Board of Health

Agenda Village of Arlington Heights Board of Health Buechner Room 33 S. Arlington Heights Rd., 60005 May 1, 2023 6:30 PM I. CALL TO ORDER II. ROLL CALL III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Minutes from February 6, 2023 IV. REPORTS A. Health and Human Services Director Update B. Nursing Services Update C. Social Services Update V. OLD BUSINESS VI. NEW BUSINESS A. VAH Strategic Priorities for 2024-25 VII. OTHER BUSINESS VIII.ADJOURNMENT Persons with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services, such as an American Sign Language interpreter or written materials in accessible formats, should contact Erin Mercado, at 33 S. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60005, emercado@vah.com or (847)368-5793.  Board of Health 5/1/2023 Item: Minutes Department: HHS ATTACHMENTS: Description Type Minutes from February 6, 2023 Minutes  Minutes Village of Arlington Heights Board of Health Commissions Room 33 S. Arlington Heights Rd., AH 60005 February 6, 2023 6:30 PM I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson VanLandeghem called the meeting to order at 6:51 p.m. All stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. II. ROLL CALL Present Also Present Karen VanLandeghem, MPH, James McCalister, Commission Liaison Chairperson Lindsay Dohse, Community Health Nurse Kristen Brown, M.D. Nicole Espinoza, Social Services Coordinator William Moran, M.D. Melissa Cayer, Guest Shalu Gugnani, M.D. Absent Sean Barnett, M.D. Jerome Meservey, M.D. Ashley Bae, LCSW III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Minutes from November 7, 2022 A MOTION WAS MADE BY DR. MORAN TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER 7, 2022 MEETING, SECONDED BY DR. GUGNANI AND APPROVED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. 1 IV. REPORTS A. Director Health and Human Services Update Mr. McCalister said he is excited about the new Village website. He said they are always looking for ways to promote the programs and services. Mr. McCalister said they will be upgrading website pages over the next few weeks. Ms. Dohse and Ms. Espinoza are working on the nursing and social services sections. He said there is an example in the meeting packet. He said they are trying to make the website quick and easy for the residents and used recycling as an example. Mr. McCalister said when the health webpage is complete, he would like the Board to look at it and see if anything is missing or if they have suggestions to promote the program better. He said they can discuss it at the next meeting. Mr. McCalister mentioned looking at social media options to do more on those platforms as well. Dr. Gugnani asked for clarification regarding the medication disposal site. Mr. McCalister responded that it is at the police station lobby and the Senior Center receives sharps. Mr. McCalister stated that once the website pages are complete, he will email the link to the Board and they can discuss it at the next meeting. Mr. McCalister stated that the Environmental Commission just did a survey. The survey is going to the Committee-of-the-Whole next week. He said that they had 603 respondents and the executive summary is in the meeting packet. Mr. McCalister said that people want to know about composting and there is a 90-gallon container available through Groot for a fee. He said that people can put their composting in with their leaves and grass. In April for Earth month, he said they are going to push the service to the public through the website and social media. In addition to the composting available through Groot, he said that in April they are also going to have bins available for purchase at a cost of $50 so people can compost in their back yard. There was discussion about community composting, but it was not clear if it would work in our community. Mr. McCalister brought up the topic of the digital inspection software in environmental health. He said that the goal for 2023 was to identify the five most common critical violations. He stated that using the data pulled from 2022 and the number one most common violation was hand sinks stocked and accessible, second was food contact surfaces cleaned and sanitized, third was cold holding, fourth was toxics stored and labeled, and fifth was certified food manager. Mr. McCalister said we can promote those topics through the newsletter. Chair VanLandeghem asked if Norovirus is reportable. Mr. McCalister said if they report it to us, we ask them to contact Cook County. Cook County takes all the complaints and then asks us to conduct inspections and provide information obtained to them. 2 Mr. McCalister discussed the subject of the Narcan machine at the Police Department. He said it was ordered and it will arrive in about a month and will be placed in the lobby next to the pharmaceutical drop off. He explained the process is to go to the counter at the police station and ask for a chip that would be used to dispense a Narcan from the machine. Dr. Gugnani said that it will be interesting to see if it will be utilized at the police station or if it would be used more if located elsewhere. Mr. McCalister pointed out that the police station is monitored 24 hours whereas other departments may have set hours. Mr. McCalister mentioned that at the last meeting, Dr. Moran asked about cognitive exercises that helps with dementia. He said that he sent out a packet of information from Tracey. Some of the things he said was done included the Brain enrichment program in 2019 and Tracey is not aware if it was peer reviewed, the Aging Mastery Program this past fall, and Matter of Balance which Nicole will discuss later, and an Alzheimer's/Dementia caregiving group which meets the second Monday of each month with an average attendance of 20 and Jim Harbaugh as the facilitator. Mr. McCalister described the Brain Trust podcast that was discussed on the IDPH conference call. It is a podcast for and by physicians in which they discuss innovative ways for families to better manage brain disease. The Brain Trust is a project administered by the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and funded by a grant from IDPH. Mr. McCalister mentioned the Share Program which is an evidence-based program which they will possibly facilitate at the Senior Center. He said the program is designed to utilize technology to engage both the person in the early stages of dementia and their care