Du Page County Health & Human Services Committee met Sept. 1.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
9:30 AM meeting was called to order by Chair Sam Tornatore at 9:30 AM. Chair Tornatore stated the committee has a quorum but not a physical quorum present thus all votes will require a roll call vote.
2. ROLL CALL
PRESENT: DiCianni (Remote), Eckhoff, Larsen, Renehan (Remote), Tornatore
ABSENT: DeSart County Board members Sheila Rutledge and Ashley Selmon attended the meeting.
3. PUBLIC COMMENT
4. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT - CHAIR TORNATORE
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Health & Human Services - Regular Meeting - Aug 18, 2020 9:30 AM
RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Peter DiCianni, District 2
SECONDER: Robert L. Larsen, District 6
AYES: DiCianni, Eckhoff, Larsen, Renehan, Tornatore
ABSENT: DeSart
6. LENGTH OF SERVICE AWARDS
Anniversary Award - 10 Years - Shefali Trivedi - Giving DuPage
Mary Keating, Director of Community Services, presented a ten-year anniversary award to Shefali Trivedi.
7. COMMUNITY SERVICES - MARY KEATING
CS Requests That Also Require Finance And/Or County Board Approval
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Robert L. Larsen, District 6
SECONDER: Grant Eckhoff, District 4
AYES: DiCianni, Eckhoff, Larsen, Renehan, Tornatore
ABSENT: DeSart
A. FI-R-0485-20 RESOLUTION -- Acceptance & Appropriation of Additional Funding and Extension of Time for the Low-Income Kit Energy (LIKE) Program Grant FY19, Company 5000 - Accounting Unit 1505, $20,000
B. FI-R-0486-20 RESOLUTION -- Acceptance and Appropriation of the AgeGuide Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging Title III Cares Act Supplemental Grant, Company - 5000 Accounting Unit - 1660. $358,883.
C. FI-R-0488-20 RESOLUTION -- Acceptance & Appropriation of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) HHS Cares Act Grant FY21, Inter Governmental Agreement No. 20-274028, Company 5000 - Accounting Unit 1420, $1,403,964 (COVID ITEM)
D. HHS-R-0487-20 RESOLUTION -- Approval of Issuance of Payments by DuPage County to Energy Assistance Providers through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) HHS Cares Act Grant FY21 No. 20-274028, Company - 5000 Accounting Unit - 1420, in the amount of $1,207,409.
8. BUDGET TRANSFERS
Budget Transfers -- DuPage Care Center - To transfer monies to cover remaining FY20 Sharps Box Containers disposal and interpreter services for The DuPage Care Center - $2030.
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Robert L. Larsen, District 6
SECONDER: Grant Eckhoff, District 4
AYES: DiCianni, Eckhoff, Larsen, Renehan, Tornatore
ABSENT: DeSart
9. INFORMATIONAL
Informational items 9.A. and 9.Bb were combined and placed on file.
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Robert L. Larsen, District 6
SECONDER: Julie Renehan, Vice Chair
AYES: DiCianni, Eckhoff, Larsen, Renehan, Tornatore
ABSENT: DeSart
A. Grant Proposal Notifications -- GPN 066-20 Title III CARES Act Grant PY20 - AgeGuide Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Community Services - $358,883.
B. Grant Proposal Notifications -- GPN 065-20 Emergency Solutions Grant Cares Act Funding (ESG-CV II) - Second Allocation - U.S. Dept. Of Housing and Urban Development - Community Services - $2,483,604
10. RESIDENCY WAIVERS - JANELLE CHADWICK
11. COMMUNITY SERVICES UPDATE - MARY KEATING
Mary Keating stated that Shefali Trivedi, Executive Director of Giving DuPage, put together a great annual report, highlighting some of the Giving DuPage activities. As stated in the 2021 Community Services’ budget request was that the Giving DuPage’s operating budget is privately raised, coming from registration for events or sponsorships. Ms. Keating will circulate additional information regarding Giving DuPage to the committee members after the meeting. Staff are busy sorting through the Covid-19 applications for Cares Act Funding (CRF). Funding recommendations for direct cost reimbursements and residential/behavioral health services will be presented to County Board on September 8. Ten agencies are approved for the residential/behavioral health service providers for about $825,000. The direct costs reimbursements were awarded to 43 agencies totaling about 1.5M.
