we'll dig into that a little bit more and see. what we can do. Um, maybe we have less room on the cards, but yes. How do you feel about the QR code? Do you feel like that's accessible for young folks?

Okay. I'm gonna I haven't actually looked where the QR code takes you, but I assume page. So, maybe I'm guessing on there it probably mentions the Zoom meeting. So, okay. Okay. Heck yeah. just want so check it out and let us know if there's something if you have suggestions about Absolutely. I know Den has been working really hard on her own projects and I'm sad that she's not even Yeah, she and Alex did a wonderful job like leading facilitating the discussion. Anybody else have any questions, comments? Awesome. Thank you. I do online. Is that okay? Hi everyone. Oh, hi Sonia.

Hey everyone. Um, I just wanted to speak to the mentorship thing a little bit. Um, as the capacity of HCTC shifts over time, one of the roles of our youth organizers used to be to help prepare our youth to attend um, these kinds of spaces and do pre meetings. Um, helping them review agendas and create talking points and things like that. Um, so I really just wanted to lean into the mentorship piece of current board members who could maybe um make sure that they're supporting our TA youth who are on the board or attending these meetings to review agendas and talking points and things like that if there is capacity for that as the capacity of HCTC um has shifted and we right now only have one staff um that is stretched between a lot of things. So, I just wanted to put that plug in there of one of the reasons why that recommendation is there. Got it. Thank you. All right. Anything else? All right. We are in communications and since we did start late, I'm guess I'm going to ask our board members to have a succinct communication if possible. Shorter rather than longer. Starting with you, Nelly. Oh, I'm going to be so succinct. I don't have anything.

Thank you. Sorry. Uh, I'm looking at the web page and I'm not seeing the Zoom link on the on the web page. So, I just maybe we can It's on the I'm not seeing the Oh, board and committee meeting. Okay, I see it. I wonder if there's a way we can revisit that and another time. I even I'm struggling with like getting to the county website to download the agenda. We can talk about it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I don't have any other people. Thank you. Thank you,

Margarite. Um I'm sorry that Vernon isn't here, but I do want to do a shout out so he can see it in the minutes. It is so helpful that he does so many things in between meetings to tell us about the kind of stuff that was presented in large amount in our presentation today which I was really grateful to hear. But it's really nice that he does that because it's so digestible when he does it. And uh I know he sends me extra ones for SUD stuff which really helps since I don't work in the field anymore and it helps me stay a breast of things. So this burning you're great. I wish you were here to hear it.

Thanks. Just a reminder that nation finance has a clinician on site and available for mental health concerns for veterans and vets and family members. Uh there is the discharge status all that and so if you know anybody especially coming into our upcoming season here uh get a hold of me or call for Peter, hello.

Uh, I just just walked out this flyer and this one the other flyer and maybe they've already been set out and I've already looked them, but I would love electronic copies of those so that I could print them at will. So, if those can get distributed, that would be fabulous. But I know that's not an update, it's just a request. My update is uh just want I'd like to highlight collaboration. So um county office of the ed the prevention intervention department school climate uh program is collaborating to rev up uh the climate and uh using a positive behavior intervention support in the schools as well as restorative practice and working closely with uh the facility uh juvenile hall and broad humble classroom. So, it's nice to get that going again because that's an environment that needs to feel rehabilitative. So, um I'm glad to report that's in motion.

Okay. So, um not really much to report. I think the thing I can report is um that we Oh, so yeah, we are um starting to work really closely again with the jail. Um I'm starting to get more calls from the nurses. we have um developed a way to get folks their um suboxone um increased and other medications that they need like psych medication. So um we're trying we're trying to work on a way to get that uh to them in a speedier uh fashion. Um we're seeing a little uh rise in overdoses because of I think the uh holiday season. We're also seeing rise in um HTOH alcohol related instant in instances. So um yeah, we're working on um so working on the 3.2 social model detox uh looking at 715B street as a potential site. Um it's already started the licensing process. So a lot of um the uh barriers that we ran into the first time we won't run into this time. So, uh, it looks really promising and I'll keep folks updated about that soon. I think that's all I have. Thanks.

Thank you.

