The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, August 1, 2005 @ 5:30p.m. in the Administration Building's Conference Room East.  Vice-Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order. Members present were

Sally DeFauw, Eileen Dubin, Eric Johnson, Julia Fullerton and Ruth Anne Tobias.  Mr. Rosemier was absent.  Others present were Liz Carney, Mary Lou Strack, Peg Doty, Anita Turner and Diane Strand.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from June and July of 2005.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. DeFauw, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

MENTAL HEALTH 708 BOARD’S ANNUAL REPORT

            Ms. Liz Carney, Director of the DeKalb County Mental Health 708 Board, briefly reviewed her Annual Report for the committee.   She thanked the committee and the County Board for all of their support for the Mental Health services in the county. 

            She highlighted a press release included in the annual report hat clearly states the importance of identifying and treating mental illness in timely fashion.  The studies had looked at the impact when that does not happen.  It shows that you can actually develop a more severe and difficult way to treat mental illness if it is not identified in a more timely fashion or you can develop another mental illness.  These are services that have to meet high-risk needs for persons in the community and these are the kind of services that are getting funded through her board, Ms. Carney said.

            The next item that she highlighted was the three colored charts that show the relationships between the County of DeKalb’s Fiscal Year, the Mental Health Board’s Grant Year and the Calendar Year.  The County year is in “red” and the grant year for allocations for the Mental Health Board is in “green”.   Their grant year for allocations from the Mental Health Board runs from July 1^st to June 30^th of every year because it is the State Year. 

            The Audit for the Fiscal Year 2004 was included in the report because she wanted to draw the attention to the fund balance figure.  She said that the Fund Balance as of November 30, 2004, includes funds to cover 7 months of grants and capital disbursements to agencies, operating expenses and personnel expenses.  It also includes a cash reserve fund.  She has recommended to her board to set aside some funds for operating reserve.  Also there are very significant capital needs too, like remodeling and additions to buildings.  They do funding for capital needs for agencies currently.  Some of the reserve that they presently have is directed towards that.  The County owns the Ben Gordon Center and the Mental Health Board functions as its landlord.  So they take responsibility for the roof, air conditioning unit, heating system, repairs, etc.    The roof is in need of repair currently and she has spoken to Mr. Ken Campbell, Director of the Facilities Management Office, about it.  Upon inspection, Mr. Campbell concurs with her that the roof needs to be repaired.  They are starting a savings fund for future costs like these.

            Another chart shows the FY 2005 Expenditures stating that 80% account for grants, 9% is capital, 8% personnel and 3% if office expenses.  The next chart shows the Grant Year 2005 Allocations by Type of Disability, line items 8201 and 8205 in the budget, for the current grant year (07/01/04 thru 06/30/05).  For allocations it shows: 68% of the money were allocated to Mental Health Services,  16% for Developmental Disabilities, 12% to alcohol and substance abuse services and 4% to other, which includes, as an example, transportation provided by Voluntary Action Center , etc.

            There were 36 programs and 12 agencies that received funding through the Mental Health Board.  What she has done is target populations for each services provided.  These are high-risk services that are seen in the “pink” chart, Ms. Carney continued. 

            The next chart shows the number of clients by age for grant year 2005.  On a client by client served there were almost 10,000 unduplicated clients.  The number of clients by age was 6,633 adults and 3301 children served.   There’s one service that only serves children and then there are those services that serve both ages, like Safe Passage and The Epilepsy Foundation.  

            Ms. Dubin asked Ms. Carney if she has access to numbers from the past to see whether or not there is an increase in children’s services?   Ms. Carney said that she couldn’t do that because she could only report based on what she knows about the services.  They don’t actually ask people to report by age, also she said.  If the committee wanted her to do so though then she would try to work with the agencies to include it in their reports. 

            Ms. Carney also informed the committee that there is a Commission Report from the Federal level stating that there is an initiative for transformation of mental health services in the country.  There is money available for states to transform their mental health services and Illinois has applied for one of those grants to do just that. 

            Ms.Dubin then questioned the 8% of funds that Ms. Carney has reported that go to personnel, is this correct?  Ms. Carney said yes, that her office is a “pass through” agency.  She also explained that in the past and currently they have kept a close hold on costs.

            They committee thanked Ms. Carney for a very informative report. 

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION HOMEMAKERS UPDATE

            Ms. Mary Lou Strack, of the DeKalb County Homemakers Association, introduced herself to the committee and explained what her association does.  She said that they were founded as a home bureau for mostly rural women in 1937.  At that time they had 1,000 women who joined their association.  Currently their 200 members represent rural and urban women, and the average age of their members is 70.  They are learning a lot and having a great time doing it.  They also help the 4 H Clubs with projects.

            About six years ago the Indian Health Services reported that the young women would not come in for their pre-natal services because they would give them drug testing and alcohol testing.  They young women would not come in for the testing. .  The Homemaker’s Association heard about this and across the U.S. they have large cabinets full of baby clothes that are given to new Indian mothers when they come in for pre-natal services.  This idea and the services originated right here in DeKalb County. 

            The Associated Country Women of the World is an international organization that they belong to, which represents over 80 countries.  They even have a representative at the United Nations where they have a consultant status.  They work on income generating projects for countries and areas where there is a real need for women to step up as providers for their families, said Ms. Strack.

            Ms. Dubin was concerned that they are not able to bring in younger women into the organization.  Is there anyway to draw in younger women to keep the organization alive?  Ms. Strack said that there are many young women that work during the day now and years ago they did not.  Many members wonder if it is fair to take these young mothers away from their families when they work all day.  However, they are targeting Hispanic women and home schooling mothers currently to join their organization.

            The committee thanked Ms. Strack for her very interesting report.

NATURAL RESOURCES UPDATE

            Ms. Peggy Doty, Unit Educator, for the Natural Resources Center, introduced herself to the committee and briefly reviewed what they do.  She manages the Resource Center as part of the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Unit.  They receive funds from the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District, Soil and Water, Solid Waste Management and the University of Illinois matching funds. 

            They have family activities in the Winter months, Spring Field Trips, Summer camps that run for six weeks long and Fall Field Trips.  Their summer camp is themed based.  They usually have 6 camps with 1 of those for the scout camp.  They are currently looking for volunteers since there is only her and one other person running the Resource Center.  She will be trying to get people to make annual funding this year, that is one of her goals.

            They see usually 4,000 children a year and there is some duplication, that is, some children come for more than one program, but not many.  They have a tight budget with no advertisement, they have a lot of repeat business from schools DeKalb County schools, and they also get out-of –county schools and people to come and visit them.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

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Robert Rosemier, Chairman

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary