Macon County Mental Health Task Force
October 30, 2009


Members present - Ronnie Beale, Jim Bottomley, Jim Bruckner, Jane Kimsey, 
Paula Ledford, Kathy McGaha, Mike Neidig, Andy Shields and Martin Wadewitz

Guests - Sarah Altman and Derek Roland

Approval of Minutes - Martin Wadewitz made a motion to approve the minutes.
Paula Ledford 2nd the motion, with a unanimous vote for approval.


Action Items:

Jane Kimsey welcomed the task force members to today’s meeting.  Ms. Kimsey
asked everyone to introduce themselves and tell what organization they 
represented.  

Ronnie Beale updated the task force members on the current status of the
160A option.  Mr. Beale said a decision locally would be forthcoming very soon
and this task force could further discuss this topic at the next meeting.

Ronnie Beale further informed the task force members of the recent cut in 
community support services.  Mr. Beale said SMC representatives had spoke at
the recent Board of Commissioners meeting on October 12th.  The SMC 
representatives explained the elimination of funding by the state for 
community support services.  The SMC representatives said the funding cut was
without much notice and offered no comparable service replacement.  They also
stated that some people in our region might be left without core 
community-based services available to them.

Ronnie Beale announced to the task force members that a formal funding request
would be made to the Evergreen Foundation to fill this gap in services from 
the loss of community support funding.  The Evergreen Foundation is the 
nonprofit arm of the Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health (SMC).  Mr. Beale
stated that these funds would be divided among the seven western counties of
which Macon is one of them.

Ronnie Beale explained to the task force members that two weeks ago that state
had returned $15 million in funds to the state’s Local Management Entities 
(LME’s) that had initially been cut from their budgets.  Mr. Beale stated that
after the funds are divided up among the state LME’s, SMC would receive 
approximately $1.1 million.  Mr. Beale said that SMC initially had $5.7 million
in funding reductions for the 2010 Fiscal Year.

Paula Ledford passed out a letter for the task force members to review.  Ms. 
Ledford stated that she had written this letter to stress the importance of 
community support services to schools.  Ms. Ledford listed multiple benefits 
from having these services available to the students of Macon County.  One 
additional benefit was suggested to Ms. Ledford, who will add it to the 
letter and resend it to Mr. Beale.  Mr. Beale will present this letter with
other information in the request going to the Evergreen Foundation.

Jim Bruckner stressed that the task force still needs to consider a way to
implement a school-based mental health program as a top priority.  Mr. Bruckner
said this would really help "gap children".  These are children who do not 
qualify for Medicaid funds, but are still in need of this type of a program.

Mike Neidig stated that community support funds for adults had been stopped in
May.  Mr. Neidig stated what funding was available went to the Macon Recovery
Education Center (REC).  The REC serves local consumers in a recovery-oriented
setting that is set up like a classroom environment.  Mr. Neidig stated that 
there is a gulf in services for people who have needs the REC cannot fill.

Andy Shields also passed out some statistical information on transport numbers
for the years 2008 and 2009.  Mr. Shields reviewed this information and stated
to task force members if more information is needed or further explanation is
required, please contact him at anytime.

Kathy McGaha suggested that Donna McClure-Allen with the Veteran’s Clinic in
Franklin be invited to participate in this task force or attend our meetings.
Ms. McClure-Allen will be contacted about attending the next meeting.

After this group discussion, Mr. Beale summarized that the task force’s main
priorities would be retaining community support in some form and increasing the
availability of adult services.

Ronnie Beale introduced Derek Roland to the task force members.  Mr. Roland is
the Planner for Macon County.  Mr. Beale explained that Mr. Roland is currently
in the process of developing a Comprehensive Plan for our county.  Mr. Beale 
invited Mr. Roland to attend today’s meeting, because mental health is an 
aspect that needs to be considered for this plan.

The next meeting will he held on Friday, January 22nd, 2010.  The meeting will
be held from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM in Meeting Rooms A/B at the Health and Human 
Services Building.    (CANCELLED)

The next meeting date has been changed to Friday, February 26th.  The meeting
will be held from 9:00 AM -11:00 AM in Meeting Rooms A/B at the Health and 
Human Services Building.

Minutes recorded by Rhonda Blanton