Um, so I just uh Lauren, I went to um uh Hoopa Tribal Sober Living last um last month and uh we got to do a walk through. Um they it's it's pretty nice. Um it's pretty clean. Uh there's I believe they said 10 beds, eight to 10 beds um for males. Um there's four there was only four at the time there. They are linked with they have um they're linked with Camal services. So the people that live in that sober living get to um your SUD and mental health services um through the canal. Uh there's transportation from the sober living to come out for those services. Um they do have a female house available as well. However, um there's zero people in it right now um because they're looking for a a uh a person that has uh a strong recovery to be a manager of the silver living there. Um and until they get that person or find that person um they cannot open it. He attempted to have to be able to manage it from a males from the male side just have a female over there. It didn't work out very well. So, um, so if you guys know anyone that, uh, may may or may not have some schooling or strong recovery, a long-term recovery, but, uh, the thing that was exciting to me is that you don't technically have to be tribal to be there. Um,

however, they do have some things that you that uh living in the house that you do need to be able to uh do. Um, and so uh and that's, you know, they do they do sweats and so being able to tend and all that stuff. Um, anyways, it was a it was a great uh experience for us. Great ride up there. It's close by to the um integral, you know, like food step place and all that. Um and then next month we're going to uh we have appointment to go to Bear River. Um and Judy walks through over there. Um it it's just interesting. you know, this month was Native American month. So, um uh we're just, you know, our our tribal community is important and we need to learn learn well, let me rephrase that. I need to be learn how to help be more helpful in all situations that come across my my desk. So, um anyways, that's it until substance abuse.

Thanks. Thanks. I just had a question for you. I'm so sorry I didn't if I missed it, but what organization specifically were you working on being um so um was it on behalf of behavioral health board substance use disorder committee? Yes. Thank you. I was a little That's all. Thank you. because I love building rapport with every place in the community. So, um I appreciate it. We Joshua, do you have anything? I do not at this moment.

Yes. Yes. Um, I just want to say I'm so grateful to Connie, Emmy, and Laurel for being at the behavioral health board annual report in front of the board of supervisors, which I of course don't like speaking in front of people, and so I was very nervous and um, but I got that done. I couldn't even tell. You did. You were so kind and sweet. Thank you for looking at me and with a friendly face. No, we're really bad at looking people, y'all. You are. I'm trying to get better looking at me, right?

It's really weird. Anyway, that's a that's a note that I will share kindly everyone. I felt like going over in my mind over and over like, oh, I'm doing a skip next year. Bringing people with you will all pay attention. I didn't think it's important hats like party hats or would it be appropriate to say in that moment how come no one's looking at me

people do and it definitely gets everyone's attention but it feels a little confrontational I think um I just um anyway it's just feedback that I think um I think they would like they would benefit from hearing not just from me I I will reach out because it is yes I will say I heard from some staff as well. Not being too. Thank you.

Yeah. So with that, that's that's all I've got. Also, just a reminder, we don't meet next month. We'll meet again January. Um, I appreciate everybody on this board in this room. We are good at collaborating and we can get even better and I appreciate the heck out of all of you. All right. And Nancy and Sharon. Oh, I very much appreciate you. Look at you both have friendly faces and I would never want to get your job. All right. Reports. director of that. Do you have a report for us?

Sure. Um, I would just like to say that that presentation that you did at the board was incredible and I loved the convers. I loved that it was uh there weren't very many slides, but there was so much meat in that presentation. It was really incredible. I thought you did a really great job. Um, I think we should have advertised it more because I feel like maybe more people may have showed up if everyone if more people knew that you were presenting. That's true.

And maybe you did that purposely. I'm not. Next time we'll put it all over,

right? Um, but it was really great. Um, Nancy and Sharon, thank you for doing this presentation today. It's always bad news, but I also feel like it's so good to educate all of us around all of the issues that we're seeing um around behavioral health. The the stuff around medical and the reduced uh populations that will be able to um access medical is really problematic for our behavioral health system. and and it's really not just hospitals and clinics, but our behavioral health services that we provide um will be impacted too. And I'm not sure we know what what what we're going to hear around that. Um the good news is um budgetwise the behavioral health budget I'm not sure if Emmy has mentioned this in this meeting before but it looks like um our behavioral health the behavioral health budget deficit will be better than it's been I believe since I've worked for the department. Wow.

