[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Thank you.
[0:05] I'm sorry, I just have a quick point on the minutes. We need to go back before we approve them. We need to verify that the attendance is listed correctly because there were a bunch of people listed as members in attendance or members not in attendance that aren't actually members of the commission. They're associate members. Okay. All right. Maybe let's hold on this Barbara. You and I will can go through it.
[0:30] interest of time. We'll go through it offline and then we can approve them next time.
[0:34] I'm wondering if what we could do is amend Senator Baldurys' motion and approve
[0:42] the minutes themselves and adjust the attendance as needed. And then we can go ahead and get that
[0:47] approved.
[0:49] That's a friendly, that's a friendly amendment. I would accept. Thank you. I mean,
[0:55] all in on a row. Perfect. All right. Well, Brittany and I will go through them and we'll
[1:00] double check that and we'll adjust the membership. But most of the previous minutes have been
[1:05] seconded all in favor. Why? Any opposed? Seeing none, that motion carries. Excellent. Okay.
[1:14] Then let's move on to what's turning over to our safety team and do some updates and data reports.
[1:21] Okay. Great. I will share my screen and get that started.
[1:31] Okay.
[1:37] So we have the numbers
[1:41] and I'm on a smaller screen today. So if I am having it looks good. All right. So we've
[1:52] We've got the rolling 13 month summary on the left hand side are our active users since
[2:00] July 2026.
[2:03] So our month of July usage are downloaded from inception at below that and then the
[2:11] downloads for the month of July and then just to compare the total enrollment for the school
[2:18] year of all of the schools that we have listed.
[2:20] Our monthly volumes are at the top with the chats in the orange color and the tips in the brown.
[2:29] And again, this is a 13 month summary, so we'll look at the monthly breakdown in a moment.
[2:34] And then the lifesaving interventions at the bottom of in green.
[2:38] And you'll see that those follow a similar pattern to the chats and tips with seasonality.
[2:45] those numbers are a little bit lower in the summer when schools out and then we have a bit of an
[2:54] increase during the school year.
[2:59] Here is a breakdown more specifically with the number of
[3:03] messages and back which is back and forth like bubbles on a text message if you think of it that way
[3:09] And our top tip topics are continuing to be suicide, bullying, and substance abuse at the top three and then self-harmoned school complaints at the bottom and then potential school threats on the far right total for the 13 months we had 477
[3:29] three of those we identified as higher ad or college campuses which is that top line campus threat.
[3:37] And then the 120 were specific school threats and then we had just some general like violence and weapons that may not have been essentially associated with those top two.
[3:54] And I might have to look into that number because I've got a few questions I'm looking at it but that is our 13 month look.
[4:04] and we have our year-over-year, so compared to the month's year of last year,
[4:11] excuse me, for July 2026. And we do have a 2024 on there just for some reference to,
[4:18] so this current year is in yellow and then last year's that turquoise
[4:22] and the year before is the purple. You can see the change over the same month
[4:27] from previous year of chats, the numbers are a little bit less than before, we've usually
[4:36] seen a big dip in that area. It's a little less. And then tips, actually, we didn't see
[4:42] a dip. That was a 0% change, but the tip message is the back and forth. If you want to think
[4:49] about the intensity of the actual conversation in the tip with the counselor, that actually
[4:55] went up by 67%, which is kind of interesting.
[4:59] And then you'll see just overall the 13-month percentage
[5:05] changes continuing to trend downward at the negative 25
[5:09] and negative 21.
[5:12] It's interesting to look at some of these numbers
[5:16] and see the percentages are going down,
[5:20] but overall, like, number, count, theater,
[5:23] a year don't seem to be super drastic.
[5:26] So it could be that our intensity is continuing to stay
[5:32] at a certain level, even if the actual number
[5:35] of messages sent in is lowering.
[5:39] But that's something we'd have to actually look at
[5:42] and really dig into.
[5:45] Our monthly summary for 2026, excuse me, July, specifically,
[5:50] We can see our chats and our tips up here with the back-and-forth messages.
[5:57] And the top five tips, topics trend with the rest of the data that it's suicidality
[6:04] and mental health and bullying and abuse and self-harm, and we didn't have, when we have
[6:10] an exit, usually a number between nine and one, and so we had probably a number in between
[6:20] that for the potential school threats and that's why there's the X.
[6:27] For
[6:28] frontline we have our July downloads here and the download since inception. We
[6:35] don't have the utilization for frontline and national guard on this meeting, but
[6:39] we did email out a copy to commission members to look at those in detail if you'd
[6:45] like and you can always ask me questions about that via email or give me a call
[6:48] afterwards. If you want to dig into that a little bit more. The National Guard downloads for the
[6:55] month were again in between nine and one usually is what the X indicates and the downloads and
[7:03] inception are at the bottom. We just a quick update on National Guard. We did meet with Onika Hunt
[7:13] who is over with the National Guard and talked about taking on the marketing and the outreach
[7:20] this year and just looking ahead at ways we can support National Guard for the upcoming year.
[7:26] So we'll have more to come on that.
