Strive CCS reports 69 participants in quarter; admissions, discharges and placement roles discussed

Sarah, a staff member, presented quarterly enrollment figures and recent admission and discharge activity for the Strive CCS program. “Currently, in June, Vernon County has 27 adults and Crawford County has 23 adults for a total of 50 adults being served. And in June, Vernon County currently has 8 children and Crawford has 11 children for 19 total children being served, within Scribe CCS. That gives us a total number of 69 participants for the quarter,” Sarah said.

Sarah and other staff gave month-by-month examples of recent activity. She said in March there were three admissions (two in Crawford County — one adult and one child — and one child admission in Vernon County) and one child discharge in Vernon County. In April there were four admissions (two adults in Crawford County and two adults in Vernon County). Sarah said about five individuals were “in process” in addition to those counts, and Tony reported eight active intakes (five in Vernon and three in Crawford, with one child in each county).

Committee members flagged staffing changes as a factor affecting service continuity and waiting lists. Tony said the program hired two new staff (India Stevenson and Catherine Stanley) and consolidated lead roles; he also noted that a staff member, Melissa Turville Phil, has submitted notice that she is leaving. A committee member said two therapists in Crawford County are leaving — one left last week and the other is expected to leave in late July or early August — and the state has been notified; staff reported creating waiting lists and triaging caseloads as needed.

Members also discussed confusion about placements and who is responsible for contracting beds. A committee member summarized community questions about whether CCS should be arranging placements: some participants expect CCS to contract for beds or placements, but staff clarified that CCS does not currently contract with placement beds for children and that determining whether CCS should contract with placements for adults will require further policy discussion. “This specifically seem to be that there, it was like placement. I'm not not like aging out of, like, 18 and over, but just if there's a kiddo who doesn't have a placement, might need a higher intensity before they can come back to the community… CCS doesn't contract with those beds or those placements,” one committee member said when describing community concerns.

Sarah said final fiscal-year numbers for 2024 remain under review because of corrections and will be provided at the next meeting. The committee noted the need for clearer role boundaries between CCS staff, service facilitators and placement coordinators and suggested an in-person follow-up to decide whether contracting for placements is appropriate.