Uh, seriously, I even questioned the the with accounts receivables. I think it was noted at $46,000 fund balance. And I said, are is this 46 million? What is this an error? What is this? Um, so it's really good. I'm really proud of all the work that's gone on. And what our finance person says is payment reform does appear to be paying off and doing what it's supposed to do. It's been how many years that payment reform started? How how many years, Nancy? Do we know?

A decade. No. No. the payment like the last the change in our system IT system is just the last four years or less three years I think I think maybe three yeah most

anyways we're finally getting to a place to where our payments are coming in on time we're actually able to send our claims timely um it's wonderful so I just shout out to all and it and it really with behavioral health it takes everyone staff doing the work, um the staff that do the claims, all all of that. So, just want to say yay. Um and seriously, that's the best I've seen it in a really long time. Um and that is if all of our accounts receivables, even long-term accounts receivables come in like they should. Um but I'm really happy about that. We have other issues and other uh branches that we'll continue to work on, but I I appreciate the work that's happened in behavioral health. So, thanks.

Thank you. Can I ask is that change something internal to like a county system or was it imposed on counties by the state? The the payment reform? It came from DHC. Yes. And so it was a change with how our fee struct you know our our rate structure is set up and also how we um give our match for our portion of the the cost. Yeah. And both are improvements although it took us a minute to to catch up in a way that it was uh lucrative or helpful. Several minutes more than one minute.

Yeah. However many minutes that is. Yeah. Well, that was my headline. So, our budget looks better.

Yeah. Our budget is is improved and there's still work to be done, but it really is um nice to feel like we're getting above water to like do the work and get reimbured for it. Um the other things I guess I'll just add I also loved your report at the board and super I said there and I'll say again here I just have so much gratitude for this board and not just because we're a you're a full board at this point just about right or and we've like shored up some of the really key core elements like the bylaws and other policies and procedures related to the work of this board but also it's You all are just such great allies to us as a branch and just I feel really appreciative that you work so hard to understand the work that we do so that you can help represent to the community, you know, what what is happening behind the scenes. That has not always been the case with that. So, I'm really grateful for that. Um, I want to say I'm so glad you're here, Vernon. I was a bit worried about you. So, it's it's nice that you've arrived. I do have some health issues, but

I'm sorry to hear that and I'm glad you're here. Thank you.

Yeah. Um, and what else? What other things can I say? I get I want to just flag that in that those slides about legislation and emergency room physicians being designated. We have been designating emergency room physicians for a while now. So, that's a requirement that we're already at the front of, which I'm super proud about that. And then the last kind of random thing that I think is just a helpful piece of information, we I think a few years ago we shared with this group the initiatives that had been rolled out over a couple years. There was that slide that had about 50 initiatives on it and we were saying some are unfunded or underfunded and all those things. I very recently few weeks ago at the care court meeting saw a new updated slide that has 80 plus initiatives. So they continue we continue to do this work and it's hard work and we have a much better budget. So that's that's good. Still some staffing challenges and many other things to work on but anyway

excellent keep on focusing on the um deputy director. Yeah I just have three points. One, the board just approved an incentive program for our jail and diversion positions. Uh, so he's up

10 grand uh for an 18month period for people that are working in challenging settings like uh the jail and uh diversion program. So, that's that's been that's been nice and um we're hoping that that that might motivate some folks to apply for positions in the jail because uh or want to transfer because it's been really bumpy road there with regards to staffing the last couple years. I'm so happy about that. And then um what's the number of positions, Paul? I think there's 13 or something. Yeah, about 12 or 13 positions that we've identified that would qualify for that. So,

so if you transfer from one department to another Yeah. the 10,000. Well, not so there's a there's the board resolution stipulates the sequence of the payment, but initially it's like a $3,000 payment and then after 18 months the $7,000. So, we're excited about that. um and how we came to that and where we found that money just everything seemed to come together nicely. So sorry about that. There's a grant that's being used temporarily for paying the Okay.

I just I had Sorry, I sidebar. I was curious if it was AB 109 funding, but because most of those physicians are It was Department of State Hospital uh funds. Oh, that came in that we were able to use for that. Great. That sounds that's exciting.

