MAYOR’S HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES GRAND FORKS CABINET MINUTES Thursday, January 17, 2008 I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at approximately 12:05 p.m. by Don Shields. Don Welcomed Colonel Kathleen Concannon from Grand Forks AFB. Those Members Present: Don Shields, Pat Berger, Kate Kenna, Keith Berger, Gretchen Graf, Peter O’Neill, Jon Green, Dr. John Clayburgh, Jacob Kerbeshian, Lee Lipp, Mark Lambrecht, Colonel Kathleen Concannon, Craig Knudsvig, Julie Anderson, and Dr. James Hargreaves. Others present: Gayla Drengson (Altru), and Donna Bernhardt (NDSU Extension office), and Keith Westerfield (Public Health). II. OLD BUSINESS 1. Review and Approval of Minutes of October 18, 2007 Meeting: Minutes were reviewed and approved with no changes. 2. Community-Based Public Mental Health Services - Northeast Human Service Center (NEHSC): - Kate K. briefed that at the last Mayor’s meeting there was a discussion on developing a community team, to look at our response to community members (about 20-25 people), who have persistent needs that need to be addressed by many agencies. Roger Johnson from NEHSC has organized a meeting for January 29, 2008, from 10am to 12pm, 5th floor of NEHSC in rooms 5A & B. They will look at the community’s current approach to services, and determine if there could be changes to the deliver of services that would improve intervention. III. NEW BUSINESS 1. Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureuss (MRSA) Update Presentation: Dr. Hargreaves gave a presentation on MRSA (see attached). 2. Grand Forks “Detox” Community Facility Initiative Update: Kate K. briefed that there is a need for a community detox facility, however people do not want to live near a detox center. She has talked with the County Commissions to consider using a portion of the old jail (County’s contribution), but they would need to look to other agencies for funding on-going expenses. There have been a number of agencies involved that have met; Sheriff’s dept., Police dept., Altru hospital, City Council, City Administrator, County Administrator, Centre Inc. staff, Community Violence Intervention Center (CVIC) staff, and Glenmore Recovery Center staff. - Less than ten percent of people who need to detox, need a medical detox, but the only place in the community to detox is at Altru (Altru admitted 580 patients for detox related services this past year). Grand Forks is the only major city in ND that doesn’t offer a community detox program. Fargo’s detox center is moving to a bigger facility, and they have a contract with Centre, Inc. to run the program (funded by the city of Fargo). They also have a cooperative agreement with MeritCare, and neighboring communities. The cost of their detox is less than $80 a night. - Last year, Grand Forks Police responded to 2400 calls that involved people who were intoxicated, but sometimes there’s no place to take them. - Centre Inc. put together a budget for a Grand Forks detox program, and came up with a $230,000 budget ($180,000 for salary—three full-time staff, an on-call, and a back-up person). - Crookston has an addiction service and offers a subacute detox program (not medical, and has a medical back-up available, if needed.). - At this point, there’s been a lot of support from other agencies about the need for a detox center. Need to know how much financial commitment is available, so it can be determined if they should go ahead with the project. - There has been a few alcohol-related deaths in the last couple years. They can’t be put in jail anymore for public intoxication, because it is not legal. The idea of the Detox Center is that it will offer people a non-medical alternative to Altru Hospital. - There will be a meeting with city and county agencies on January 17, 2008 at 2:00 pm, 6th floor of the County building to begin discussing a Grand Forks detox facility. 3. Member Update: Craig K. – There’s been an on-going discussion with agencies about a 10-year plan for Chronic Long-Term Homelessness. This group is defined as a family (of 1 or more), that has a ‘disabling condition’ (includes a problematic use of drugs or alcohol) that have been homeless a number of times in last 3-4 years, or had a period of homelessness for more than a year. There are about 70-80 identified individuals in the community that meet this definition. Mayor Brown has identified this as a community goal. Greg Hoover, the Urban Development Director, is leading this effort, and came up with this framework that they have been working on it since last September. The plan has been completed and is ready for the city council to review it, as a working group session. One of the issues of the Housing Authority, is that they can house anybody within 30 days (with housing and assistance), but if they have behavior problems, they could be unhoused (homeless) again (because we dealing with private property, private landlords, and private owners). So, with housing, has to come support for correcting those behaviors or problems, and that’s where all the agencies involved in these discussions committed their services, so that it comes up front when needed. The GF Housing Authority Board of Directors approved a 30-day comment period, for