Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes
May 26, 2017
540 1st Street, Milwaukee, WI
Phone Attendance: Gail Kinney and Sandy Hardie
In-person Attendance: Anthony Harris, Cathy Scheier, Denise Johnson, Tish Minor, and Thai Vue
Interpreter: Amy
Excused: Harold Gates
Staff: Mai Zong Vue
Absent: Sterlon White, Danise Doudna, Richard Bryant, Rebecca Weise
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Thai at 10:09 a.m. Everyone introduced themselves.
Public Comments: none
Approval of Meeting Minutes
Anthony moved to approve the February and April meeting minutes as submitted and Cathy seconded. Motion was approved unanimously.
Needs Assessment Review – Mike Derr
Mike gave walked through the Needs Assessment process and tentative timeline. See handouts from Mike for details. Basically, July 1 a complete draft is available for review by members of both Councils and the general public. There is a public hearing prior to the final review and approval by the Wisconsin Council on Mental Health at their quarterly meeting on July 19. SCAODA members are invited to attend and participate in the July 19 meeting.
Mike highlighted the five parts within the Needs Assessment while taking feedbacks and questions from the members. The five parts were: prevalence, access to services, service system and workforce capacity, quality and appropriateness of services, and consumer and other outcomes.
Comments and questions raised included: how do you intersect between race? Is there an effort to make the age group language consistent? How many of the responded consumers are from the underserved population? Thai shared that access is not access due to fear of being experimental clients in the system. We need to do more education to eliminate this fear. Denise added that there is similar fear in the deaf culture, for there is no one who is deaf from the deaf family because she is afraid how the community will view her. In dealing with this fear, often they committed suicide instead of seeking help. Denise also shared that there is a large number of deaf people on the unreported counties (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Dane, Eau Claire and Marathon). Tish added that there is a need to re-instate the minority training council, for the state is drifting away from giving opportunity for minorities to be trained and become certified counselors.
Budget Initiative
Sandy would like to know how new providers can get into the women’s AODA treatment fund? Mike shared that an RFP comes out about every five years.
Website Updates
After review the updates on the Diversity page, members added that they would like to add more fancy features on the page and making it shorter and user friendly. Thai suggested if committee bio and credential should be added. Denise suggested that Mike and members review the deaf website that has the bio. There may be a need to add specific webmaster terms that is searchable. Gail redirected everyone by asking the big questions: What does the website offer to people? What is our website purpose?
DCTS Updates
The Annual Prevention Training Conference is coming up on June 13 and 14. The registration link was sent out to everyone. Please help spread the word.
DCTS is busy getting the State Targeted Responses Grant (STR) ready for distribution for counties and tribes. A Request for Proposal will be out some time soon.
The Section Chief position for Substance Abuse Section, formerly held by AJ, has been filled. Scott Stokes, a member of the SCAODA, accepted the offer and will be the new Section Chief. Meanwhile, Mai Zong Vue will remain in the Children and Youth Section under Teresa Steinmetz and Lorie Goeser will remain in Integrated Section under Kenya Bright.
2017 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Conference
Diversity Workshop: Cathy shared that her video candidate backed out. So she is back to square one—asking around for potential candidates. One person indicated he would do it for a fee. After a brief discussion, it was agreed that Thai will send his suggested workshop presentation outline to everyone.
Diversity Reception
After some discussion on the format of the Diversity Reception, Gail agreed that she will facilitate the session and support Dr. Moore. She will contact him to finalize his talk.
Workforce Presentation
Sandy reported that the Workforce Committee met three times, which she is a member of. They discussed the changes and had good dialogues on the changes. Members from her Committee and Governor Walker’s Taskforce Committee seemed to be on the same page. People who are certified now stay certified without needing to meet the new requirements. Basically, they gathered feedback, met, sent their recommendations for considerations, and waiting to hear from the decision maker if their recommendations are accepted.
Agenda items for the next meeting include:
· Website
· Workshop Panel
· Bylaw and Attendance
· Diversity Workshop and Reception
· DSPS Rule Change
· Harm Reduction – Beth
· PPS Data Report - Mike Quirke
Next meeting date is July 28, 2017, Diverse & Resilient, 414-390-0444
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 2:05 p.m. by Cathy and seconded by Tish.
Meeting notes by Mai Zong Vue; 608-266-9218
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