Logan County Mental Health Advisory Council sets structural goals
 

[December 26, 2019]  At the Logan County Board meeting on Tuesday, December 17, Logan County Department of Public Health Administrator Don Cavi provided several updates.

Cavi said there are six members on the Mental Health Advisory Council: Cavi, Alison Rumler-Gomez of Community Action, Villy Cone of Lincoln Pastoral, Dan Benedict of the Veterans Assistance Commission, Olivia Messina with Memorial Behavioral Health and Bethany Hoffert, a school psychologist.

Legislative Committee Chairman Annette Welch said Cavi has been serving as an advisory member of the Mental Health Board and now the board is officially appointing him.

The Mental Health Advisory Council is specifically focusing on prevention, treatment, mental health promotion, maintenance and outreach. Cavi said the information provided at the meetings will help the Council identify areas moving forward.

Cavi said four experts in their respective areas are working together on a strategic plan.

The focus has been narrowed to four areas the council is looking to explore:
- One data source.

Cavi said when police or EMS need information, there is not anywhere to get it. By working together to develop one data source, this source could be used for strategic programming. Cavi said they will explore that and try to insure there are no HIPPA violations involved.

- Increase mental health professionals in the community as far as access to mental health care.
Cavi said the county falls way below the state level.
- A Crisis Center in the community.
Cavi said that may happen somewhere in the future.
- Increasing health partnerships that possess the same knowledge of mental health issues and how these issues adversely affect the community.

Cavi said they need to look at how they can avoid retraumatizing those in the community who have mental health issues. Not only will these partnerships help people with mental health issues, but Cavi said it could take burden off the court system and hospitals.

On another matter, Cavi said the county has applied for a cultural health award through the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation out of the University of Wisconsin (not to be confused with the Woods Foundation in Lincoln).

It is a county wide application and AngelaStoltzenburg at ALMH has taken the lead in applying for the award. The finalist will receive $25,000 to go towards public health programs in the community.

The award would go to counties that are making a great impact in their communities with public health programs.
The application was submitted earlier this fall and Cavi said he found out two weeks ago that the County has been approved to continue to phase two of the application. In this phase, Cavi said they [Stoltzenburg and others] have to submit an essay and a four minute video to the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.

Since it is a county wide application, Stoltzenburg asked Cavi to share the information with the Logan County Board. Throughout the application process, they need so many representatives from the county and Cavi said a county board member may be asked to participate in the process by doing an interview.

The finalists of the health award will be announced in fall 2020.

The Board of Health met recently. Cavi said SIU wants to add space for a social worker, and they are hoping to get grant dollars. Cavi said right now their counselor uses a conference room every Thursday morning, so it would be nice for her to have her own space.

On other health topics, it has been a quiet year for West Nile Virus statewide. Cavi said they had five calls about birds and two were eligible for testing but were negative. There were 1,329 mosquitoes caught and 32 traps were set throughout the county, but Cavi there were nopositive pools.

There were no West Nile cases in the county and Cavi said the state only had 26 confirmed cases, which was less than usual. Last year at this time, there were 176 in the state, though no human cases in the county.

[Angela Reiners]