Senate Children and Youth and House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs

Good afternoon folks. Chair sees a quorum. And I am. Thank you all here today and with that we will get started. Firstly we're gonna do is. I want to ask for a motion to approve the minutes from October seventh do I have a mission that's exhibit be I have a motion and a second all in favor. In imposed. Thank you those a million dollars. Moving on. We have a presentation from our National Guard exhibit C.. In general penser you're welcome to come up. Sir if you would announce the offices that are with you. Good afternoon Mr chairman I have with me today to call Ryan workman was my legislative affairs officer on my staff and then we to a colonel will Phillips was my public affairs officer warhorse great to see to combat the interventions of clear. Ensure that the you may start your briefing. Well Sir first of all thanks for the opportunity to come by I mean I find as I go around and speak with the members of the legislature that they often don't have a good feel for how they the Arkansas National Guard the department of the military and state government interact what we'd like to do is provide you a quick overview today of the entire organization everything that we've got going on in Alaska the general Philip Senator current workmen to provide the presentation all jump in a key points where I think the collaboration is to occur or if there's questions thank you Sir. A good afternoon again I'm my name is listed in her will Phillips on the state of affairs officer and albums by pleasure to be able to give you a brief over what the Arkansas National Guard actually is in the. Examples. the agenda basically we're gonna give you a quick snapshot of who we are going to specifically discuss our dual mission both state and federal with specific examples are soldiers member supporting each I want to move into the federal missing commission supporting overseas operations will talk about the state's major commands and a contribution to combat terrorism glove the loss discuss the training sites in organizations here in the State of Arkansas that are used to train our soldiers member for fifty four states and territories they will wrap up with a few programs that we're very proud to sponsor an operation state and take questions at the end. Well you see this is when schools are heritage the military organization we know today is national guard came into existence with the direct the creation on December thirteen sixteen thirty six we pre date of the constitution when the Massachusetts general court in Salem established at all able bodied men between the ages of sixteen and sixty or required to join the militia the importance of the National Guard in maintaining a free Republic while comes in homeland and National fiscal's was well understood by founding fathers and was reflected in both Paris paper twenty nine Federer's paper number twenty nine U. S. constitution. Under the constitution it allows Congress to raise and support armies armies but no appropriation for army last more than two years and allows Congress to provide and maintain a navy it also provides U. S. Congress ability to organize Armand discipline wishes to call in for to execute the laws of the union. That history in Arkansas National Guard is it traces its roots to eighteen oh four I one year after the Louisiana Purchase that year said laws was formulated to govern the District of Missouri. the disturbance or including what is now Arkansas one law established. A requirement for malicious taking those mails and from liable for military service this requirement was reinforced when Arkansas became a territory the laws creating the Arkansas territory provided that the governor we commend the militia and appoint its officers by eighteen oh six or two machinist and now what is Arkansas one company each of infantry Calvary Calvary in in November eighteen twenty seven the territorial legislature provided the bill passed the bill providing for the organization of the militia into two brigades it also call for battalions to muster every year in October and companies to senate twice a year. These assemblies gave Arkansas the opportunity to get together visit with their neighbors mostly at some lease ended in a party of course. The first use of the Arkansas which was an eighteen twenty eight Miller County and the Arkansas territory was creating eighteen nineteen with Arkansas farm income the state as you know in eighteen thirty six. We're community based respect out strategically so that we can rapidly respond within the state was the governor called to duty I'll have you take a note of the numbers that are in each one of those counties that represents a number of Arkansas guardsmen with Aaron army live in each one of the states this is our community based now you'll notice that there's locations on the map notify those flags are kind of small but spread out all over the state but that's not what we're community based because we have our airmen and our soldiers in each and every county in the state we're regionally located but we have guardsmen across the state this would be important as we discuss finance financials later on your friends your neighbors your community members of people you see in the grocery store at your doctor's office that's the Arkansas National Guard now structure consists of six major subordinate commands for army to the air guard we have three major facilities Robinson were training center located in North Little Rock for Jackie Joyner training center in ebbing Air National Guard base in Fort Smith and sixty two acres or Little Rock Air Force Base. Our workforce the ratio of air to Army National Guard is different on each profit for states and territories but here in Arkansas where primarily consists composed of army soldiers we have roughly over sixty five hundred army guardsmen while the remaining twenty to fifty percent of our force or air national guardsmen I'd like to also point out that we're actually have three different legs of our organization you have the the army and air guard and we also have the department of the military. And we also have a are a our state employees who fall in under department of the military you noticed up here the seventy five percent numbers point to those are traditional serving guardsmen folks to wear the uniform one week in a month or twice a week or two weeks in the summer the other twenty two percent I'm sorry of the smaller presenter full timers are full time or full time army which roughly makes up about a little over twenty percent of our work force. And so most of you're familiar with the department of defense at the national level and the Department offenses over the departments of the army navy Air Force and marine corps and so. And so they are there in in essence the higher headquarters that's where in a structure where we differ as a state organization the department of the military is not the higher headquarters for the Arkansas National Guard there to legally distinct and separate organizations and the department of the military their key role is to take the federal dollars that the departments of or that the a National Guard brings down and turn that into state services good good services and manpower and so they basically are a supporting organization to the National Guard. The National Guard is wanted by both federal and state dollars a state place roughly two percent. Two million annually for state active duty missions those funds are not always expended depending on the number and link the state active duty missions in a given state