the community to express their opinion about changing housing waiting list priorities. Julie A. – Second week of the spring semester is underway. The College of Nursing is finishing the building of the Biomedical Research Center. National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded research will be done there (including research on gambling); also a bio-medical food lab will be located there, and they are in the final stage of hiring a bio-technician. They have an increase in number of under-graduate nursing students, to help with the nursing shortage. The faculty shortage is more desperate than the nursing shortage. There has been some changes to the Master education program that has resulted in increase in the number of enrollees. Col. Kathleen C. – The base is currently working on a Disease Containment plan. Their public health officer is working with the GF public health department, to develop a plan on how they would isolate or quarantine the people on base, should there be a pandemic flu or an infectious disease. What they need to do first is figure out how the base agencies will inter-operate, but then ask the community to be involved. There will be tabletop exercises and field exercises to figure out how the pieces actually work together. Lee L. – He is Involved in a project through Development Homes that is developing housing and services for people with autism. They have developed a consortium of a wide-variety of community people interested in developing broad-based living services for kids and adults with difficulties. In GF there are 56 kids that meet the diagnostic criteria for autism disorder. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of ND last year identified 800 kids in this region who have an autism disorder. Dr. John C. – The community dental clinic opened up in November, so it will take up a huge portion of the Medicaid recipients. The community foundation now has a fund established for community donations to help ongoing expenses. The new dental clinic will have an open house on Friday, February 22nd, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. There’s been no concern about taking patients away from area dentists. Peter O. – No fires had contributed to homelessness during the recent holiday period. Donna B. – There’s a new program called “Parents Forever”, that is for parents divorcing or going through a transition. NDSU Extension Service is having their first meeting next week regarding an adult drug court, in cooperation with Department of Human Services, Department of Corrections, and the court system. They’ve assigned a judge, hired a corrections officer, and an addiction counselor. People who have drug or alcohol driving offenses will go through the drug court and have criteria they have to meet to avoid jail. Also they are working with Prairie Harvest in extending a program they have to help people with severe mental illness, to keep them in our community rather than sending them to the Jamestown state mental health facility. Looking for a site with 10-12 single apartments that will have staff available to assist them. Pat B. – The United Way will be having a press conference on January 28th to announce their first big community-wide initiative. They will have a Financial Stability and Independence program, devoting $75,000 the first year from their regular allocations. This is specifically for those programs in the community (not necessarily United Way agencies) that will help individuals move towards financial independence and stability. This is an initiative that’s being rolled out across the U.S., through United Way agencies. The United Way and the Grand Forks Community Foundation, along with the Bremer Foundation, promoted a community conversation in November 2007, where issues in the community were discussed. They are trying to organize a list of coalitions in the community, and what are they working on (A doesn’t know what B is doing, and B doesn’t know about C, etc.), with four major focus areas: Health Care (and costs), Housing Issues, Child Care (after-school activities), and Savings. If you are involved in a coalition working on one of these focus areas, please contact us. We hope to get some kind of database of information, so if people are looking to put together (for example) a grant project, they are not asking the same questions over and over again. Dr. James H. – Has everyone gotten their flu shot? It is not too late to get a flu shot, and they are still available at Public Health Department. Every year people die from complications associated with the flu, and a shot can prevent it. Don S. – There’s been an increase in the NiroVirus, that went through nursing homes last year. It can be passed around very easily, so please wash hands, and wipe counters and appliances commonly used by everyone in a household. IV. OTHER: None V. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned around 1:15 p.m. VI. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m. (lunch will be provided by Altru Health System) Altru Hospital (Lower Level, Multi-Media/Board Room) MEETING HANDOUTS: - Mayor’s Health and Human Services Cabinet Members list, 29 Nov 07 - Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureuss (MRSA) Presentation