Minutes 02-01-2022 Virtual Business Meeting

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20 Tony Marimpietri said they have not started that yet, but there are savings to health facilities and the full impacts have yet to be determined. Commissioner Richards asked if staff would build a model to show future avoidance of needing to add facilities or care in other areas. Travis Myren said the hope is the model will show the cost savings/avoidance to each of the sectors. Commissioner Richards said that 2023 seems ambitious. She asked if there would be definitive funding before construction begins. She asked who is looking at grants and other forms of funding. Tony Marimpietri said the target date is to focus the mind on a date. He said he will not promise it will be ready by 2023, but whatever date that is chosen will help focus attention on how fast these tasks need to be worked through. He said that the funding campaign needs to be activated soon and a subset of the subcommittee will likely take that on. Caitlin Fenhagen said there has been outreach with UNC Wellness, which formed a task force following the tragic suicides at UNC earlier in the year. She said that they can and will continue to look beyond UNC hospitals and into partnering with other UNC groups going forward. She said that it is not just a cost avoidance model and that there will be a cost savings in the foster care system, criminal justice system, long term health care and resources the county is providing on the back end, when this facility can address the issues on the front end at the time of crisis. She said that the first phase was the recommendations and planning and that the next phase will be meeting with Alliance Health and RHA and the county within the next couple of weeks to talk specifics about interest. She noted that they are also awaiting a response from UNC Health on their interest. Chair Price said many stakeholders have been talking about this since before 2019. She said that it will not just be keeping mental health out of other detention and health facilities, but it is how they can intervene in people's lives in other places. She said that people are not getting care they really need because departments are full. She said that she took a tour at WakeBrook and at Asheville and suggested doing that again for other commissioners. She said that she wants to advocate to the warm handoff where law enforcement can bring people to facility and drive away. She said she likes seeing the 2023 date because these services are already past due. Commissioner Hamilton requested she be sent any research article that is available to talk about cost savings so that she can review that and provide feedback on cost savings as a whole. She also wants to consider long-term aspects of how people are successful at overcoming mental health issued. Tony Marimpietri said that outpatient and stepdown facilities are also important to bridge those services. Commissioner Bedford said she's been serving on the subcommittee, and she is very much in favor of moving forward. She said that as a parent, years ago, her daughter attended a facility out of state. She asked if others read the News and Observer's articles from December 2021 regarding the atrocious and abusive facilities that are out of state, and some even in the state, and these were sometimes the only option for local children. She said that they just closed one down in Garner. She said that having one close for families helps facilitate the family involvement for patient success. She said that people go on to have very healthy quality lives following treatment and that it does work. She said whatever the costs are, the work is necessary because these are human beings. Chair Price said it is more important to save lives and save communities than money. She said that opioid money may be available as early as July. She also noted that the general assembly has created a Medicaid expansion subcommittee and that this could help fund services.