fiscal year roughly about at least a two million dollars that goes in of state funding that matches the other ninety percent of our federal funding the total economic impact for us across the state is over seven hundred eighty three dollars seven hundred eighty three million dollars annually that's money that makes every county in every state because our guardsmen go home spindles in their communities grocery store local goods and those federal funds pay for a soldier airman salaries federal civilian pay federal operations and maintenance and military construction cost. Next I'm gonna go into some of our our units so large major command we have the state is the one I'm very proud of because a member of this organization thirty ninth of two gay Combat Team that twenty six minutes thirty seven locations roughly around forty two hundred soldiers we also have two battalions located outside of the state one in a Calvary regiment it's and you tend to Brzeska at an infantry regiment that's headquartered in Kansas city Missouri they've done multiple operations and normally when you see when a response reads emergency response missions that usually thirty nine soldiers that responding you can notice on the mat we got locations all across the state that's the largest military unit their job is to find a bag I break stuff but it bluntly. A one other I do not like to know if you noticed that the the patch that's there the the code eighteen the Arkansas brigade of the patch of their represents the the diamonds on their represents the only operational diamond mining United States with the bully night that was made here in Arkansas that we are still great soldiers probably wearing hips I think we're one today because that it might have problems with security. Thanks. Next we have a one forty second field artillery brigade there mostly headquartered in Northwest Arkansas roughly eleven hundred soldiers And they're organized with two battalions one battalions a hundred fifty five millimeter paladin unit the others a multiple launch rocket system unit they saw action not in operation Iraqi freedom and also the first Gulf War Gulf War and the just recently deployed to Kosovo wait twice and they were also in the over and over you are supporting some other missions last year paladins are the main what weapon system for them the first round can be shot in the vehicle to move within sixty seconds are these are very capable units that provide higher higher rates of fire they do also have to out of state with tie ins one headquartered in Alabama and one in Tennessee. Nexis eighty seven your command now it consists of roughly around a hundred fifty soldiers with thirteen units in eight different communities regains com part comprises two battalions of combat support and service units this organization is unique that it also has airmen assigned in the organization they all belong to the sixty first civil support team I'm gonna cover little about the sixty first here in just a moment. A central command service brigade headquarters for corn Division level special units as such the sixty personal support team one of six army band the one nineteen mobile public affairs detachment and to sixteenth military police company all House the camp Robinson are controlled by the A. seven to command in addition they've got the two twenty fourth make this company in Mountain Home the two ninety six medical company in hot springs executive engineer battalion in Jonesborough and in additionally the eighty seven oversees our recruiting and retention efforts which spanned across the state. Next is a one of our most recognizable units of seven seven year aviation brigades roughly around seven hundred fifty soldiers were assigned to that organization they fly to primary helicopters the U. eight sixty Black Hawk which you see above of your note under that helicopter there's a supercenter Act they were responding to the floods to twenty nineteen that's about two thousand pounds hanging under the helicopter pilots referred to put those in to a nice little small have short levy are they also fly M. C. twenty six Metroliner executive jet out campgrounds as well the Blackhawks are used primarily for soldier transport medical value would evacuation security surveillance missions the code is primarily a medical evacuation search rescue and aerial reconnaissance the codes are unique to the National Guard and that that aircraft is only flown by National Guard. Organizations. The code is our primary aircraft in support of state and federal law enforcement agency to provide evaluative capabilities to our the state kind of drug program to lessen and diminish legal drug production transportation distribution within the state the metro on a mission which is a C. twenty six as a fixed wing aircraft is primarily used to support a state federal dignitary transportation again they're headquartered out of camp Robinson and anytime you see a Black Hawk helicopter find it usually AR seventy seven aviation. Next up is the one eighty ninth airlift wing and I've got some great things going out here it's roughly eleven hundred airmen one of rooms represent here to my left they wanted in like airlift wing operates a C. one thirty is the sole see one thirty H. formal training unit for the department defense providing aircrew training for all C. one thirty H. pilots navigators flight engineers and load masters more than three hundred Air Force inter service and international students annually graduate from its courses the wing flies over seventeen hundred training sorties in roughly thirty five hundred flight hours per year supporting that mission. They wanted like this also home to the Air Force and Air National Guard only cyber protect and defend intermediate course which delivers relevant cyberspace vulnerability assessment and hunter initial qualification training for submission defense teams across the total force the win transported hundred ninety cyberspace airman annually to identify cyber what will abilities and develop safeguards critical weapon systems additionally airman from the wing a routinely deployed various points around the globe to sport compact commanders as they execute strategic objectives finally the sea with the wing supports the C. one thirty that H. test attachment forty Air Force reserve and Air National Guard test center supporting operational test to have a clue to increase the functionality of the C. one thirty H. now for the future the air force's announced in twenty twenty three the yeah when he died receives two C. one thirty J. super Hercules aircraft to establish them as the Air National Guard C. one thirty J. schoolhouse previously C. one thirty J. crews had to be trained by active duty soldiers in on Little Rock Air Force base now all of that training be going through C. one thirty C. one thirty H. and see whether he chase school houses at one eighty nine cementing them for future years. Next up is the one eighty eight wings it's has intelligence surveillance reconnaissance mission usually found using the M. Q. nine reaper the win consist roughly at nine hundred airmen in Fort Smith they converted from being in a ten flying unit in twenty fourteen to finance United reaper the twenty fourth attacks water and flies in the MQ nine there's also the one twenty third intelligence squadron is responsible for processing evaluating and disseminating intelligence projects products from multitude of assets to combat commanders around the world one fifty third intelligence watching squadron is also responsive for target identification and production to include space focus assets the fly to