The Bladen County Board of Commissioners meetings lasted for over four hours Monday evening. Mental health and substance abuse has been a topic of many discussions the commissioners have reported and yesterday the topic took a large majority of the time.
Commissioners noted the lack of mental health and substance abuse services in Bladen County and the importance of finding solutions to these concerns. Eastpointe, Bladen County’s managed care organization for substance abuse, mental health and intellectual and developmental disabilities was represented with three staff members and three of their network providers at the commissioners meetings.
One important thing to take away from the presentation according to Chairman Charles Ray Peterson is Eastpointe has a phone number operating 24 hours a day seven days a week available for anyone needing substance abuse, mental health or intellectual and developmental disabilities services. The phone number listed on Eastpointe.net to call for any of their network providers is 800-913-6109.
Commissioners Arthur Bullock, Ray Britt and Michael Cogdell told Eastpointe more advertising on how to obtain mental health services is one of the most important needs. Also mentioned by Commissioner Dr. Ophelia Munn-Goins and Cogdell along with others is the need for more providers in our local area.
Commissioner Ashley Trivette voiced concerns about accountability of the providers, Eastpointe’s website and asked for the Gaps and Needs assessment. The Eastpointe staff members did not have the Gaps and Needs report on hand. Greg Martin, Bladen County Manager announced the 2016 LME-MCO Service Needs, Providers and Gaps Analysis Report had been emailed to the commissioners.
The Eastpointe staff members did explain how to navigate Eastpointe’s website. When trying to find Bladen County mental health providers on Eastpointe’s website during the meeting, commissioners still had questions on how easy the site is to navigate for users.
According to the presentation, Eastpointe is a 12 county network includes 259 agencies, 62 Licensed Practitioners and 42 hospitals. The main responsibilities of Easpointe according to the presentation given are to serve as the following: Call Center, Care Coordination, Utilization Management, Provider Network, Quality Management, and Finance and Claims processing.
According to the presentation Eastpointe reported their company provided the following monitorings in 2016: Routine -79, Quality of Care – 174, Complaint – 102, Targeted – 23, AFL Reviews – 90, Add a Site Reviews – 39, Re-credentialing – 492, Incident Report Reviews – 606, and Program Integrity Reviews – 10.
Carolinas Home Care, Coastal Southeastern United Care, and Monarch provided the commissioners with information and presentations about the services they provide through the Eastpointe network to Bladen County citizens. All three agencies received praises from Eastpointe about the level of care their companies provide to their clients.
All the commissioners had questions for Eastpointe and the providers. The commissioners asked for more information. After all the questions and presentations were made the commissioners thanked everyone from the mental health service area for attending and for their service.
After the presentations were given, Charlotte Smith addressed the commissioners stating Eastpointe’s Needs and Gaps 2016 report states the adults and children in the service area of Eastpointe are underserved by over 60% for both groups. The Developmental Delayed are underserved by 90% Smith stated. Smith proposed a couple of more questions to the commissioners about Eastpointe’s services as well.
In other business the commissioners heard from Mr. Don Melvin about a complaint he had with the way he was treated by the Sheriff’s Office. After about three minutes of Mr. Melvin giving his testimony, Chairman Peterson told Melvin the information he was given needed to be told in the court of law and the commissioner’s meeting was not the place for his presentation.
Also addressed:
Consent Items were approved
Financial Dashboard was given
Changes to Young Families Connect were presented
Update on the Bladen County Animal Shelter closed due to Provo Virus
First Right of Refusal was made to Bladen County Board of Education
New advisory appointments were made
Calendar update was given and special meeting was planned
“Kinlaw girls” lead Board of Commissioners in pledge
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