DEPARTMENT: Human Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Melody Woosley
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Amendment to an Interlocal Agreement with Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC)
SUMMARY:
This ordinance authorizes an amendment to an Interlocal Agreement with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) for the purpose of adding $150,000 from the general fund to support a mental health coordination study conducted by the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) to identify improvements to the City of San Antonio first response system that ensure appropriate response to incidents involving an individual in mental health crisis. The total budget for this project is $300,000. MMHPI will fund $150,000 from their existing grant funds.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On November 14, 2019, the San Antonio City Council approved an Interlocal Agreement with the South Texas Regional Council (STRAC) for the purposes of providing mental health clinician services to support the San Antonio Police Department Chronic Crisis Stabilization Initiative (CCSI). The CCSI identifies, engages, and provides services to individuals who have been diagnosed with a serious and persistent mental illness and have frequent interactions with law enforcement via chronic 911 calls, referrals, or their own initiative. Through the Interlocal Agreement, the San Antonio City Council authorized $209,831 in Fiscal Year 2020 from the General Fund with up to $927,299 for a successive four-year period subject to City Council appropriation of funds as part of the Budget process.
STRAC is designated by the Texas Department of Health Services (DSHS) to develop, implement and maintain the regional trauma and emergency healthcare system for the 22 counties in the Trauma Service Area which included a mix of urban, suburban, rural and frontier areas from San Antonio to the Texas-Mexico border. As a part of their core mission, STRAC established the Southwest Texas Crisis Collaborative (STCC) to focus on ending the ineffective utilization of services for the safety net population at the intersection of chronic illness, mental illness, and homelessness in Bexar County. The collaborative provides a comprehensive integrated crisis system across major public partners, hospital providers, philanthropy, public safety (Fire/EMS and Law Enforcement) and behavioral health providers. Core functions of the STCC include serving as a lead backbone entity with core responsibilities including communitywide: data management, program oversight, contract/grant management, and ongoing administration of the social determinants of health platform, Signify Community. To this end, STRAC has worked with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute since inception of the STCC to support related data analysis and research.
This effort is part of the City’s review of Police Services presented to the Public Safety Committee on December 15, 2020. One of the goals of this review is to strengthen the City’s mental health response to 911 calls. The results of the work of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute will be presented to the Community Health and Equity Committee, any subsequent recommendations from this committee will be forwarded to the Public Safety Committee and ultimately to the full City Council.
ISSUE:
Through amendment of this interlocal agreement, the City of San Antonio will provide funding to support a mental health coordination study from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute to identify improvements to the City of San Antonio’s first response system, informed by existing data on mental health response and integrated response best practices. These system improvements will ensure that in an incident involving an individual in mental health crisis, first responders will have appropriate support to connect the individual and family members to clinical care as quickly as possible to ensure the safety and security of the individual and the community. This agreement will also develop a strategy and initial work plan to support the City of San Antonio in its efforts to implement prioritized improvements for the City’s first response system.
ALTERNATIVES:
If this amendment to the Interlocal Agreement is not approved to allow funding of the study, critical benchmarking research and data will not be available to inform mental health systemwide planning efforts.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funding for this amendment in the amount of $150,000 is recommended from the $500,000 Mental Health and Wellness Initiative included in the FY 2021 General Fund Delegate Agency Budget.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of this ordinance authorizing an amendment to an Interlocal Agreement with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) for the purpose of adding $150,000 to fund a mental health coordination study through the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.