[7:30] The last thing that I wanted to talk about and we could,
[7:35] I could bring it up here and then if we want to have it as a round table item or something afterwards
[7:40] Aaron, you can let me know what would work best for the for the flow of the meeting, but I just
[7:46] wanted to report out and I don't have anything else to share on this screen. So I'll stop screen
[7:50] sharing so I can see all of you. I just want to report that the white paper is finally finished.
[7:56] Some of you probably weren't even here when we talked about it at first, so I'll give a quick
[8:01] recap of what that was meant for, but a couple of years ago, actually a few years ago now,
[8:07] We really were getting a lot of questions from other states about how we created safety
[8:16] T and how we got to be so successful with our legislative champions and with our schools
[8:21] throughout the state.
[8:23] And we were just getting a lot of inquiries about it.
[8:27] And that really led us to believe that we needed to produce a white paper to just establish
[8:34] the standard of this kind of treatment, so crisis intervention, be a text for school-age kids
[8:41] and college students and families. And so we got working on that paper. I know it was a collaboration
[8:48] of commission members and those of us at HMHI on the operations team as well as our research team
[8:57] who had a chance to do various projects
[9:00] looking at safety outcomes.
[9:03] And so we have finally finished that document.
[9:08] And it's really great.
[9:10] It's all encompassing of what our program is
[9:12] and our history and just kind of some basics of
[9:19] this is what we do.
[9:20] This is how we were successful in our state.
[9:25] And so one of the things I'd like to ask you all as commission members is to look over
[9:32] the paper and it is in the final version but we're obviously wanting it to be published
[9:40] once everyone's happy with it.
[9:42] So keeping in mind that it's final version but you can still add some thoughts if you think
[9:48] we really need to go in a different direction or if we've missed something.
[9:51] And then we're going to talk about where we would like to have that published.
[9:58] There's a few options with publishing academically, but those have some pros and cons in terms
[10:06] of how rigorous they are and who can be on the paper.
[10:10] And we really want to keep a version that's pretty cohesive that has all of us on their
[10:16] commissioners, researchers and HMHI operations team, and so we're looking, we're kind of leaning
[10:23] towards more of a non-academic publishing at this point, but that's kind of a quick history
[10:31] of the white paper, and Barbara, I know you've been along for the right since the beginning,
[10:35] so if you want to add anything to that and kind of help guide the commission, I would really appreciate that.
[10:41] Yeah, it was I guess a very long project and Missy Larson was part of that project and then Natalie
[10:52] Borin out of the Attorney General's office really took the lead on making sure that all of the
[10:59] details were included but the purpose of the paper really was just if another state was looking at
[11:05] doing something like this, this includes how we did it, but also lessons that we learned
[11:12] along the way, right? So we were very blunt, I think. We were very forward with, hey, we
[11:20] took a misstep here, and this is how you can avoid making that same mistake. And so as you
[11:26] read through it as commissioners, I hope you'll take that opportunity to look at those things and say,
[11:31] Oh, yeah, we tried that already. That didn't work, but it's I think it's I think it's a great paper. I appreciate them on taking the lead on making sure that it got finished.
[11:44] And if anybody has questions about how it's structured, I'm happy to answer them.
[11:54] Yeah, and in terms of timeline, I mean, I would really like Aaron to have it back a quick turnaround.
[12:02] around. But if I so I'm not sure how deeply folks would want to read it or have want to have say on it. So if we could maybe say like within the first two weeks, if I could get maybe some really good solid feedback. And if I don't hear anything big by this time next month for commission, I would consider that it's approved and ready to move forward.
[12:32] Where is it? I was just trying to look for it on my email and it wasn't attached to the.
[12:38] I will email it to you all after this. I wanted to mention it first and then send it to you.
[12:43] Perfect. Thank you.
[12:48] Emma, could I get a copy of that as well?
[12:51] Mm-hmm.
[12:52] Okay.
[12:53] Is it something that we can share with our parents group?
[12:56] I think reading a history of it.
[12:58] I think anytime you read histories of anything and learn like what Barbara said learn what mistakes were made like we've already done that
[13:05] I think that is so helpful moving forward
[13:08] Yeah, yeah, I think
[13:10] We could maybe think through sharing it with the parents group
[13:13] I'd kind of like to have a a solid agreed on
[13:17] Version that's published before we share it outside of the Commission
[13:21] So that's that's my initial thought
[13:25] I was thinking the same thing is that after it's agreed upon, but before it's published,
[13:31] so they feel special, okay, so they feel a little bit like the inside, they've got something
[13:36] going on.
[13:37] So yeah, that's it, but yeah, but I would love to read that right away.
[13:40] I'll send it to you.
[13:42] We could demo, we could talk about embargo language, it's pretty easy to stick an embargo
[13:46] on it that is pretty universally recognized as don't give this to anybody, any of the things.
[13:53] Perfect.
[13:53] I can talk about that offline if we,
[13:55] let's leave it with the commission for now.
[13:56] And then we can, yeah, if we can,
[13:58] when we get to that point,
[13:59] we've got an approved copy.
