County Update - October 7, 2020

Amidst the political chaos on the national and state level, we have been continuing to work hard here in Kent County.

In the COVID CARES Allocation Committee this week we are exploring additional funding for our businesses to get them through the COVID restrictions on their activities and possible supplemental funding for schools and crime prevention. We specifically determined to allocate funds to address youth violence in the county. This has become an unfortunate byproduct of the COVID suppression strategies. It is hoped that these programs can have a lasting impact on the communities making them more secure and healthy environments for families.

In the Senior Millage Allocation Committee this week we prepared to undertake the week-long task of listening to dozens of proposals from community agencies and determining how to best support our seniors in Kent County. Our partners at Area Agency on Aging have worked hard with us to assess how senior needs have evolved in this COVID world and apply these funds to best meet the changing needs.

At the Community Mental Health Board (Network 180) meeting this week we learned more about our efforts in working with the Grand Rapids Police Department to partner with some of their programs bringing our behavioral health experience to the challenges law enforcement face. This partnership serves as an excellent alternative to the conversation about defunding the efforts of law enforcement.

County Update - July 17, 2020

Summers tend to be a slower season for the County. That has certainly not been the case this year. This update focuses on those County activities where I serve directly on boards and committees but there is certainly much more going on across the county. I am happy to address those and other activities if asked.

*The Kent County Community Action (KCCA) held another drive up food delivery day with over 900 food packages received by Kent County residents. KCCA continues to be a primary resource for support services implemented to address the financial crisis many families are experiencing as a consequence of COVID-19.

*The County managed CARES funds for small businesses ($25M) is in the process of being allocated through the efforts of the Grand Rapids Chamber. Sole proprietors and small businesses (less than 25 employees) are encouraged to contact the Chamber to see if you qualify for these grant dollars.

*The Commission has also allocated $9.5M of CARES funds for grants to Kent County nonprofits who have suffered qualified financial losses responding to COVID. Nonprofit agencies are encouraged to contact the United Way who is assisting in identifying recipient agencies.

*The Network 180 Board continues to carefully monitor anticipated increases in the demand for behavioral health services across the County after experiencing a reduction in service demands during the height of the quarantine. In response to expressed concerns that our public health systems may not be equitably experienced across all segments of our county. The Executive Committee has authorized an internal assessment to determine if there are in fact disparities and if so the nature of these disparities.

*The Board of the regional PIHP - Lakeshore Regional Entity - responsible for managing all SUD and public behavioral health fund administration in the seven-county West Michigan region, amended its budget his week to reflect a projected increase in funding to $334M. We are now moving into active negotiations with our private service partner (Beacon Health) to structure our management systems for the next fiscal year and are re-engaging our negotiations with the State over funding disparities.

*Our Kent County Crisis Center Task Force is continuing to meet with the consortium of health care leaders to press forward with the implementation of a new behavioral health crisis response system.

*At West Michigan Works we learned that while this multi-county agency is primarily focused on the development of a workforce that best meets the needs of our employers, we have shifted to helping the State unemployment department in processing unemployment claims so reduce the backlog in this process.

*At Senior Millage Allocation, we continue our reassessing of the process for dispensing the voter-approved millage funds. We have identified a number of ways to make the process more efficient.

*The Commission has begun its annual process of adopting the budget for the next year reviewing its priorities for capital projects. This will be a challenging year as we anticipate pressure to reduce revenue sharing as the state responds to a multi-billion dollar reduction in revenues.

Please let me know if there any other county activities you would like to have me address. 

County Update - May 24, 2020

It has been another busy week for Kent County.

On Monday we learned more about the exciting opportunities opening up to us at Kent County Community Mental Health with a $2.0 million grant to operate a CCBHC. This pilot will allow us to redesign how we approach the community needs for behavioral health services. In many way we have one of the best systems in the country but it still has dysfuntions. This will enable us to address some of these. Email me if you would like more information about the CCBHC.

We continue to respond to the Covid crisis as the community struggles to deal with the health and economic consequences. This crisis is pushing the system to its limits but there are many committed and very capable people staying on top of this situation.