partner with discussion of symptoms, communications, care values and preferences, healthy activates and planning for the future. The program is based on 2 decades of research by the Center for Research and Education, part of the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging. Mr. McCalister said that based on a survey at the Senior Center, the Lending closet is very popular. There was a surplus of wheelchairs and not enough storage so they held a wheelchair giveaway. It was such a huge success that the excess wheelchairs were gone after one day. Mr. McCalister said that the Senior Health & Fitness Day will be on May 31st from 9 am – 1 pm at the Senior Center. He said that Tracey would love to have the Board of Health members attend and share thoughts on how to improve it for next year. Mr. McCalister discussed the Covid/End of Disaster Declaration. He mentioned there are currently only four counties at the medium community health level, all the other counties are in the low community health level and hospitals are treating fewest the patients since October 1st. Mr. McCalister said that Arlington Heights has only forty-four cases and Dr. Moran said there are only twenty at the hospital. Mr. McCalister said that the Public Health emergency ends on May 11th. He said that free testing and free treatment will come to an 3  end and ambulances will be impacted. Chair VanLandeghem said that a lot of people will lose their coverage under Medicaid and we will see more uninsured. She mentioned that more people may need support to help with rent. Mr. McCalister mentioned that the IDPH did a slide show about what they anticipate will go away and when they send it to him, he will send it to the Board. Chair VanLandeghem said at the next meeting it might be good to discuss the impact on services or if there is more demand for rent support. The next topic Mr. McCalister discussed was gun control. He mentioned that at the NWMC meeting, they did not have a quorum. They discussed whether or not they needed to vote on the resolution, they did not vote on it but it did not matter since the state did end up passing the ban. Mr. McCalister said that he met with the Chiefs and Mick Fleming, the Joint Emergency Management officer for our region to discuss the MRC & Pharmaceutical distribution plan. Mr. McCalister asked for the Board’s opinion about whether to continue with MRC which requires training, classes and activities. He said that we only use it for emergency services and the only time we used it was during pandemic, when about eight people went to ARC to work the clinic. Mr. McCalister feels that maybe they should change the name to Public Health Volunteer Corp. or Medical Volunteer Corp. so they do not lose the volunteers and they have people available if they are needed. He mentioned that some of the surrounding areas have disbanded their MRC’s. He mentioned that it is nice to have the volunteers in the event of an emergency situation. There was discussion about liability concerns and that they would only want to use the volunteers on the list in the event of a real crisis. Mr. McCalister mentioned that liability is an open issue and needs to be discussed with the lawyers. Dr. Moran mentioned that if other villages are disbanding the MRC, there must be a reason why. There was general agreement that disbanding the MRC makes a lot of sense. Mr. McCalister said that it is difficult for us because we are not in a county with a health department that needs a lot of help and even during the pandemic, they didn’t use the MRC or the pod locations. Mr. McCalister says that the Village is waiting to see how the County wants to handle emergency situations moving forward, given the insight it has gained from the experience of responding to the pandemic. B. Nursing Update Ms. Dohse stated that since the last meeting she has done many outreach / education programs which included two days of blood borne pathogen training to the Fire Department, and it went very well. Ms. Dohse said that she and Ms. Espinoza engaged in an outreach talk at Cedar Village. Fifteen to twenty residents attended and they discussed the services that nursing and social 4 services offers. Ms. Dohse said she gave two lectures on Aging Mastery; one on medication management and the other on sleep and the elderly. Ms. Dohse has been trained to teach CPR and Ms. Finn, the community nurse, will be trained in March. She said she taught a class at the Senior Center. The first class was a Heartsaver class but the class has been changed to a free friends and family class. Ms. Dohse said that there is a big demand for the CPR class and she will teach a class every other month. She said that she started contacting and scheduling local churches and organizations for CPR classes. Ms. Dohse said she attended with Mr. McCalister emergency training put on by JEMS concerning possible cyber-attacks and how they would handle a cyber-attack. Mr. McCalister said that it was very interesting and cyberattacks are very different and in today's world, you can see how it can happen and how we need to transition and prepare. Ms. Dohse said they completed hearing and vision at St. James in January and they will be starting at St. Peters. After two weeks, they will rescreen and be done for the year. She said that people are still being vaccinated for Covid and the flu. Ms. Dohse said they received a new vaccine refrigerator and it is fully stocked. Ms. Dohse is still enrolling residents in the home visit program. There were six new residents enrolled since the last meeting. Unfortunately, some residents have passed on or moved to other areas. They are still averaging around seventy to eighty home visits per month. She said they are collaborating with Fire Department on a new referral system where the Fire Department contacts social services and nursing in regards to patients they are called to see. She said some patients end up at the hospital and some patient refuse treatment, they are aging poorly and have frequent falls or possibly hoarding situations, or the patient is overwhelmed medically, and we get the referral next business day. Ms. Dohse said that some patients that she sees currently have been referrals from the Fire Department. She was asked if they receive referrals from the hospital and she said that they receive some but she is open to ideas about how to get the word out about their services because many people do not know they exist. Ms. Espinoza said that she helps facilitate an NCH/Municipal collaborative which is a once-a-month meeting through zoom. She said they have many attendees and it is a once-a-month opportunity to share information about what is new and what is different at the hospital and what they need to know, and we share what we are seeing in community trends. There was a question asking whether there was any other interaction with the hospital. Mr. McCalister responded that the Administration stays in contact with the NCH administrator. He said that we also have involvement with NCH through programming at the Senior Center. Ms. Dohse said she is continuing to look for any ideas to reach the population that needs services. She said that they are doing three cholesterol screening for heart health month, two for the community, and one for employees. 