[14:00] We can embargo it and send it to some other folks
[14:02] that may want to read it before it goes out.
[14:04] We could also look if you're interested
[14:06] and we can talk through this separately.
[14:08] But if HMHI, the FUT and the commission are interested,
[14:11] we could also talk about doing a press release on it
[14:14] and kind of doing like a launch with it
[14:16] that gets some press.
[14:17] But also we can send it to, you know,
[14:19] some of, we can talk with,
[14:21] Representative Elyssan and Senator Baldrary about sending it out through NCSL or CSG West or
[14:26] Alec or any of the 9000 legislative bodies, right? We can talk through kind of what that
[14:33] distribution looks like. Okay. Yeah, we are interested in that. So I'll reach out to you.
[14:37] Okay. Perfect. We can sidebar anyone that wants to participate in that. Just shoot me a message
[14:42] or just put in a chat and Brittany, if you'll write down those names, we can talk about what a
[14:47] distribution can look like for that.
[14:50] Okay.
[14:54] I'll probably send it to Brittany and then since she has a distribution list and then everything
[14:58] can come from her.
[15:00] From there on. Today's kind of my work day, so today would be great. You're like, let's get it today. Okay, all my other day today. And then next week, I'm out of town. So, yeah, be great if I got it today. I'd have time to read it. Perfect. For me, giving us a thumbs up. So I think we'll be good to at least get that distributed today.
[15:21] Okay, let's move on. Then's giving down to school safety center update. Do we have anyone online that wants to provide
[15:29] that? Yeah, I can provide that information. Hi, as far as school safety center and prevention,
[15:41] we just want to let you all know, we are updating the school safety playbook. Levi, actually,
[15:48] who is on here has been kind of spearheading that work, but that will have all of the new requirements
[15:53] for school safety, security, and specialists and directors of all the requirements for this legislative session.
[16:02] And then I think that's really kind of our biggest update right now.
[16:07] We do have a prevention webinar series going around.
[16:12] It's a monthly webinar series focusing on all aspects of prevention.
[16:16] Anyone is welcome to attend.
[16:17] And yeah, leave. I don't know if you have anything else to add.
[16:25] Just add to that with the the playbook. We're also updating the emergency preparedness planning guide for LEAs. I'm also the lead on that and that does have a big component like recovery.
[16:36] And mental health components on that as well. Well, that should be available. Hopefully end of this year.
[16:44] Excellent. Is there anything that you guys need from the commission to support you in this or anything like that?
[16:52] Nothing from the commission. We did just want you to let you guys know when I've spoken a lot with DAMA about this, but we are pushing safe UT in all of our different trainings as resources as marketing material. So if there's ever anything that you guys all would like our schools to know please feel free to forward it to us.
[17:11] we have a monthly newsletter, both of our teams do.
[17:14] Mine and Levi's, we have various listservs,
[17:18] whether that's a suicide prevention listserv,
[17:20] or a school safety director's listserv,
[17:22] all the different counselors, nurses, you name it.
[17:26] So yeah, if there's anything you guys ever need
[17:28] for the schools to know, we're happy
[17:30] to send that information out for you all.
[17:33] Michelle, I'm wondering if do you have a school secretaries
[17:37] or whatever administrative assistant listserv
[17:40] because I think it would be great if we could send a flyer to every school that says could you please
[17:49] print five of these and put them in prominent places where kids would see them. Because I think like in
[17:55] the back of their mind, kids might know what safety is, but I just think there's also making it visual
[18:01] could really help. Yeah, absolutely. We could do that. If we could just, if Demmer or someone could send
[18:09] the flyer that you'd want. I'd be happy to do that for everyone. Is that something we could do?
[18:14] Don't I do you think?
[18:17] Yeah, I think we could just maybe work on that outside offline. Definitely.
[18:25] Excellent. Thank you. Some committee reports. Third party vendor.
[18:32] We don't actually have anything from that. Excellent. We're going to be pillars of efficiency,
[18:37] you guys. This is going to be just... I'm trying to be every time I've got like a timer in my head
[18:42] to beat Barbara's time on how fast we can get through these meetings. So I'm gonna
[18:45] just keep it going. Effective and efficient. Okay data report. Yep, I can be super short.
[18:54] We had all of the requests for data that we had were things that would be available on the annual
[19:00] reports. We approved all of those requests. Excellent. Okay. The Parents Advisory Committee.
[19:13] I'm not being able to, there we go, I'm going to get out.
[19:16] We have not had a meeting this summer and so we haven't had anything really to discuss,
[19:21] but we do have one in agenda that I just sent out today for September.
[19:25] So the primary thing that I want to alert people to is that I've reached out to create a relationship
[19:31] with the PTA presidency if we can't get one of their crew to sit on our board or on our
[19:36] committee.
[19:40] Awesome.
[19:40] That seems like a great idea.
[19:42] Yeah.
[19:43] Okay.
[19:44] Let us know if there's anything you need from us.
[19:49] Legislative update.
[19:51] Senator Baldry, do you have anything for the good of the group?
[19:54] I do.
