HomeMy WebLinkAboutMHTFMinutes_2018_03_26Brookings City/County/School Mental Health Task Force
March 26, 2018 (approved)
A meeting of the Brookings City/County/School Mental Health Task Force was held on Monday, March 26,
2018 at 12:00 p.m. in the Brookings City & County Government Center. Present: Mary Beth Fishback, Nikki
Eining, Craig Pahl, Randy Grimsley, Brookings School District, Dan Hansen, Brookings City Council, and Mike
Bartley, Brookings County Commission. Others in attendance were: Brookings County Commission
Department Director Stacy Steffensen and Brookings City Clerk Shari Thornes.
Co-Chairperson Fishback called the meeting to order.
A motion was made by Hansen, seconded by Pahl to approve the agenda as presented. All members voted
“aye.” Motion carried.
A motion was made by Bartley, seconded by Hansen to approve the minutes from the January 26, 2018
meeting. All members voted “aye.” Motion carried.
Eining updated the board on the Resource Review. She said the 211 Helpline will update the contact
information for mental health services in February each year. Fishback said she has received many positive
comments about the resource guide. Eining said she will share the data on use of the 211 call center. Pahl
said the 2017 numbers show that inquiries regarding mental health issues are more than double that of any
other type of inquiry the call center received. Bartley handed out the roster for the Lo cal Emergency Planning
Committee in Brookings County, as well.
The group discussed the needs assessment. Fishback said she and Bjornestad have been working as part of
the SDSU subcommittee. They have developed survey questions and are looking at conducting focus group
sessions with different entities on campus as part of their routine meetings. Eining said the K-12
subcommittee met with school counselors throughout the county to develop survey questions. She said they
are ready to send that survey out to counselors and school mental health officials. Pahl asked if the purpose
of the survey is still to see where there are gaps in services, rather than frequency of mental health issues in
the county. Fishback said that is still the theme, but they will also get some prevalence-type information, too.
Fishback asked if each subcommittee will use one survey or if each with create their own survey to get the
information in the most effective way for their group. Hansen said they should have a common set o f
questions for everyone. He said he would fall under several categories, but would only want to fill the survey
out once. Fishback said some questions that she has seen would be better for a focus group setting where
more dialogue could be had, rather than a survey question where you may only get short answers.
Pahl said that the survey for the school counselors is specific to that group. He said none of the questions that
are on that survey are generic to the average citizen in the county. Grimsley s aid they will have to develop
different types of surveys for the different groups. Pahl said that could get complicated.
Pahl also asked if the task force plans to use the data from the surveys to write grants; or are they going to
make recommendations to the city, county and school district and they will write the grants. Eining said the
task force will do the work and recommend what needs to be done. She said they will be able to validate
being in the action phase of implementing recommendations. Grimsley said he believes there is buy-in from
the three entities, but the hurdle will be how to get things to happen.
Bartley said they need to move forward and get the surveys out to the public. He said if they don’t move this
process along, their data will be outdated. Resources will always be an issue, but the political climate is right
for this information to be presented. Bartley said school shootings and mental health issues related to them
are at the forefront. He said the time is now to move forward. Grimsley agreed that they need to strike while
the iron is hot. He said if they want something good to happen from these tragedies, they need to start
talking about this issue.
Hansen said he would still like to see a central survey of some sort an d that hasn’t happened. Fishback said
she will compile questions and create a master survey from what has been submitted.
A motion was made by Grimsley, seconded by Bartley to empower each subcommittee to move forward with
focus group and survey-related questions and send those out to their sub-groups. Motion carried. Fishback
asked everyone to word their questions so data analysis will be simple. She also asked about a single
collection point, like Survey Monkey or Question Pro. Fishback was directed to create the master survey
through one of those means.
Pahl discussed the community coalition. He said the Chamber and BEDC have agreed to assist in setting up a
process to develop this group. Pahl said he has also reached out to Brookings Police Chief Dave Erickson and
plans to contact Brookings County Sheriff Marty Stanwick. Pahl said he would also like to talk to the Brookings
Area Human Resources Association. He hopes to have a meeting in the next couple of weeks.
Bartley discussed the National Association of Counties “Stepping Up” initiative. By consensus, the task force
recommended that the county adopt a resolution and put this initiative into place.
Fishback declared the meeting adjourned at 1:37 PM.
Submitted by Stacy Steffensen