The department is in the process of working through program designs and grant agreements for the allocations for Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB), as well as the three largest food pantries; Peoples Resource Center, Loaves & Fishes, and West Suburban Community Pantry. The three food pantries combined will receive 1M in assistance. The agencies will be allowed to apply 12 - 15% of their funding for additional food storage equipment to accommodate the increase in the volume of people being served.
Ms. Keating and Member Larson have been working with the DuPage County Health Department and the DuPage Health Coalition on the program design and agreements for the flu vaccination program for uninsured residents. They are hoping to have the agreements ready for County Board on September 8.
Calls to the Information and Referral unit are up 20% from last year. This is somewhat attributable to the fact that LIHEAP applications opened earlier this year. Staff are currently; scheduling LIHEAP appointments. Ms. Keating anticipates the call volume will remain high for the foreseeable future. County Board member, Sheila Rutledge asked if the shortage of staff was still an issue. Ms. Keating confirmed the shortage, adding it is a hard position to fill and retain staff.
Member Renehan asked if we budgeted 1M for residential/behavioral services, why we are allocating only $825,000. Ms. Keating replied that every request was approved, and we can always do a second round of applications. She surmised that agencies were realistic with their requests about what they could spend before the end of the 2020 year.
12. DUPAGE CARE CENTER UPDATE - JANELLE CHADWICK Janelle Chadwick, Administrator of the DuPage Care Center, gave an update on COVID-19. The Care Center currently has 3 residents on their COVID-19 unit. One resident tested positive seven weeks ago and is still fluctuating between positive/negative test results. Since April, the Care Center has conducted over 7000 in-house tests, with 35 staff and 30 residents testing positive. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) came out with a Phase Three opening approach. Getting through the phases is a convoluted, complex and challenging process. The Care Center made it 14 days before a new positive test result set them back to phase one, the highest level of mitigation. Residents have mostly been confined to their rooms for months and had recently resumed some outside activities and some structured outside family visits. The Care Center had four Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) infection control surveys, higher than the average facility, which is one to two. Ms. Chadwick believes the Care Center is selected due to the high number of beds, giving the IDPH the best result for their effort. The surveys have gone very well until the last survey, which was very challenging and adversarial. The minor issues were resolved in three days. The IDPH is now attaching fines and penalties, even at the lowest level of deficiencies.
The Care Center received a government issued antigen testing machine and purchased one from Medline, performing over 600 tests weekly. Staff are reviewing all the material to learn what the testing entails. It will be helpful to be able to test a symptomatic person and get a 15-minute turnaround result.
Member Larsen asked if there were documented Covid-19 deaths and if Ms. Chadwick had a sense of the false positivity rate. Ms. Chadwick replied originally four deaths were attributed to Covid-19, but two were later changed to other causes. The two that passed away in May were clearly documented. She did not have an answer regarding the false positivity rate of the tests being administered. Ms. Chadwick replied there is no logical explanation. For example, a patient tested positive and all their contacts were negative.
Regarding residents voting, Ms. Chadwick stated recreational therapy have always assisted the residents one by one for individual voting, so there will be no adjustments. Member Eckhoff inquired about the pay increase to the nursing staff earlier this year and if it has had any impact on discouraging staff from working in other facilities. He suggested staff receive hazard pay to reduce the risk of workers transferring COVID-19 from one facility to another. Ms. Chadwick responded that it is common practice in the industry for staff to work at multiple facilities. Staff have to document any other facility they worked at every day and wear N95 masks and full PPE.
13. OLD BUSINESS
County Board member Ashley Selmon spoke on behalf of Giving DuPage and the Executive Director, Shefali Trivedi, stating she and County Board member Greg Hart can attest to the value of the volunteers Shefali provided them early in the COVID-19 process. Ms. Selmon encouraged anyone to contact either Member Hart or her with questions.
14. NEW BUSINESS
15. ADJOURNMENT
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