5  Ms. Dohse said there will be two more CPR classes taught in March and a senior health and fitness day in May. Dr. Brown asked if they ever do pediatric CPR and Ms. Dohse said she is able to teach it and is in the process of getting mannequins. Dr. Brown thinks there would be a lot of demand for pediatric CPR and the classes would be filled. She asked Ms. Dohse if the classes are for only Arlington Heights residents and Ms. Dohse responded that since it is at the Senior Center, it is open to everyone. Ms. Dohse said the only restriction is that the American Heart Association only allows six students per instructor and once Ms. Finn is trained, they can have up to twelve students in class. Dr. Gugnani asked how the seniors did with chest compressions and Ms. Dohse said she did have to modify the class and offered the seniors an opportunity to work on a table so they didn’t have to be on the floor. Ms. Dohse said she has some ideas for accommodating the seniors' physical limitations during the next class. There was some discussion about teaching CPR in high school and it was agreed that it would be a good thing to teach teenagers. C. Social Services Update Ms. Espinoza stated that she, Ms. Dohse and Ms. Mercado attended morning musters at the Fire Department for three days to pitch social service and nursing programs. She said there has been a large uptick in fire referrals. They shared with the Fire Department the type of details they need and the type of patients they see. Ms. Espinoza said that they are continuing the library resource hours and there was interest expressed in collaborating with the Youth Commission. She has reached out and is awaiting response. She said the department is fully staffed with the addition of Ms. Mercado in November. Ms. Espinoza said that Ms. Mercado is heavily focused on aging in place cases. She said that Ms. Mercado has a background in caregiver support, is being trained in ADA, and is also training with Ms. Colagrossi and Division Chief Roberts on Matter of Balance (MOB) to reduce the fear of falling, and improve activity levels among community-dwelling older adults. The MOB curriculum includes group discussions, mutual problem solving, role-play activities, exercise training, assertiveness training, and a few homework assignments. Participants learn about the importance of exercise in preventing falls and practice exercises to improve strength, coordination, and balance. Participants also conduct a home safety evaluation and learn to get up and down safely. Additional topics include home safety, assertiveness, developing positive strategies for change, reducing barriers to exercise, identifying physical risk factors for falls, personal action planners, recognizing misconceptions about falls, and moving from self-defeating to self-motivating thoughts. Ms. Espinoza stated that at this point they are in the process of getting coaches trained before rolling the program out to the community. It is to be determined where the classes will take place. Ms. Espinoza said that she met with Sergeant Valerie Sanders who is temporarily overseeing the CARE program. She said that since the program began in 2019, they have served 612 participants and the program has a high usage rate and high success rate. Ms. Espinoza said that the social services team has a new Administrative Assistant, TréWan Collins. She said the whole team took a tour of Journeys the Road Home. The new site has opened and the first floor fully opened, and the second floor is awaiting approval for 6  occupancy. She said the Hope Center which is their intake center and drop-in center is on the first floor and now has a fully functioning kitchen. The question was asked about whether housing some of their clients at hotel/motel facilities which was happening during the pandemic was going to continue. Ms. Espinoza answered that it will be phasing out this year. She said that presently, seniors, people with disabilities and families comprise the majority of the population that are still in motels. Ms. Espinoza said they had opened seven PADS sites which is down from nineteen PADS pre-Covid and they are not anticipating that pad sites will be open this summer. She said the year before Covid they had some PADS sites and they were really well attended so they are working really hard to get old sites reengaged. She said that on the new property they also have a second floor that will have twenty-two-person bed men’s shelter and twenty-two-person bed women’s shelter. She said they also have six on- site housing units for individuals who graduated out of the PADS system, have jobs, and can afford a small amount of rent. Ms. Espinoza said the first floor also has a food pantry and a clothing closet. She said the facility is double or triple size of their former footprint and has more needed amenities including showers, lockers, washer & dryer on first and second floor. She said they are not seeing a lot of homelessness originating from Arlington Heights, as rents skyrocket due to inflation, people are moving to other more affordable communities. Journeys said they are continuing to see a high level of homelessness. Ms. Espinoza said that people will still need to go to the intake center during the day to get into the shelter. V. OLD BUSINESS VI. NEW BUSINESS VII. OTHER BUSINESS A. Other Topics for Consideration VIII. ADJOURNMENT DR. BROWN, SECONDED BY DR. MORAN, MOVED TO ADJOURN AT 7:57 P.M. ALL CONCURRED AND THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. The next scheduled meeting is May 1, 2023. 7