Uh there's a lot of changes happening with the justice um involved population really. I mean there there's an inreach program that's that's rolling out in the jail and in the juvenile hall that would allow for uh medical billing for individuals that are going to be released within 90 days or so. So it it's it where before there was a restriction on medical billing when somebody's incarcerated and now that's lifting a bit. So there's a lot of changes that's happening there with uh been a lot of work that's happening with probation with our the sheriff and jail team. So um more to come on that but that's happening in this year it didn't work this coming year 2026.

Yes. And then last I'd say uh is the SB43 implementation is is rolling forward rapidly approaching. So we're going live with SB43 implementation January 1st. So this as you may know um expanded the uh criteria for disability to includes individuals with SUV um issues. So, we've been doing a lot of work with uh the steering committee. It's been a great uh coming together of of entities in our community. So, I'm really happy with how responsive our community is, uh to come together and find solutions. So, uh we have a law enforcement training that's happening in December. So, flyers are right over here. So, we're going to be training our law enforcement partners on uh the changes and we're also developing a behavioral health training to train our internal staff around that and and what that's going to look like for us. And then we'll be also creating some information for community uh consumption and distribution. So, that's what's happening right now with SP. Can you talk a little bit about who all is involved in that subcommittee? because I I keep saying I am so impressed by the engagement of the individuals in that meeting and I just think it's really important to just like

yeah it's really I'm going to leave somebody out because there's probably I don't know 30 or 40 people ended up being on that uh joining in on that steering committee but there's folks from the sheriff's department folks from BPD there's folks um from uh you know hospital administrators around the county was so home representation. Um you know folks at um Providence but not only Providence locally Providence statewide has been a part of that um Crestwood statewide Crestwood um agency SUD

a lot of SUD folks coming in and we've got West Crossroads we've got um Waterfront Jamaica and others there's other folks that I'm sure are forgetting. So, it's just Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, it's it's pretty awesome to see everybody come together to find solutions to this. So, really, we want to we even made a little uh SUD subcommittee to really help with kind of u ensuring that that pathway to SUD treatment on a voluntary basis is there and our and our community members even, you know, entities have said we'll reserve beds for for these individuals that want to have access. So we want to try to make sure we have a smooth quick access for individuals that are ready to go into treatment. So that's been fabulous. So really hats off to everybody together. Super great.

Thanks Paul.

You know I said I didn't have anything but um I'm making it brief. Um, I just want to acknowledge that today is transgender day of remembrance. Um, and often also embraced as transgender day of resilience. Um, resistance. Um, and because there's been some dialogue about um, Eureka becoming a sanctuary city for trans individuals, I wanted to point out that back in July, the county um, in a proclamation that I brought to our board um, supporting access to healthcare and resources for two spirit, transgender, gender non-conforming, and interex people. Um and that was really underscoring um existing state of California SB 107 protections for people seeking gender affirming care um but also other healthcare resources that has an impact on the work the behavioral health board and the work we do in the community. So, um, today is a day to kind of acknowledge, um, and recognize the growing hardships that, um, trans and over sex people face and, um, and also those we've lost and the resilience of universe. So, just wanted to say something about it. Thanks.

Thank you, director of Brazil. Do you have anything for us? Um, yeah, probably not not too too much. I think I mentioned last time, uh, we were here just working on some of the changes with, uh, behavioral health service act. Uh, and I know Oliver has mentioned a lot of that already, but just kind of understanding the the implications for us, whether it's the transitional rent benefit or some of the evidence-based practices that are going to start to be mandating uh, mandated. So, um, trying to wrap our heads around that and really get a firm understanding of what we need to do. I think, you know, staffing continues to be some somewhat of an issue, but there's progress being made. I think there's there's light there. So, that's felt a little better more recently. Um and then just yeah working um on some real challenging cases really some tough cases both at the at the um public guardian level and then just at the crisis level as well. Um you know uh trying to find uh placements for individuals uh who are are challenging and uh that that takes you know considerable resource and time to do that. So uh but those those are all constants you know generally so you know that's our job and uh um but but yeah that's the that's the work right now.

Thank you.