[19:56] So I reached out to my legislative assistant to open an appropriation for the NGE safety
[20:04] UT ongoing funding. I am still waiting for an actual number.
[20:16] I will send that to you. Again,
[20:18] I'm sorry. I thought we got that to you. Or maybe you did. And that is highly possible.
[20:23] Well, we did go through several iterations. So you might be right. I'll go back and check,
[20:27] but I'll send you that number. Okay. Great. And do you know off the top of your head what the number
[20:32] is? I think it's going to be that 30,000. There might be a give or take a few, but I'll
[20:38] So you did land so you did land over 20,000 is the main thing just checking because yeah, that makes a difference if it's 20 or 20,000 dollars in one cent. So, yeah, perfect. Okay, great.
[20:54] Okay, just as like one point, so the legislative update side of this, when we do, as a commission,
[21:03] historically Rick has testified in committee and stuff when we need additional support
[21:07] on the safety of T thing, along with partners, right?
[21:10] Our fundamental hall partners, if it's like an update on the policy stuff or legislative
[21:15] partners, if it's an update on the funding and the administration, that is the one place
[21:20] I may be relying on all of you a little bit more. I'm happy to prep you for committee.
[21:24] I'm happy to do whatever we can, but depending on what else is going on, my life is kind of chaotic
[21:29] during those moments at this point. So just be aware that when we get to that point, when it comes
[21:34] to testifying, if that's something you have a particular interest in, it's something that you want
[21:38] to get more experience in. We can talk through that as well. Otherwise, I'll just send Barbara
[21:48] and pin them out all our hopes and dreams on her very capable hands.
[21:52] So if that's something else, you guys are all interested in, please let me know.
[21:56] Okay, and then Steve requested item number eight on our agenda.
[22:00] He is not here, but I think that a demo and I can probably cover it a little bit.
[22:05] So we have previously, I think, been in some conversations about the staffing qualifications
[22:10] for folks that's the mental health professionals that staff the state UT app.
[22:14] And then what those implant, like what the implications are on the budget for some of that stuff because our was part of our ongoing budget conversations, Dema, do you want to?
[22:25] I'll take it away from here.
[22:26] Yeah, so we have historically always hired master's level counselors on safety team.
[22:36] And we've, you know, just always marketed that way and it's been wonderful. It's really good standard of care.
[22:43] One of the things I want to say kind of to point out is that we don't do therapy.
[22:49] A lot of people get confused about that, but we just, we have hired therapists, but they're not performing therapy.
[22:55] They're performing what's called crisis intervention, so they're not giving diagnoses.
[22:59] They're not getting into any deep trauma or anything like that.
[23:04] So it kind of be like, you know, having a doctor doing something that's maybe not requiring
[23:13] the full licensure, but something that they're very capable of doing.
[23:18] So we also at the U have some really wonderful market rate adjustments for salaries.
[23:28] And in the past few years with inflation and those adjustments have noticed just that the cost has gone up to have that level of licensure and it's been a conversation for our budget as we're just trying to be really aware and mindful of taxpayer dollars and the services that are being received.
[23:53] I have started to look at and ask the question if do we need all master's level counselors or could we have a mix of folks that are at a bachelor's level either social service worker or crisis worker who are the folks to answer like the crisis line the 98 line so kind of that level of ability and skill set in my center.
[24:20] And so, I've talked to a few of you about this, just tossing out out there to see what the appetite was for it and what you thought our community and our parents and users would think.
[24:36] And it doesn't seem like it's totally unreasonable from what I've talked to people about.
[24:46] And it would be kind of an interesting thing depending on which route we go.
[24:51] So if we went, say, the route of get the same people who answer the crisis line in 988,
[24:59] there would have to be, I don't know if it would be an actual code change,
[25:04] but we'd have to add safety to the list of services that certify crisis workers can provide in the state.
[25:11] So, to me, that sounds like that's some extra work.
[25:15] If we got, say, a social service worker, there is really nowhere that anyone could see
[25:21] that post-a-problem or a required additional paperwork or anything like that.
[25:31] The pros and cons with that, the social service worker is that's not really, there's not
[25:37] lot of folks getting that degree in that licensure. My vote and my desire would be to have a certified
[25:48] crisis worker because those are the folks that do the crisis line and we're in the same department
[25:53] and so we could easily switch back and forth if say somebody called out sick one day you know we could
[26:01] easily interchange staffing. But I realized that that might require some extra work. I'll stop there.
[26:09] Barbara, you have your hand up. Yeah, we've talked this through probably the last three years,
[26:18] maybe about that. And I just want to remind especially new commission members that this isn't a little
[26:25] change. This is we would literally be changing what we have marketed, what we've told parents,
[26:33] what we've told the school board, what we've told the legislature. So if we want to go
[26:40] this direction, I think it makes sense to do some study around it before we make a final
[26:47] decision, but it's not a little change. It's a significant change because right now when
[26:53] When we're talking with parents, or when we're talking with teachers, we're telling them
[26:58] that it's a master's level clinician who will be handling this.
[27:02] And that's one of the ways that we were able to convince all of the schools to get on board
[27:07] with us.
