Alternative Health Intervention and Response Task Force
Cook County Board of CommissionersLocation unavailable
As of this writing, meeting details have not yet been posted, but we anticipate that you will have the option to document this meeting in person or remotely, via Microsoft Teams.
If you tune in remotely, go to this page, click on the meeting details for 6/1/2022 and click the “Click here to watch live.” link. You can click “join from web” and “join anonymously” to access the meeting without downloading anything or logging in.
This will be the task force’s fourth meeting. See past Documenters coverage here.
Check the source website for additional information
Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team
988 mental health emergency hotline, Crisis facilities, CESSA
Dr. Kiran Joshi starts off the meeting by explaining how this task force is approaching phone calls from residents in crisis. There will be a new number introduced (988). This new number will connect the resident with behavioral and mental health specialists.
The planned debut of this new crisis line is July 2022.
Dr. Kiran Joshi makes sure to explain that the city of Chicago needs a safe space for people to go when having a crisis that is not prison.
Obviously, the task force wishes to implement all of their plans, but there is nowhere for residents to go when having a crisis unless they wish to go to jail or hospitial.
For right now residents have to go through the system of law enforcement.
Discussion will be limited to board memebers, unless questions and comments are submitted to Mary Alice Carroll.
The discussion will be based around how to implement a state-wide crisis response system.
Martin Bennett rasises some good questions about how this task froce will be able to put together this crisis respsonse team. The goals are concrete and viable, but it will take a long time to build a system that can cater to residents in crisis.
Jason Hernandez raises the obvious question of how do we stop this from becoming an over bloated sytem bogged down by bureaucracy.
He does mention that the goals of this task force are very useful.
Commissoner Mora Illana echoes the thoughts that the proposed crisis response system would be a great addition to Chicago, but she does make note that this propsed system would have to utlitlize outreach. Not all people in need come get help.
Jason Hernandez makes the obvious observation that this is an unique time in Chicago history. There is more than enough dollars being floated around. It is important to fully take advantage of the money that is avaible to different branches of local governement.
Bridget Degnen identifies that due to lack of data, there is no roadmap to how to build this system. There is no way to know exactly how many beds they would need, or how many crisis rooms. Unfortunately, they are going in somewhat blind.
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Agency Information
Cook County Board of Commissioners
County Commissioners are elected officials who oversee county activities and work to ensure that citizen concerns are met, federal and state requirements are fulfilled, and county operations run smoothly. The Cook County Board of Commissioners is the governing board and legislative body of the county. It is comprised of 17 Commissioners, each serving a four-year term and is elected from single member districts. Each district represents approximately 300,000 residents. The Board also operates approximately 40 committees and subcommittees chaired by members of Board of Commissioners.
Remote meetings of the Cook County Board of Commissioners are live-streamed at https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/watch-live-board-proceedings
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