Appreciate you. All right moving on SUDD committee updates. So um we had our monthly meeting um we had two fantastic uh presenters um Miss Steinbeck who came and presented about ACEs um uh and where we go after you know we identify ACES and people where does it go from there and so just talked a little bit about that um and also Dr. Stockton um from public health uh shared about uh alcohol and the effects u on the effects of our community and it was pretty fantastic. Um speaking of Oliver um next month um Oliver Oliver will be coming to um present the BH BHSA uh to the SAS SUV group um and also Dr. Carrie Griffin is going to be coming and talking about some some health health and um how alcohol and drugs affects our not sure exactly what she's going to share about but those that's the gist of it. Um, so, um, I know that I'm I'm grateful that it's it's okay that we, um, present these these sessions to, um, to the community because, um, I think it's important that we start talking about, you know, there's things that were talked about years ago that, um, that I think uh, we've forgotten about. I don't know about you guys, but like when I went to alcohol direct school like in 199 whatever, right? Uh one of the first things I uh

uh I remember being taught is how uh detoxing from alcohol can look for like schizophrenia. Um and I I I feel like sometimes um those thoughts are forgotten about. Um, and so, uh, that's just a simple thing. Simple thing. Um, so, so I'm hoping by, um, having some people do these presentations and we can educate our community by inviting them. Um, uh, uh, it would be, um, it'll work out. Um, also uh, what else? There is no meeting in December and have a merry Christmas and happy holiday or whatever you celebrate. Um and um I don't know it's just been it's been an amazing journey um working on in this area with substance abuse. Um, but it's substance abuse and mental health is like my my I I love it. Like I um so it's been an honor to be on the substance abuse commitment. I appreciate I was hesitant when you guys when you asked me to to chair it, but I still think I don't have nothing to give, but but I'm still here. So, here we are.

You're doing great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. At this time we don't have any other committees going. Chairman, vice chair, vice chair left. Think that I thought of something and now I forgot.

Yes, you to the blue envelope. Sure. Um, I just learned about it from my youth and it was really um rubber coast regional center and Eureka Police Department did the blue envelope program and we had a event yesterday from 1 to 3. It's a warfinger where we have almost every law enforcement agency in our county um who have signed on to it. What it is is if you are someone with ASD, ID, u dementia, you can have a blue envelope that says what your, you know, preferred communication style is or if you have a case worker that needs to talk to you. So, if you're pulled over in a car or you're stopped by law enforcement and you show them this identifier and there's uh bracelets, there's a button, there's a blue envelope that has all this information in there, you show that to law enforcement and they know, okay, I need to whatever it is, if it's someone who's deaf, I need to get my whiteboard out and write to them or whatever it is, I need to interact with this person differently. So, it's just sort of and it was great because we had uh law enforcement agencies uh when I asked them to to come, they did. I was quite quite proud of that. So, thank you for asking about it. I tend to just go from one thing to the next part. So, I appreciate that. So, as a case manager, it's really helpful to know that there people may have these things and so you could get a blue envelope by going to your law enforcement agency or you can always come to your PD and just ask them for the envelope. That's pretty self-explanatory. And redwood regional citizens. Every law enforcement agency

went away with little envelopes. What to do with them? It's exciting. Yeah. Um, now I'm finished business. We have navigation center, airport court and crisis trio center. Are there any updates? We have a meeting scheduled on Monday. Um it's helping move us along. Yes.

With a meeting with the owner. um will determine how we move from here. Nothing. Moving from nothing to something hopefully. Okay. Fingers fingers and toes crossed. Yes. That we have to get out from now because it's kind of time to get off the I was going to say

it is. We've been sitting on it for a long time. Seems like it's going up discussed. Anybody have any questions specific? Nope. You mentioned last time that we went to the care court convening and and Humbult seems to be very successful and even when the state came and and reviewed and talked with us and actually got to sit in on a couple of the court hearings. Yeah. Um we're very impressed and

we're second highest for petitions. Good work. Nancy, do you have any new updates on crisis triage? No, I Yeah, I don't think so. Right. No, we're just, you know, continuing to work at it. Getting closer to putting shovels in the ground. It's uh amazing how much work it takes before you can put the shovel in the ground. So, we're just we're working on all of those pieces. Very interesting process. to see what it takes to build a building. Yeah. With government money. With government money.

All right. Are there any Thank you for that. Future items that people would like to see on the agenda. Yes. Presentation by Nation's finest would like to see. Anything else? No. Oh, no. Come on. We started this meeting late and we're going to hang before every time. I love it. All right. With that, I will adjourn at 13:57. Thank you all. Patience.

Oh, no. Okay.

So, all Thank you.