Agenda 04-26-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 1 Senator Foushee said it has been her pleasure to serve with the commissioners in her 2 current position. She said she looks forward to the legislative breakfast every year. She said 3 they have always felt badly about not bringing forward positive things for Orange County by way 4 of the General Assembly. She said they will go into the short session with the hope that by the 5 end of the calendar year, there will be an opportunity to expand Medicaid. She said there might 6 be an opportunity to disperse federal funds for education, health care, and housing. She said 7 that where possibilities exist, there is also opportunity. She said she looks forward to her last 8 few months as a legislator. 9 Chair Price said there was background information in the agenda packet that everyone 10 received. She reviewed the list of priority items. She also referred to a larger list of additional 11 concerns that was in the agenda packet. She asked if there was anything specific that the 12 group wanted to discuss further. 13 Representative Insko said she wanted to get an update on environmental issues. 14 Senator Foushee said she asked if the county could be more specific about the request 15 to "structure appropriate county participation in governance" under the mental health category in 16 the priority list. 17 Commissioner Bedford said the item was first written when the county was with Cardinal 18 Innovations and there was not an Orange County representative on the board. She said now 19 that the county is with Alliance, Commissioner Fowler is on the board, and they are soliciting 20 applications for a second board member. She said the mental health board structures are 21 inconsistent across state between the MCOs. 22 Chair Price said that the state association has advocated that counties know more about 23 what is going on than the state. The goal would be to allow counties to have more of a say. 24 Commissioner Bedford said part of it is related to pass through mental health funding. 25 She said it would be nice if counties could have more of that funding to do more specific work in 26 the community. She said Orange County has a behavioral health task force working on the 27 designs for a mental health crisis center because MCOs are not doing it. She said that MCOs 28 are sitting on huge fund balances, more than what is needed. She said MCOs need closer 29 management and greater supervision from NCDHHS. 30 Representative Insko referred to the request under the mental health category to "reduce 31 the number of people with mental health issues in county detention centers." She said 32 intervention needs to happen earlier, even as young as elementary school. She said there 33 should be more access by psychologists and psychiatrists at school to identify children that 34 aren't adjusting well. 35 Chair Price said the county provides funding to schools for mental health support. 36 Bonnie Hammersley, County Manager, said in the past year the county provided funding 37 for behavioral health in the schools as well as to address the achievement gap. She said the 38 schools presented their plans for spending the funds to the Board. She said both school 39 districts used the funds for staff to address behavioral health issues. She said Chapel Hill 40 Carrboro City Schools' request was more comprehensive, but Orange County Schools looked at 41 both the behavioral health of children and staff. She said that was done recently due to higher 42 sales tax revenue than anticipated. She said the recommendation was to use that funding for 43 the behavioral health issues in the schools. 44 Representative Insko said when a young person is arrested and they are identified as 45 having a mental health issue, there are intermediate steps before they are incarcerated. She 46 said when there were changes in service provision between the LMEs and state, there was an 47 increase in the number of people going to jail. She said it is still a serious problem that needs to 48 be dealt with. 49 Bonnie Hammersley said it is an ongoing problem. She said the Criminal Justice 50 Resource Department is looking closely at that with the social workers employed in the 51 department. She said as state hospitals were closed, it triggered an increased inmate problem