Community Connections

• Farewell to Lyn Berner.

I. Welcome

• Leslie Huntley called the meeting to order.

II. Guest Comments

• Jim Greer said his good-bye's to Lyn Berner.

III. Ground Rules

• Ground rules were not present.

• Ground Rules will be brought to the next meeting.

IV. Agenda

• Agenda approved.

V. Minutes

• Minutes were reviewed.

• Minutes approved with corrections.

• Vince spoke of the letter from Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom (a copy of the letter was handed out). LME proposals are due to the state by the 15th of December. (New River LME is currently 1/2 provider 1/2 LME as of now.)
• Vince distributed a handout on the new Medicaid Proposal and its effect on Mental Health Services.
• Vince informed the group of an up-coming program on UNC TV regarding Mental Health. (Information sheet was handed out.)

• Let your Congress / Representative know your feeling on the proposed budget cuts.

• Healthwise: Mental Health - on Thursday, November 17th at 8pm on UNC TV.

VII. Hispanic Community

• Mario gave statistics on the Latino Communities in NC. (1 of 20 Latinos are undocumented.)
• Mario spoke of the language barrier being a problem in helping the Latino communities.
• He spoke of Mecklenburg County LME having a Bilingual sponsor (Carlos Martinez) who puts together information of the Latino needs. The position is Grant Funded and will continue with the research of the Latino Communities.

• Get more information so more LME's can look into providing Bi-lingual sponsors.
• LME should look into having a Needs Assessment done.

VIII. Developing Partnership with LME & Consumer Crisis Planning

• Vince did a quick sketch on the board so everyone could get an idea of the new internal reorganization of WH. This is still a work in progress. The CEO sees CFAC having representation on the CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement) so that CFAC will be able to have more relations and input with the LME. The restructure of the LME committees has not yet been finalized.
• Vince gave a handout of "questions to ask to formulate a Consumer Crisis Plan."
• Conversation forwarded to WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plans). Steven House commented on his work with WRAP.

• Vince will continue to get updates and keep us all informed.

• Vince asked for feedback to him by the following Monday.
• See about leaders and consumers to be WRAP trained.
• Decide whether or not CFAC would like to do a Self Assessment.

IX. Committee Reports

• Membership - Nancy informed us of article going in 7 of the 8 counties (not Buncombe) newspapers advertising for new CFAC members.
• Membership - Intervewed with Rosemary Weaver today. Rosemary is a consumer from Rutherford County.
• Membership - Nancy also spoke with a child psychologist who is willing to help recruit a new (child) member. He will inform the parents of some of the patients and see who is interested.
• Nominating - Is requesting the status of the Co-chair (Ron Schieve). Mechelle is also asking to meet with Vince Newton, Heidi Sears, and Leslie Huntley after meeting is adjourned.

• Vince will get a copy of the article for the paper (on letterhead) and give it to Nancy.
• A copy of the letter will be handed out at all the Collaborative Meetings.
• Current members voted. Bill Cook motioned and Mario Moraga seconds the motion to recommend her membership to the Board. The motion was approved.
• A copy of Rosemary Weaver's application has been sent to Beverly Atkins to bring to the WH board.
• Mechelle - Chair; Nancy, Bill and Donna.
• Leslie, Heidi, and Vince will all compose and turn in to Mechelle, a description of the jobs they do for CFAC. Deadline is Tuesday, 11/22.

X. Relational Agreement

• Lyn Berner asked Jim Greer to find out how often a Relational Agreement needs to be done and where exactly does a signed Relational Agreement get sent to.

• Jim Greer will find out the answers to Lyn's questions and get back to CFAC.

XI. Adjournment

• The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

• Next meeting December 12, 2005.