Board of Health - December 16, 2022

Regular Meeting: December 16, 2022

Opening: The regular meeting of the Board of Health of the City of Fargo, North Dakota, was held virtually due to inclement weather conditions at 12:00 o’clock p.m., on Friday, December 16, 2022, Chelsey Matter called the meeting to order (Chelsey Matter and Lyn Telford presided due to connection issues)
Present: Chelsey Matter, Bernie Dardis, Lyn Telford MSN, RN, CPHQ, Arlette Preston, Nyamal Dei MPH, Kayla Nelson DNP, APRN, FNP-C, Amy LaValla DNP, PMHNP-BC, APRN, PHN.
Absent: Duane Breitling, Charlene Nelson
Others in attendance: Tracie Newman, MD, MPH, FAAP, Justin Bohrer, Lucas Ringuette, Desi Fleming, Melissa Markegard, Scott Dahl, Larry Anenson, Jan Eliassen
Announcements: Meeting minutes from October 14, 2022: motion to approve by Lyn Telford, move to approve by Amy LaValla, seconded by Kayla Nelson. All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Desi Fleming thanked the current Board of Health members for their service and support.
CredibleMind Demo by Scott Dahl: Strengthening, Supporting, Mobilizing Community Behavioral Health: Prevention & Early Intervention
Public Health mindset, preventing mental illness and realizing that there are unmet health needs. People are undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, untreated. Not enough providers, waiting too long for appointments, uninsured or underinsured and most people prefer self-care but the information they receive may not be reliable. Their goal is to move upstream and prevent people from developing mental health issues that may lead them to crisis situations. People’s mental health risks are not just one factor, there is a dynamic cumulative risk. We are all on a mental health spectrum moving around due to life circumstances. Digital platform they provide. It is a unique local site for your public health department. You can add local resources, customizable, available 24/7 365 days a year. It is web and mobile device based. You can do a text search or go by topic. There are wellness assessments with scales that measure multiple dimensions. It is a comprehensive holistic approach that addresses: mental health, positive psychology, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, life events, spiritual wellbeing, occupational wellbeing, environmental wellbeing, interpersonal wellbeing, and financial wellbeing. You can take self-assessments; you can share it with your doctor or loved ones if you choose.
Results page will show you areas where you: are doing well, areas of some concern, areas of greater concern.
You can be triaged through the site. The site can connect you to local or national resources or recommend interventions. You can also educate yourself about different topics, for example anxiety. Helps break down the stigma on conditions. They have a proprietary schema, based on clinical studies about what steps you can take to help alleviate the symptoms of your issue. They have over 15,000 interventions and 900 curated apps.
You can target your interventions, do you want to read, do you want to listen to podcasts, male or female, are you a parent trying to help your child. Has “Need Help Now” for fast access. There are news and blogs and they are reviewed/written by their clinical team. You can add a website widget to your website to drive traffic to the CredibleMind site. They have real-time assessment data about our population (not individual data) but for your community that is using the site. They do a quarterly analytic report that lets the public health to understand about what is happening in their community. They also have engagement tools-social media, newsletters, posters, and google ads. They have 90% thumbs up helpful and would refer. 71% of users say they better understand mental health strengths and challenges, 61% learn a new skill or practice and 57% positively changed behavior. Helpful to divert people from jails or ERs. They are taking the tablet out on the streets with this site. Some of the savings: 1,431 emergency room diversions savings $5.72M, 948 criminal charge and jail diversions saving $2.37M, 80% of individuals where criminal charges were possible received appropriate mental health/substance use support. Desi looking for grant funding to fund 1–2-year pilot $17,000/year + setup fee. Triage people in crisis to get care, people getting resources to take help themselves, act as adjunctive therapy. Resources for all age groups – encourages younger kids to work with parents or teachers to help navigate the platform. Desi pitched this to the state (DHS funding) but didn’t hear much back in response, however the health equity coordinator at the state level and we might qualify for the funding. We would pilot it in Cass, then other state agencies and counties may jump on later – easily expandable.
Mental Health Coordinator Position, Melissa Markegard: Role started last November. No Feeling is Final has three basic goals: inspire community wide change through education, work to increase understand and reduce stigma, and partner with community agencies to increase positive wellbeing in our community. Areas of focus are: a) create website, outreach, and social media, b) early intervention with early childhood, adolescents and adults and c) community partnerships.
Created PSA with 463 foundation and Fargo PD. The PSA is on the Fargo Cass Public Health’s website and on their Fargo Public School website.
Other safety plans are how you train your brain to deal with suicidal ideations. They also want parents to talk their kids about their safety plans in case of a mental health crisis. There has been early childhood intervention – Tucker Turtle, Managing Big Feelings with Tucker Turtle training, training attendings receive book and puppet. Provided books from AFSP to distribute ‘Gizmo’s Pawesome guide to Mental Health’, to community partners. Incorporated ‘Baby Faces’ and ‘My First Book of Feelings’ into the NFP program at Fargo Cass Public Health. Events coordinated: Three “A Night of Hope” speeches, Fargo Public School assemblies, Changing the Narrative trainings, Out of the Darkness walk and sponsorship.
Partnerships with: Fargo Police Department, 4-6-3 Foundation, Fargo VA, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Clay County Public Health, Cass Clay Suicide Prevention Coalition, Suicide Fatality Review Team, CCSPC-Education Committee, Bethel Church, and Fargo Youth Initiative.
Created: posters for schools, posters on MatBus, now include 988 number, stickers & magnets, Facebook frame. Internally for the Fargo Cass Public Health staff– t-shirts, weekly/biweekly mental health minute emails, calm coloring, and employee book club.
Lyn Telford mentioned that in North Dakota guns are the method used commonly for suicide, so she suggested having a presentation that discusses gun safety/storage and gun violence prevention. Advocate for extreme risk protection orders, it keeps guns out of the hands of people in crisis.
Public Comments: None
Closing comments: Desi mentioned that we are considering doing quarterly schedule meetings, one and a half hour meetings for 2023.
Next meeting: February 10, 2023