support operational missions right from home station so basically our airmen going to a title ten status of fly missions around the world while still here here at Fort Smith an additional eighty one eighty eight operates razorback range on fort Chaffee it's a one thousand acre class a full service range that boasts air space from the surface to thirty thousand feet with fully scornful targets the rain season one of four hundred sorties annually fourteen hundred aircrew training events more and nine hundred joint tactical air controller training events one eighty eight is also the only read for civil. Training center in the Air National Guard is located on ebbing Air National Guard base of red horse answer rapid engineer deployable heavy operation repair squadron engineers basically like the Seabees that you see in the navy or like the U. S. army's heavy construction. In addition coming up in the future of Singapore's Air Force F. sixteen and F. thirty fives training program will be located at being and that's to the four military sales for correct. That would cover installations up first up is camp Robinson now a lot of people don't notice over thirty two thousand acres of camp Robinson located North Little Rock all units to that. All units do come the cameras in the training read but emissions at camp or the training institutions located there they're at the there are three schools okay can't rob rob Institute thirty third regional training institute the National Guard marks a training center and the most notables PC to professionalise cations and. I in nineteen seventy four then governor Dale bumpers excessively advocated for the National Guard bureau to located school PC here today PC trains all full time air guard X. any army guard personnel from across all fifty states and three territories of the industry county with a student exceeding thirty thousand annually again thirty thousand people gathered at school annually it's again located on camp Robinson because of the number of students. That come through desk that school the we are the single largest user of the Little Rock airport. We also for Chaffee as for Chevy sixty five thousand acres as federally owned and leased to the Arkansas National Guard is large enough to support a brigade size plus element of over seven thousand service members for training it also has the only river crossing site within the member position named river system in the nation we on both sides of the bank in this state the only place in the nation where they can do that sort of training they also have a special warfare unit navy seals it trainer training attachment to it's a true joint training center with the one eighty eighth. Weights razorback range also located on the post in addition we at ebbing Air National Guard base which is located before Smith regional airport releases under hundred eighty acres there additionally we have Little Rock Air Force base now we we are the host for that basis an active duty post we are tenet that were sixty two acres located there again as the sole formal training unit for C. one thirty H. and soon to be C. one three J. pilots. A service so you know they the big question is what is the so what about all of that so you know if you look back it's really about value proposition if you look back a few slides you see that you know the total amount of money coming into the state from the federal government's about four hundred and fifty four million dollars that's equipment that's facilities that stream people all that training all those equipped all that equipment all of that knowledge and expertise is there available when the governor needs to call out the guard to either of respond to a natural disaster respond to civil unrest whatever the case may be and so you don't have to train anybody up to do it they're already trained and ready it's just a matter of changing their status so for four hundred fifty four four seven million dollars we get two hundred and fifty four million dollars worth of manpower the equipment and facilities. Are to the governors are dated a commander in chief of the Arkansas National Guard Arkansas state laws exist on the books that authorized the governor to develop rules and regulations all of the guard to state active duty authorize an award seat awards medals and if necessary command course marshals court marshals as appropriate. Now the National Guard as I told you earlier is organized and as an order last month malicia reserve by states and the constitution United States under article one section eight in peacetime the governor of each respective state or territory commands his or her National Guard examples include state emergencies like natural disasters I when ordered to active duty for mobilization or called in the federal Burch these units of the garter under control the appropriate service secretary examples and for those include overseas deployments first for training or contingencies now the governor may call individuals or units of the Arkansas National Guard at the state service to emergencies to assess and special situations in which the National Guard uniquely trained before that's that federal doubles federal dollars are going to our training to allow us to respond the state mission to the sign to the National Guard to provide a train in this with forces for domestic urgent emergencies or as otherwise provided by state law. When asked when not activated for its federal mission the governor commensal forces through the state as in general the governor can call the garden action during local statewide emergencies again for storms health emergencies and civil disturbances that each state has a senior military service officer as the state adjutant general who was the fact the commander of the state's military. This individuals known as tag the adjutant general subordinate to the chief executive who's usually the governor this being our tax. Each General H. as in Joe shares common responsibility for states National Guard pose a unique set of other responsibilities defined in the state's constitution state statues no state level directives in addition to their state responsibilities each tag is responsible for federal government for the use and care of federal assets under state control the National Guard bureau in the department offense provides for centralized administrative funding appearance process to support states military departments as as my boss told you earlier Chief the National Guard you're also provides input as a member to the joint chief of staff in the national military activities as they relate to the National Guard. That country to popular belief the governor the action general separately leads the uniformed military those was wearing uniform as well as the civilian department of the military. There's basically two separate functions you can see up on the on the map where the adjutant general's department military which is all of our civilian counterparts for state employees and then our joint force headquarters staff which is our army and Air Force is. Now also we're typically not first responders which is contrary to what a lot of people believe we don't run and jump when disaster strikes when a disaster unless we're there because they're always ready always there someone make sure message that but when a disaster hits communities up to local authorities request the guard support if they need it during those disasters a local Fisher usually the mayor of the county judge or county sheriff let's make an emergency that disaster declaration to their local emergency management office and then three Arkansas department