[27:09] So it's, again, I would advocate that we study what the requirements would be for each of
[27:17] the different options that exist,
[27:20] and then come back with that conversation.
[27:24] Thanks for saying that, Barbara.
[27:26] That made me realize I should say the plan isn't
[27:29] to fully switch like the entire team.
[27:33] It would just be integrating a couple of new positions
[27:37] to be in that light center.
[27:39] Yeah, but right now, if I'm talking to a parent,
[27:42] I can say it is a master's level clinician,
[27:46] and if we do make a change, then I have to say it might be.
[27:51] Could be.
[27:53] Yeah, I agree. I wanted to add that to in case that question came up.
[28:00] Michael?
[28:04] Yeah, I have three points on this.
[28:08] And I'll be as concise as possible.
[28:11] Just so that I can understand what you're saying,
[28:14] Dema, about the lift part of this that you mentioned a couple of times,
[28:18] Is the lift part of this more of the transition, meaning after this transition happens that
[28:28] ongoing additional work isn't there, the work is the transition, is that right?
[28:36] Can you say more about what you mean?
[28:39] I think that's really fast.
[28:40] I think she was referring to a legislative change.
[28:42] There's like a in order to go that path you have to we would have to run a bill and change the code. I think that's where the yeah, thanks like the additional work is yeah, okay, it's not that that some like a different kind of training.
[28:57] Oh, no, yeah, thank you.
[28:59] I misunderstood that.
[29:01] All right, and my second point is that,
[29:03] I don't remember when, but I do believe
[29:05] that 98-8 experience is similar.
[29:07] Find of change.
[29:10] And there's been several years,
[29:12] and if I have any of those facts wrong, please correct me.
[29:16] But if that's true, has there been any evaluation research
[29:19] on 98-8's transition from master's level clinicians
[29:23] to individuals who have some other licensure,
[29:30] like a CSW or a BSW with crisis credentials.
[29:37] I can ask my director, Rebecca,
[29:39] she's over the 98th program.
[29:42] I think that's a really good point, Michael.
[29:45] I just think, you know, if this,
[29:47] I'm not saying we shouldn't do a barbarous suggesting
[29:49] in terms of researching this,
[29:52] But I think if the wheel has already been created, perhaps we can go into this eyes wide open knowing what some of the
[30:00] Pros and cons are, I think on that point, you know, flexibility and staffing is huge. And any time you create a role that does just one thing, you really box yourself in. And I think that that that could potentially provide some flexibility for you all that could benefit your overall program. And lastly, I just wanted to comment on our experience at the Office of the Medical Examiner with BSW students who call families.
[30:29] the day that we do an exam. We started doing this in January of 2026 and, you know, yes,
[30:36] with the right training. It requires the right training and without that training, it doesn't work,
[30:41] but we've had tremendous success with it. And so I understand Barbara's points, but for us,
[30:51] it has worked well. And because we're not deploying any therapeutic interventions, it wouldn't
[31:00] make sense for us to have a clinical social, a licensed clinical social worker or somebody
[31:08] with that high level of a license. We also couldn't afford it. And so, you know, that's just
[31:18] a thought if safety is not deploying interventions, then what are the real, what are we really getting
[31:27] from somebody with a license versus an LCSW master level clinician versus someone who doesn't?
[31:33] Just my two cents.
[31:39] Excellent. Thank you, Katie. Hi, everyone. I know some of you, not all of you,
[31:45] just to introduce myself, Katie Massey with Utah System of Higher Education. I am not typically
[31:51] the commissioners does ignite on this body, that's Cassidy,
[31:55] Dragonit, but she's out on maternity leave.
[31:57] So filling in, Demo was kind enough to reach out
[32:00] and just get our ideas on this.
[32:02] And one of the things I said was,
[32:03] I think this needs to be a broader conversation
[32:05] with the full commission.
[32:06] So I really appreciate y'all putting it on the agenda today.
[32:09] Couple thoughts.
[32:10] One, I'm gonna go out on the limb and using an analogy.
[32:13] And I will just say from the start,
[32:15] I recognize this is not the same thing
[32:17] as having a mental health crisis.
[32:19] But I think there is precedence for this sort of framework or structure in broader healthcare and providing perspective. So I think about like if I break my arm today and I am in crisis. I need immediate support.
[32:33] I'm going to go to urgent care or an ER and I might not see an MD, right? I might see a nurse practitioner. I might see somebody who's in family practice, but has a PA license, right?
[32:44] But what's important to me in that moment and going back to to Dema's
[32:49] analogy or a point that this is not
[32:51] counseling, right? This is crisis intervention and support. The important thing is that person that I see whether it's an EMT or a PA or whatever,
[32:58] you know, even if they're not in MD, they have the knowledge skills abilities and training to be able to help me in that moment.
[33:04] And then I realize like they're not going to be the one that does my surgery.
[33:07] They're not going to be the one who does my physical therapy. There's a whole plethora and sweet of options of professionals who give me
[33:13] not support down the road, but in that moment, I got the support I needed from somebody
[33:16] who was confident in being able to address those things.