On Tuesday the County Commission Finance Committee deliberated a number of Covid related grants approving allocations for various community support programs administered through Kent County Community Action Agency where I serve on the governing board. With all of the additional needs in the wake of the financial crisis created by the mitigation orders this will be an active agency.

The COVID Cares Allocation Committee met on Tuesday morning and again Thursday morning. We heard presentations from the major foundations in the County and our economic development organizations including The Right Place. It is difficult to overstate the extent to which our economy has been shaken by our response to COVID 19. There will be casualties- we will unfortunately lose some businesses. We did authorize an immediate expenditures of up to $2.0 million to make PPE available to Kent County employers with 100 or fewer employees to help these organizations re engage. (Did you know that there are over 80 companies in Kent County that manufacture or distribute PPE?)

On Thursday I met with the Executive Committee of the seven county regional PIHP (the entity responsible for administering all public behavioral health and substance services across the region). For years we have been aggressively working to design our funding administration to stabilize the system and assure our services are of the highest quality. We are bracing for a dramatic increase in demand for services over the coming months.

It is difficult to know whether these reports would be more helpful if shorter or longer. Let me know what you think.

County Update - May 17, 2020

This past week has been a busy one as your County Commissioner!

In our Crisis Center Task Force meeting we heard from across the county how the Covid-19 health and economic crisis is producing wide ranging impacts on the mental health of residents throughout our communities. We are working in partnership with other excellent private institutions in this county to assure that we make behavioral health services available to everyone regardless of their insurance status including doing so through innovative tele-therepy. As the economic crisis deepens we will need to continue to work on expanding these services.

On a related front I met with folks working with our Kent County veterans which confirmed that the behavioral health needs here are even greater and in some instances far more urgent.

In the Executive Committee of the Community Mental Health Authority (Network 180) we continue to wrestle with the funding concerns through the complicated federal/state Medicaid system at a time when the number of demands for service are growing. We also had some great news that Kent County CMH (Network 180) has been awarded a $2.0 million grant as a CCBHC (Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic) to establish a service model for mental health services across the county regardless of the severity of the diagnosis. This approach will help us bridge the transition between the physical and behavioral health systems.

At this week's meeting of the Executive Committee of the Lakeshore Regional Entity (Region 3 Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan) we discussed how to administer additional Covid funding across the region and the challenges of maintaining a viable direct care work force. The system of Medicaid and Healthy Michigan funding for behavioral health services still demands that we provide services for which there is inadequate funding. We continue to engage the Michigan DHHS and our legislators about these issues.

In the Board meeting of Integrity Educational Services, which is an educational services provider for several specialty charter schools in Kent County including the Lighthouse Academy working as a the only strict disciplinary academy in Kent County, it was sobering to hear that state mitigation orders will continue to have significant impacts on how we educated our youth well into the next school year. Not only will our educational institutions likely be compelled to mange with a significant reduction in the per pupil distribution from the State but they will need to be innovative to successfully educate in this environment.

During the Kent County Commission COVID CARES Fund Allocation Committee which met twice this past week we heard some dire predictions from chambers across the County that the impact on many of our business will be terminal. Many of our minority owned businesses are most at risk but the fact is every business in the County has been impacted in some way. These economic impacts will change the landscape of our communities for years. We will be investigating the needs and formulating a response strategy as we seek to apply the $115 million in CARES funds approved by Congress and the President.

At the County Commission meeting this week we approved a number of grant and funding requests to support the Covid-19 response. Among those was the acceptance of the CARES Act funding of approximately $115 million.

Finally, in the weekly COVID Response Briefing we received a report on the status of the county health organizations response to the level of infections and our County efforts to work with our employers as they reactivate. We are providing advise, consultation, testing, PPE access and other assistance so that employers can get back up and operating in a safe manner providing employees and customers confidence.

While there are difficult state and federal issues fighting for our attention, I am committed to staying focused on what needs to be done to protect and preserve the health and safety of the residents of Kent County.

If you have any concerns or questions I encourage you to reach out through my Facebook, email, or website.