of emergency management in order for National Guard as it's to be used in disaster response Adam assesses what the state agency might be best to feel that sometimes it's not the court may be another state agency but when they do they do feel like we need to guard they'll contact the governor recommended make a recommendation to the governor and the governor makes a final decision and then directs Adam to direct the appropriate state agency National Guard or whatever the case may be. Yes exactly. And so. The defense support civilian of civilian authorities is Thank. This supports the employee's car's when guardsmen are in a state active duty status R. or title thirty two duty status to commissions include again the national disaster search and rescue pandemics or social services the guard also has a unique thing is called the sixty first civil support team approach by earlier House under eighty seven your command they consist of twenty two active guardsmen with specialized skills to support civil authorities I am at the mess against network with potential or threatened use of weapons of mass destruction WMD includes nuclear biological radiological or toxic or poisonous chemicals the sixty first also response to national man made disasters that could result in catastrophic loss of life or property if there's a large gathering of people like a razorback football game a concert in Little Rock the sixty persons usually they're monitoring air quality to make sure that nothing happened Smith so they can mitigate any threat these are supporting the support to every instinct Mander is on site and provide assessment of whatever risk if there's a risk. So I will mention that you know Adam comes up with a recommendation together about which Resources best use to solve any local issues that might arise and so I just wanna clarify or cut. Give you a little bit of insight on that so you know when we are here on a day to day basis essentially every national guardsmen is in a federal status in a week and we are paid federally we are. Totally excited the met the governor decides to call up the National Guard for state mission then we in essence take those federal guardsmen and make and turn them into temporary state employees and we put him on the payroll. So so it's it's expensive it's expensive to call out the guards and that's that's one of the key things that they think through about you know whether the guard is the best resource to solve any given problem or not is are there cheaper options out there. Another I think it's all also talk about some of the programs that we run through the National Guard or actually really proud of first one being the youth challenge program for not introduced you to get you. So in nineteen ninety three Congress created the National Guard youth challenge program ace of the youth opportunities program and authorize the secretary defense to use National Guard bureau to conduct a program for at risk youth of the Arkansas as a youth challenge program is administrated by the Arkansas department of the military it was one of the original for programs that was developed in nineteen ninety three and offers you the opportunity to change direction of our lives the bill string the characters to and life skills necessary becomes successful responsible citizens we're getting after are our most valuable asset which is our kids the program consists of the five have month residential phase followed by year long post resin to face and use between ages sixteen to eighteen can volunteer to attend this this program again these are for non educated youth given an opportunity to point their lives in the right direction we're really proud of this program because we have a lot of people who volunteer and put their time and effort into getting after our most recent are at risk kids up they have to be one more years behind a high school or expelled dropped out there to be a citizen courses state not charge with a conventional felony drug free and again volunteer that's programs completely free well that completely free of the costs are covered by a mix of state and federal funds but it's at no cost to the state the kids who attend this program or their families are really proud of what comes out at the school for a reason graduated one hundred fifty out of the class it's that this amazing program. Also part of our state partnership program with the country what Amala the Department with what Amala since two thousand two the state partnership program which is a national program a lot of the guard units across the fifty four have partner countries the cost effective program administered by the National Guard bureau and it's got it by the state department of federal foreign policy goals and executed by the state agency general in support of combat commanders in U. S. chief of mission security cooperation objectives the rest B. P. because we cover the conduct military to military engagements with Guatemala in support of the fence security goals we also leverage leverage our whole society relationships with K. believes himself a larger broader interagency Calare quarterly engagements spanning military government economic a social spears it's a win win is a partnership between Guatemala in the State of Arkansas so we all get something out of it. Here's our future contains the right we've got a number big things that are happening here in St we're postured again to continue to transport wartime taskings around the globe and support national objectives but earlier this year to Air Force chose twenty ninth airlift wing to be the Air National Guard C. one thirty J. schoolhouse for all Guard pilots in the master training. And twenty twenty three or twenty twenty four we should receive into the C. one three days back on site will get that that training missions start ups will continue to train C. one thirty ages as we transition to see one thirty chase additionally the Air Force chose one eighty eighth going to host Republic of Singapore Air Force F. sixteen pilot training squadron will start twenty twenty three with twelve F. sixteen is located on a rant in twenty twenty six will also host up to twenty four F. thirty five fifth generation joint strike fighters from Singapore Poland Switzerland and Norway the reform military sales program the initiative with has been approved by Congress and we should have the announcmenet on that later this spring what what's did the official announcements made we should be looking at three hundred forty five active duty personnel moving to Fort Smith the supports program and we also have those countries bringing their families in they'll be training on fifth generation aircraft which is most marketing we have out here exciting to the because of the economic impact for the river valley enforcement area air education training command estimates roughly seven hundred million dollars a year annually out of this program for the river valley area. our intelligence surveillance reconnaissance capabilities are still gonna be relied on the king in the in the future three one eighty eighth in there for probably being the MQ nine reaper of the Arkansas Arkansas National Guard ISR capabilities are robust and are in high demand by combat commanders all across the world cyber protection distributing military assets and weapon systems will only be hiring demand a cyber criminal criminals nation state hackers will disrupt our ability to operate global globally protecting our networks and the devices and hardware that are connected to those networks we ascension our success in our future medical again our our mantra is always ready always