[33:19] I think that's analogous here.
[33:21] So what we had shared with Dhamma from the higher ed perspective is, I recognize that
[33:25] it is like a really hard balance to strike.
[33:27] Like, do we have somebody who is trained skilled, educated enough to provide that quality
[33:33] of service, but also make sure that we can reach the staffing levels to be able to respond
[33:37] in the timely manner that everyone expects of safe UT, and that's not an easy thing
[33:41] to do, so recognizing DEMA and HMHI's hard work there, usually I think would be fine with this
[33:47] as long as going back to that analogy. These folks have the knowledge skills abilities,
[33:51] experience, competence, and training to be able to handle this. I think it's a shift that we're
[33:55] comfortable with as long as they're giving that level of care that's expected in this field.
[34:00] But I also want to recognize what Barbara said is true, right? Like this is a departure
[34:05] from how we've done this in the past. So I think you could find a way to do this, but you would
[34:10] to Barbara's point need to be thinking about like your marketing and communications broader strategy
[34:16] and be really deliberate in how you're talking about this with the communities that care about
[34:20] and rely on in our stakeholders and safety team. So those are my two cents from the higher education
[34:24] perspective.
[34:29] Excellent. Thank you. Anne? Yeah. I think my perspective is pretty close to what
[34:35] Katie and Michael said, but the thing the thing I wanted to understand is what do these positions
[34:39] do exactly. So what I think they do is they answer the crisis call and they have a protocol that
[34:48] they go through and they, depending on what the calls about, there's a training, there's a protocol
[34:55] that they're going to go through. Am I safe in assuming that? That's right. So, you know, I see a
[35:03] bigger problem out in the world, which is we have a real lack of people that can help
[35:09] all of the mental health struggles that we have in the world.
[35:12] And if we're using master's-level people to answer a phone and to go through a protocol
[35:16] that we've put in front of them, we're really taking talent off the streets that can be helping
[35:21] others.
[35:22] I mean, I really think that this type of a position is wasting the talent of somebody who
[35:30] is a master's level provider and and I you know I would rather see this be you
[35:39] know I mean to be able I think the marketing could very easily change from
[35:45] master's level to trained professional and and nobody would blink their eye at
[35:53] that and and then we're not again wasting the talent of somebody who could who
[35:58] could do clinical work with someone who is really in need at a moment instead of you know it's kind
[36:06] of it's kind of why this whole system that Katie that Katie laid out there's not enough orthopedic
[36:11] surgeons to be taking the X-ray right so the medical industry has gone in and said we're gonna have
[36:17] people do these little chunks and save the professionals for when we really need the professionals and I
[36:21] kind of think that's that's where a master's level person is.
[36:30] Excellent thank you. Okay if
[36:33] I also can just take the chair's perspective
[36:36] for just a second.
[36:37] I think this is a really good conversation to have, right?
[36:40] I think that the borough is right,
[36:43] and I'll be honest, I had not thought
[36:44] about the marketing implications of this
[36:46] when we had first had this conversation.
[36:48] And I do think those are worth having a conversation about.
[36:53] I do think though that it is worth keeping in mind
[36:55] that we've had a decade of safety to you
[36:58] doing the incredible work that it's done, right?
[37:00] And so I think that maybe this conversation would have been harder to have with parents,
[37:05] it would have been harder to have like the team six years ago, five years ago, three years ago,
[37:09] versus the 10 years of excellent that we have now. I think that I would maybe ask if we could just
[37:19] get Dema for next time, like an outline of like the different options and maybe some pros and cons.
[37:25] And then I would also be interested if can we get someone from 988 to Michael's point to come just talk through some of the the pros and cons of that kind of a thing. I think it's those things are worth.
[37:38] Just making sure that we have a full picture before we make this come like this decision. I do think that I find myself inclined to support this. However, I think that the most important thing is getting people to help that they need in the moment that they need it.
[37:50] And I think if we're running into staffing challenges,
[37:52] or running into budgetary challenges,
[37:54] I would rather figure out how we can adjust
[37:56] and how we can work with our marketing teams to explain
[37:58] and how we can tackle that on the other hand,
[38:01] rather than run into a situation at any point
[38:03] where someone doesn't have the access
[38:04] to the resources that they need.
[38:06] So that's kind of where I come down on it.
[38:07] I do think it's worth maybe we get a little,
[38:10] have a little broader presentation on this next month
[38:13] if that's something that Dema and Hurtin can support.
[38:17] Does that work?
[38:18] That's perfect. Excellent. Okay. Then with that, let's go ahead and shift into the round table.
[38:26] I'm going to go ahead and start with Barbara because I know she has the bit on letters that
[38:31] we'll talk through. And then from there, I'll just call out your names kind of as we go around
[38:35] as you appear on my screen. So Barbara, can we start with you? Yeah, I just, as we talked about last
[38:41] last month we need to have a standard process by which we determine if the commission is
[38:48] doing a lot of support and the data subcommittee is not the correct place for that decision.
