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CMH of Ottawa County reviews recipient rights complaints, approves budget item to support rights work
Summary
Board heard quarterly recipient rights report showing a small number of complaints and hundreds of incident reports, discussed staffing limits in the one-person rights office and approved a budget item while director said he will seek increased staffing in next fiscal-year budget.
The Community Mental Health of Ottawa County (CMHOC) Board of Directors received a quarterly recipients’ rights report and approved a related budget item at its March meeting.
Brianna Fowler, the agency’s recipient rights officer, told the board the office logged two complaints in December, six in January and three in February and closed a number of older cases in that period. “The recipient rights complaints need to be completed 90 days or less,” Fowler said, noting the office is meeting statutory timelines and that status reports were issued at 30- and 60-day marks when appropriate.
Fowler also reviewed incident reporting: the agency continues to receive “between 200, 300, sometimes up to 400 incident reports” monthly. She described incident reports as a clinical and quality-improvement tool and said supervisors sometimes discourage them but she encourages documentation because “if it’s not documented, it didn’t happen.”
Public commenter Rosie Austin urged the board to open the recipients’ rights committee to more public members, saying the current appeals process feels internal and can miss opportunities for quality improvement. “Recipient rights should be protecting the recipients, which it does not,” Austin said during public comment.
Director Michael Brashears told the board he intends to propose an increase in staffing capacity for the recipients’ rights office during the county budget process for the next fiscal year. “This budget you’re about to pass doesn’t reflect increases in staffing related to that department yet,” Brashears said, and he added he would “take that under consideration and make recommendations” to expand the rights office beyond its current single-person staffing model.
The board approved the proposed budget item on the meeting agenda by voice vote. Board members and staff discussed the practical consequences of complaints and investigations, including that a single substantiated finding could be grounds for contract termination with a provider and that in urgent cases staff may be placed on leave pending investigation.
Fowler said she conducts interviews promptly — often within days of receiving allegations of abuse or neglect — and that in some cases staff have already been removed or terminated by the provider before a formal closure report is complete. She described the recipient rights position as highly specialized and said cross‑training or a second staff person would be useful to maintain continuity when she is absent.
The board also heard that site reviews for 2025 are underway, with Fowler planning multiple site visits per month and a larger site-visit month in August. Training for recipient rights continues in person and online; Fowler said nearly all CMHOC staff should have completed state-required update training by June or July.
Members praised Fowler’s work and the board recorded appreciation for steps to review the office’s capacity. The meeting adjourned after additional public comments and routine business.