there at the thank you for your time appreciate. Appreciate your attention and what are your questions. Represent representative Bentley you're recognized. Thank you thank you gentlemen for being here today we have the opportunity for you challenge not too long ago was very thoroughly impressed with the program there the students that we get to meet with their as their an opportunity maybe to double that program maybe four chapters something in the future I just know in my district a lot of use it could benefit from us just curious what with that my whole the future what would take to get the support to do that. Yes ma'am they're they're or unexcused funds at the national level every year So that we have explored that right now what are our key concern is to increase our class load that graduates out of the program here camp Robinson in a soon as we maximize that out we think we have a very strong hand Blake go back to the national level and ask for additional funds great follow up chairman. Yes ma'am go ahead a question is when the governor on in total different subject when the governor came out so that we would not be putting the covered vaccine on the list of childhood vaccines here in Arkansas has some constituents which out to me that were wondering if that being the case could we not grant the a national guardsman here in Arkansas that have filed for alleged exemptions to go ahead at least recommend that that be done I know that you're not the final say so general it has to go for the permit but can we not at least a given in when we first start out with this what was a lot thank you didn't know now we know there has been so my occurred as in some of the things that very concerned to constituents that reach out to me and we know the vaccine does not prevent someone from getting COVID does not prevent it from being spread and that religious exemptions have been upheld even with health personnel in hospitals across the state across the. Because the nation with a different losses that have come forth and I'm just a on behalf of my constituents completed look re look at that but we can at least recommend what goes I know you have the final say but can we look we look at those windows exemptions given the things that we know now that we did not know his or so ago yes ma'am answered to clarify the. Each military department of the United States Department of Defense ma'am the secretary of that department makes the final call on every in individual out there that is asking for an exemption we have provided our input up to know that essentially that affect but it will not be my decision when it's all said and done it will be the the secretary of the military department either the army or the Air Force's page that are just quick one clarification thank you chairman for that I'm so do you give any when you said that we just transfer you not giving any I recommend that we do this our recommend we don't is there any input on your part at all and heads up of the command line because I'm just as spam so the so every as long of command provides input up to that final decision making authority at the national level all of them go to my office and I've made I have read every request you provide input on your. Okay and have you recommend to anyone get the religious exemption every actually that we denied I'm just being very so what's right so when I make my recommendation I make it on the impact on the unit's readiness so asper as it stands right now everyone who would be granted that the exemption should be granted at the national level would be unable to deploy two you know that to respond to any kind of federal mission and that's you know from the from my perspective that lack of ready radius prohibits my units from being effective if they were to be called up so to that effect to that then I or that affect I have said made my recommendation not to approve any. Thank you for that clarification appreciate yes ma'am. John very Sir you're recognized thank you Mr chairman and general bins my understanding that there is an alternative to the COVID nineteen baxeen that's a that's mitigated all of the a religious exemption challenges as been put forth is that correct yes or the Novavax vaccine was basically constructed around the same methodology that the flu vaccine is built around which I negates any of the the concerns about stem cell usage or any of the other a religious complications that the note or the of Madonna and the Fizer Baxi of president we have had the chaplains for all of the units call out engage with every soldier that or air so determines ask for a religious exemption present as an alternate so the bottom line is somebody can get that Novavax baxeen and still meet all the requirements and not have to request religious exemption I just like an annual flu shot yes yes yes Sir that's correct thank you and a follow up question Mister chairman. Attention so your southwest border mission a notice on the schedule last year or maybe earlier this year the governor deployed a number of folks in the state active duty status but the the mission that you have on the board is going to be in a title ten federal status not not deployed under the governor's orders that correct yes that's correct it's about fifty soldiers from northeast Arkansas the A. seventy that the German workers okay and I have one other question Mister chairman I get back in the queue go ahead Sir okay so are you getting the required resources how many armories do you have and are you getting the required resources to maintain those armories and all of our communities that are so vital to us to each and in every community yes Sir so the we have fifty two armories across the state some of those armory state all the way back to the the Eisenhower era no a number of them I believe will still do not have the bathrooms for women and so we have a president that to the governor of this last summer I gave them a request for money that would allow us to begin buying down all the maintenance backlogs we have including those of the. Hello Trina shoes and that was presented as part of the governor's budget request your last week okay there's a seventy five twenty five matching yes Sir that's correct okay correct thank you thank you Mr. Yes Sir. Represent is slate you're recognized. Once I hit the button your there was no. Thank you Mr chairman thank you for the Lee Williams not on the committee here but I did drive three hours for one very important question to general pan General pan and the colonels thank you for your service to the state it's much appreciated of in my prior life is County sheriff I use the the National Guard a lot between national natural disasters and reconnaissance and with the the help we were able to take a lot of drugs and a lot of bad guys of street from the specially getting the drugs to the kids but one thing I was wondering the prior command staff was really hard for me to deal with them I was curious how long did it take you to clean that up thank you Mr. Well Sir so you know I've I've had a long career in the Arkansas National Guard about the including the time that I was retired but working for the association about forty years all total and so I was when I found out I was coming into this job I was so thankful general very proceed to be because he cleaned up all of those problems that exist. Members are there any other questions. Conflicts that was now standing briefing thank you Sir European penser thank you we appreciate all that you do. In that are are outstanding guard members to thank you Sir it is our honor to serve the state of Arkansas we've got some of