[38:55] That's not what our purpose is and so we need to make that decision and it would be helpful
[39:02] if those of you who are on the commission who answer to the governor could weigh in on whether
[39:14] you are able to put your name on that letter or not because for me I can do whatever I want.
[39:19] I don't answer to someone above me. I'm on specifically as a member of the public so I can do what I
[39:26] would like to do there. But those of you who are on who represent the Board of Education or those of
[39:31] you who are on who represent UCI or health and human services, we have to be able to recognize
[39:40] that there will be individuals who will come to us and ask for letters of support and
[39:46] we need a standard process by which we handle that.
[39:49] And that's really what the conversation is supposed to be around.
[39:57] I am not, I do not serve the pleasure of the governor so he is a boss, he's not my boss.
[40:03] So keep that in mind as I say this, I do think that there is a difference and I think that deciding this first will kind of maybe shape the rest of his conversation.
[40:14] Would we be signing that as individual commissioners of safety or would we be signing those letters as the safety commission because I think that there is some dispersion of responsibility if we sign it as a commission versus if we.
[40:28] the undersigned of the safety commission.
[40:31] So and so Aaron win representing the Utah Office
[40:33] of the Attorney General, right?
[40:34] That is different than if it's like
[40:36] from the the safety commission.
[40:38] If it is from the safety commission at that point,
[40:40] I would say, that is where I would lean forward.
[40:45] And if that is the case,
[40:47] I would say we could just put the chair signature on it.
[40:49] Whoever, whether that's me or the next chair,
[40:51] and then the chair representing the safety commission
[40:54] and then the signature on it would be mine at this point.
[40:57] So, so what we have done in the past, so we have only to the best of my remembrance, we have only ever signed one letter and it was a letter of support for for our own appropriation.
[41:13] So, that is literally the only letter of support that the safety commission has done.
[41:20] And there were several people on the commission at the time that said, hey, because this is
[41:28] different than the governor's requested budget, we can't be part of that letter.
[41:33] We can't come from the commission as a whole.
[41:37] So we would have to be refused from that list.
[41:39] So that's why I want to have kind of a standard, here's the process we go through.
[41:48] I don't care how it rolls out, right, I mean, I care, but it's not a thing to me which direction
[41:55] we go.
[41:56] I just, again, like with the data requests, I'd like there to be a process that we follow
[42:02] so that people don't feel like, oh, well, you signed a letter for Person A, but you wouldn't
[42:06] sign it for Person B.
[42:08] We can always go back to a standard operating procedure and say here's how the decision was made and
[42:15] that one letter that we did send
[42:18] was signed by the chair and by the two members of the legislature and not the commission as a whole.
[42:27] I think that we're going to have to have some stuff customize all so I was thinking like a letter the letter I was thinking was like a letter to a group
[42:34] like 98 right that we would support as the commission but maybe you she maybe Jeff Langward is like being a tyrant and is like not we're not like letting people sign these he is a nice and I don't think you would ever be a tyrant no I really like like victim as your example it's to be clear if you can tell it's because I saw him like two days ago you can tell him that I said that he was maybe a tyrant on this call um a fiscal note right that one's different because then you're getting if you're getting into a fiscal thing then you're getting into a fiscal
[43:04] like that everyone who reports up to the governor has to support the governor's budget, that
[43:11] is like a like sacred, that's the sacred cow over there.
[43:15] Right.
[43:16] So I think that that one is a little bit different.
[43:18] So I would say, I think the prop, I think that we should make sure that there's this flexibility
[43:23] in the process.
[43:25] So maybe what I would propose is if we get those requests, if anyone on this commission gets
[43:29] those requests, they get sent to Brittany and I or whoever's staff and whoever's the chair.
[43:34] We can kind of look at the whole system.
[43:37] Okay, is this something that is part of an organization?
[43:39] Are there things like political ramifications,
[43:41] like in the budget process?
[43:42] And then we can do the research on the group.
[43:45] We then bring it to the full commission.
[43:46] We have received this request
[43:48] and then make the full commission vote on it.
[43:51] That what that does is give some flexibility.
[43:53] So if it is our budget request,
[43:55] if when Senator Baldrary runs this,
[43:57] we've sent out a letter.
[43:58] All of the people that report up to the governor
[44:01] can recuse themselves from the vote.
[44:03] And then we can always point even if it gets signed by the go or the chair and the two legislators.
[44:09] We can always point to the minutes and say they recuse themselves from the vote.
[44:13] This was not they did not vote in support of this.
[44:15] That might give us the structure that we need with the flexibility to tackle these individually thought concerns.
[44:21] Does anyone hate my idea?
[44:22] You can't offend me. I'm very hard to offend.
[44:24] So does anyone hate that idea?
[44:26] No, my only concern would be that the letters that brought this to the forefront of the conversation were in support of individuals who were writing grants to the federal government.
[44:40] So we need to consider that as well.
[44:44] Yeah, that's a really good point.
[44:46] And I think that gives us a better process.
[44:50] We'll commit from our side to the staff side.
[44:52] We'll do the research.
[44:53] We'll kind of put into the yes, no things.
[44:55] We'll present it neutrally to the commission.