the best people out there that you could ever imagine working portion thank you again for the option you can his or sent. Members Adam D. is a discussion approval of the report on reducing the number of children in foster care. In the Mr Gilliam is going to brief us on that. Members of the exhibit deep before you is going to be the final report on reducing the number of children in foster care as required by ACT five seventy four of two thousand twenty one. this report was initially given to the committee and presented by the Division of Children and Family Services at an earlier date I've been asked to use the same report our final report to the Arkansas Legislative Council to be presented on or before December first. Part of the legislation is that the Senate and house members of the committee or to give final recommendations I believe this has been sent to the Committee about ten plus days for purview and at this time uh senator Wallace will field your recommendations that will be incorporated into the final report. In members do you have any recommendations or you have any questions. Representative Springer you're recognized good afternoon and thank you Mr chair I don't have any questions I just want to make a comment that I attended the celebration on this past weekend or in a number of state children were adopted they had of the adoption ceremonies at the church at a church in North Little Rock so I think that our communities aware of the need and they're taking action to do certain things so thank you for the opportunity to say that yes ma'am that's wonderful. Members can I hear a motion to the chair to finalize our support. I have a motion. And I have a second. All in favor any post. Thank you. Members nexus Adam II this is report on the Division of Children and Family Services. Four Kansas who use American Sign Language I believe we have. The agency thank you for coming up if you will please identify yourself. Good afternoon my name is Kristen Harper I'm assistant director with the Division of Children and Family Services. And I'm Serra line I'm I'm chief counsel at the Department of Human Services. So at at this is September twentieth committee and national member there is a presentation and the prompted several questions regarding an ASL interpretation services for our clients an exhibit you one we have written a summary document for what that looks like for DCFS and in that you know we do provide are contracted communications class is the contract provider that provides those ASL interpretation services for clients and that is funded by our social services block grant S. S. B. G. and so it's a hundred percent federally funded and the services are available twenty four seven and there are several places in policy and training and we're we communicate this information to staff and the because of the testimony that was provided to the September meeting Hassenstein additional messaging to our staff statewide about the availability of these services and policy surrounding that and and then I think this Lannom conversant from a local perspective or other divisions within DHS. Correct I think following that meeting we also supplied some information to and you senator Wallace and and to representative fight that I believe you probably distributed to the rest of the committee and that just talked about the two contracts that the department has in place and that provides our interpretation and translation services throughout the Department that is utilized by all of the divisions and and so there's two two contracts in place communications class an Arkansas Spanish interpreters and so that document we provided has our historical spend and that we've utilized over the past two years and by the division and it's broken down by the amount and the funding source that has been utilized for those contracts. So we're happy to take any questions if you've got any questions members do we have any questions. Thank you that's very good report Do I have a motion to accept. Okay members nurse No motion this so I misspoke. But the thank you for coming up created good briefing. Member we have three rules are we going to present. I believe miss Harper is going to present the first one. I'm sorry miss Williams. This represents the first one. There you are. good afternoon Pitsch **** education program manager with the division of child care and early childhood education. And I'm excited to be here today to present to you The Amendment to our rules for the better beginnings quality rating and improvement system. The changes that we'd like to make to these rules are to first change the name to the better beginnings tiered quality rating and improvement system. At currently Arkansas has three quality levels for childcare facilities and this would add three additional levels it would add two to three the but at level three it would add levels four five and six. I do want to know that this is a voluntary program however about eighty eight percent of child care providers do select to participate. One of the reasons that we are and we decided to add additional levels of quality is that we have a number of providers to exceed. That requirements already they exceed level three quality so we want to recognized them for all the hard work that they've done. And M. also give parents the opportunity to see the options of the higher quality levels. We did have hold a public hearing for these roles on September thirteen and eight people responded we took into consideration their feedback in our documents. At the amendment also clarifies for our providers the application process in order to participate in the better because. Program and it streamlines the process. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Representative Springer you're recognized. Good afternoon again thank you Mr chair what was your name again I'm sorry that I'm Pitsch **** okay miss **** levels that have been added so could you explain further what what what does that mean so you now have three but you're adding three additional one so would you tell me does it have to do with a or what would you explain that so Act currently for childcare providers the licensed facilities there's three different quality levels and we we go out we we use the national tool to assess the quality of the providers and That better beginnings is actually put in place back in twenty ten and we have not revised that program since then so adding the additional levels that just means that those providers. Exceed the requirements that are in place. For level three so we added an opportunity for them to apply for levels four five and six. They're already so like let's just say we have I'm just gonna throw out something let's just say this score is five for an assessment we have a providers who were making seven but they're not being recognized for all of the personal work that they're doing so this gives them an opportunity by adding those additional levels and also it gives our parents an opportunity to see what else is available does that answer your question well I guess I'm trying to figure out if there is any monetary of difference in being a level three versus a level four do they get paid an additional amount I guess is my question okay I thank you for and explaining that so for each additional quality level they will be paid in and Senate grants and then if they accept childcare subsidies or childcare vouchers the announcmenet that their pay per child will increase by level so can you give us those amounts tell us what the one through three are now and what the proposed for five and six will be if they beat those levels now I do not have that with me but I can certainly get that to you yes I would like to see the after. And then I guess the other quote Mr chairman all right ma'am the other question I have is you say that you all had a public hearing on the rule the changes and you said you had three persons I'm a persons to respond what were the general comments with respect to the comments that were made with respect to this rule check these rule changes at them and they're not a part of the package unless I'm missing something okay the majority of the comments were related to well there was a concern that. At the moment spot like we had moved the professional development requirements. And while we did take that out the reason we do that is because in order to achieve a higher score using those tools the providers have to have taken that professional development so it's really redundant and so for an efficiency we remove that so that was one that was several people have that comments the other primary feedback that we received was that there's concern that special needs children with special needs were not addressed but that is a requirement in our and minimum requirements for child care licensing so it it's it these it's already required for minimum licensing and so it wasn't necessary to. added to the quality level. I'm sure can we request copies of those comments so that we can so it I I personally would like to see them so I could see the actual comments that were made to be per person a transparent I've had some complaints voice to me specifically so I would just like to see what what has been said about this with respect to the change in the rates and with respect to the responses that I've been given here today so I appreciate that thank you. Senator let love you're recognized thank you Mr Page I want to ask you so so what is the fiscal impact we're looking at when we start talking about the enhanced or the. I thank you column. You said some sort of grant to enhance grant where you they are eating the incentive grants incentive grants so what is what's the fiscal impact we're talking about here is is it. So I'll write we have a fiscal impact statement here is developed by our director of finance and the incentive grants for going up a level is a one time. Because and then the additional funding for that house or subsidies is also built into that financial impact statement and that is in your packets this is all federal funding for there's no state okay so soft federal funding yes okay all right thank you and I believe that all we have in a package of summer. Okay. But I do believe the entire packet is on the website. Right I'm. So I apologize when I pull down the enticements it looked like everything was included. So what I'm hearing is and we will get to you the. For that comments from the public hearing and then the rates for the higher levels okay. Anything else that I can answer. Mister chair. Go ahead ma'am thank you Mr I would just like to say I do have some concerns about the device we're not telling you know presented to the public what those increases are with you I think it would be more transparent we know knew what was involved here since I've will receive some concerns about this I would just like to see what those rates are and then any other additional information that you have this not a part of your package thank you. And I have a couple questions and these are from US senator Hammer he's call these into me or these specials only or these vouchers only available to centers that offer these programs. So this I guess I'm not following this is really related to that better beginnings quality level okay. Is Sir I'm sorry can you repeat your question major following are those vouchers only available to the centers are offering. Those programs the better beginners programs right so. In order to participate and offered that childcare vouchers you do have to be participating in a better beginnings level to say that's a. requirements in order to receive federal funds. It is your any data that shows kids our children will do better in school if they've been through the better. Beginner's program. There's a lot of that it is so that children will do better in quality care and I'll be happy to get some information on that. It in thank you. In representative Springer you're recognized. I'm sorry US senator elect of love sure you're recognized. Thank you some page up I'm looking I'm looking through this in regards to the fiscal impact let me ask you know what what steps are we doing to to get other agencies I mean I know that you you must have a number of agencies that already fit the criteria what what type of training that we do for other agencies to get them to a higher level because I mean is that our money I mean I think you know we need to take advantage of it but what we do offer the other agencies that have not met that threshold to kind of get them. Above and. So this is this is a voluntary program okay set however I will say that Arkansas did receive two hundred fifty eight million through the American rescue plan acts and those dollars were distributed to childcare providers at and one of the grant cpas specifically to be used to help. But with quality improvement okay and and then there's other funding available that you know should help them increase the quality of their program in addition to that we and and through federal funds contracts with universities and education organizations to provide training and technical assistance for free to all of that licensed providers okay so the design and the program that you all have a issue I think they have a As You is one of our contracted vendors yes okay all right I think this is awesome thank you thank you. Members seeing no other questions I need a motion to review the rule. I have a motion and a second all in favor in impose. Thank you and is has has been reviewed. Members were known item G.. And miss Harper if you'll come up and. Rufus thank you ma'am. Dringend Christian Harper Division of Children family services and this first rule is clean up to incorporate existing practice into a written guidance specific to the criteria that are DCFS transitional youth services program manager at reviews and you the prize for our driving in a car insurance reimbursement program we also received feedback from our youth advisory board they recommended that we and it changed the name from the driver's license program to the more generic training program to better reflect this program has and will continue to provide a mechanism for youth in foster care not only are their driver's licenses it also began earlier ticket or in their instructional permits and intermediate driver's licenses that are at. Finally we've also added language from existing statute to this policy in an effort to better communicate to staff and foster parents that if they sign a driving permit or license application on behalf of the minor in foster care and they will not be held liable for any damages caused by the negligence or willful misconduct of a minor and this is an effort to encourage more foster parents to consider signing those applications on behalf of youth in their home we did not receive any public comments regarding this rule and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Members do I have any questions. Okay without objection this rule has been reviewed thank you. And then our next full is actually to resent the persons an existing division policy regarding educational leave and educational assistance the only because there is an existing departmental DHS policy that supersedes the directives