[44:57] And then you guys can vote independently if you're all comfortable.
[45:00] With that. I love that plan. I think that's great. Okay. Any objections to that? Seeing none,
[45:10] um, Barbara, do you have anything else for as part of the rounding table? Okay, and then I'm just going to run through the list really quick and brown. Yeah, no, I'm good. Thanks. Okay. Um, Levi, anything else?
[45:26] No, I don't have anything else. Okay, demo.
[45:31] Just for Senator Baldry, I emailed you the funding number to look at.
[45:37] I see it right there. Thank you.
[45:40] Thanks. That's all I have.
[45:42] Excellent. Dr. Staley.
[45:45] Yeah, thanks. Just a heads up that the Utah Youth Suicide Research Project report is going to be released on August 31st.
[45:53] last. It's been a long time coming. We learned a little bit maybe a lot about how to do research
[46:00] or at least what not to ask about in terms of safety tea and crisis line utilization among
[46:05] youth who died by suicide. I think the bottom line is that the opt-in times just don't know
[46:11] and to that end we're working with HMHI in 988 to do a terminal outcomes kind of evaluation research
[46:20] project right now as well. I can talk more about that in the future. But anyway, that report
[46:26] comes out. It's got a lot of information about youth who died by suicide between 2016
[46:31] and 2019, and we're rebooting that and doing this second generation of that report any
[46:40] day now. We're waiting back for an IRB green light, and then we are ready to go. And then
[46:47] And also the Utah Suicide Prevention Committee and Coalition is in the process of finalizing
[46:53] their five-year plan, 2026 to 2031.
[46:59] It does have some language about crisis line utilization and promotion and that kind
[47:07] of stuff.
[47:08] So look for that.
[47:09] I think that gets released in mid-September in Suicide Prevention Month.
[47:13] and then also 988 and 988 is having a press release. I don't know all the details, but on September 16th at the Capitol, I don't know if Dema knows about that, I could speak more to that.
[47:32] Sorry to put you on the spot Dema, if you don't.
[47:36] I didn't catch for which part.
[47:39] Oh, yes, the press event on September 16th related to 98.
[47:45] No, I can ask Rebecca about that and give back to you guys.
[47:50] All right.
[47:51] And I think that covers what I've got.
[47:54] Excellent. Any of those reports that come out,
[47:56] we will be on the lookout for them,
[47:58] but can you just send them to Brittany or myself
[48:01] and we'll make sure that the whole commission gets access to them
[48:03] so that people don't have to go look for them independently.
[48:06] Sure.
[48:07] Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Okay. Laura Warburg.
[48:11] Nothing. Okay. Michelle. Nothing for me. Thanks. Okay. Katie.
[48:18] No, thanks Aaron. Excellent. Ashley. Nothing. Thank you.
[48:23] Senator Baldry. I'm good. Thanks. And Karina. Nothing for me. Thank you.
[48:30] Okay. I have one last thing and then I will let you guys go. We have been pretty good since
[48:35] It's pretty much far worse up the tone, honestly,
[48:37] about four months ago,
[48:38] at keeping this meeting to about an hour.
[48:40] We have it scheduled for two hours.
[48:42] I want to be respectful of the time.
[48:44] I would maybe propose that we look at shortening that
[48:47] to scheduling them for an hour and a half.
[48:48] I don't want us to feel super intense about it,
[48:51] but I want to make sure that you all have the flexibility
[48:53] and the schedule that you need.
[48:54] And quite frankly, I feel bad just taking up
[48:56] two hour chunks on your schedule once a month.
[48:59] Is there any opposition to Brittany and I shortening
[49:01] these to an hour and a half
[49:02] for the calendar invites and for the time of the minutes?
[49:06] Okay, I knew you guys were really going to be broken hearted about last time in short meetings.
[49:11] I don't have opposition, but I do love it when I have the meeting blocked and scheduled and we get to
[49:19] an early meeting. So many time in a meeting. I'm with Karina. I'm always Karina on that if we
[49:26] left it at two and planned on an hour and a half. I love that. You'd be okay with that. All right,
[49:32] well, how about this? Let's start with an hour and a half if we decide if you guys come back and you're
[49:35] like, we've got to change this.
[49:36] Give me back my half hour.
[49:37] I will do that for you.
[49:38] But we'll move it to an hour and a half, not an hour,
[49:41] but we'll go without moving forward.
[49:43] OK, all right.
[49:44] Then with that, I think we're finished for the day.
[49:46] Thank you all for joining us.
[49:47] If you have any questions, I'll say on for a second.
[49:49] But other than that, thank you for your work
[49:52] and enjoy your Friday and this meeting is adjourned.
[49:55] Thank you.
[49:55] Everybody can.
[50:09] OK, Brittany, it's just you and I.
[50:10] We're good to go then.
[50:13] Great.
[50:13] Plus, we'll be here.
[50:15] Thank you.
[50:15] We'll rule these meetings with an iron fist.
[50:19] Okay.
[50:20] Okay, bye.
[50:20] All right.
[50:21] See you later.
[50:22] Peace.