within that division policy and so we wanted to limit confusion and simply refer staff to that departmental policy regarding educational leave once again a public comments received and happy to answer any questions you may have. Members seeing no questions. Once again without objection this rule has been reviewed thank you. The members Mister David cook is going to give us a update. Davis could see again. Thank you senator Wallace David cook the senior public policy manager for the Alzheimer's association members I respect your time we'll try to move through this pretty quick and I have been here quite awhile but you have a lot to say and I'm a former pastor so hold on. This was a joke. my reserve for you well was that just give you an update on the Alzheimer's state plan that is one of the documents that was I think a tax to the meeting rather than read through the state plan in its entirety And hit some of the highlights before we get started I thought it would be insurer helpful just establish the impact that Arkansas Alzheimer's is having here in the state of Arkansas you know in in the United States we we know there's about six million people living with Alzheimer's that numbers expected to to increase to thirteen million by twenty fifty here in the state of Arkansas we know there are fifty eight thousand our Kansans over the age of sixty five currently living with Alzheimer's and we expect an increase of fifteen half percent over the next two years here in the state as provided continues to increase so does need we also know that Alzheimer's is the most expensive disease to treat has impacts across state agencies and impacts the workforce more healthcare workforce it impacts has a fiscal impact as it impacts Medicaid spending as impacts across state agencies whereby the need for the unless our state plan. just a few things that make Alzheimer's unique to other chronic conditions number one is prevention in order though research continues to evolve evidence is really strong the R. certain lifestyle interventions that we can take to reduce our risk of developing cognitive decline one of the most I think more proactive sources of research as we know that what is good for the heart is good for the brain and so having a public health response to talk about risk reduction or detection diagnosis is going to be essential as prevalence continues to increase I'm diagnosis is also difficult for our disease for Alzheimer's and dementia as there is no singular diagnostic tests just show Alzheimer's only identifying the hallmarks of the disease and and treatments also there is no cure for Alzheimer's although we are seeing some exciting progress in research we know that probably in the next few months will have as many as three to four drugs hit the market but the problem with these drugs is the only are effective in those in those with of thank you for those in the early stages of cognitive decline or Alzheimer's and so or detection and diagnosis again is extremely important in order to have access to the treatments that are currently in the market. we also know through the behavioral risk factor surveillance system that you know most people Alzheimer's dementia also have other comorbid a corporate commodities other health struggles they have high prevalence of diabetes hypertension all also associated with the development of cognitive decline the age of those impacted most of our population is over the age of sixty five to develop Alzheimer's we do have those who are develop younger onset Alzheimer's and younger onset Alzheimer's diagnosis is extremely complicated because it limits access to services directly here in Arkansas as you think about the way that our Medicaid waivers are structured so with the younger of a diagnosis of Senate diagnosis of young onset Alzheimer's because the way the the sum of the waivers or written would not qualify for some of the services this is changing at the national level early last year the older Americans act was actually amended to include those with younger onset Alzheimer's to be able to re services receive services such as meals on wheels and things like that also there's just lack of federal funding coming back to the states in twenty eighteen the bold act was passed in Congress and the bold accents for the building our largest dementia infrastructure act in that into behind that act is to give federal funding to the states in order to build infrastructure response to Alzheimer's dementia I talked about touch on this in a few minutes but Arkansas has received from court pass the funding or the bold act and so they are currently working through those will funds as well. To give you a general outline of the Alzheimer's and dementia State disease plan as you kind of look through it in your light reading next week so no all of you will a causal B. quiz after the first of the year but You guys have to joke back with me so the first section was it just that instruction we kind of go through the process and and just to give you an executive summary and then section two we draw a little bit deeper into some of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's but not just Alzheimer's but other forms of dementia often we get the question what's the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia dementia is an umbrella term Alzheimer's is the leading cause of dementia what can I think about it like like we do cancer there's many different types of cancer many other different types of dementia like Parkinson's my father who has vascular dementia any also as frontal temporal lobe dementia so there's several other dementias so we kinda going to those and some of the risk factors and hallmarks of those forms of dementia this section three we focused on four general areas public awareness and education access and quality of care and then the importance of supporting family caregivers and then we look at the dementia training and workforce development that we need to have in the state you may be wondering where those areas came from when we first began our work we knew that the bold act was on the horizon and one of the requirements closely aligned with the bald Act requirements that we thought were coming was having your priorities align closely to the healthy brain initiative roadmap which is a project who was the led by the CDC in the Alzheimer's association focused on similar areas like this so we decided to make sure that our state plan aligned with bold objectives so we focus on access and quality of care a public awareness again some caregiver support and then strength and health care workforce so very intentional to align our priorities with what we saw on the healthy brain initiative roadmap. which incidently is up for a new version should be coming out sometime next spring so we'll we'll do so awareness from that as well I thought it also be helpful to give you a history of just general state government's response to Alzheimer's and dementia really this work began in the eighties we're states begin to recognize the impact Alzheimer's was having and begin a person some things in place and and California in nineteen eighty eight they established on Alzheimer's disease related disorders advisory committee and then eighty five Florida created an Alzheimer's disease initiative within our department of elder affairs they continue to give record funding to this program here recently that funding levels up in the millions and then course Virginia decided are up also establish a commission to respond to the needs. You're in Arkansas are consistent with the development of a national plan to address Alzheimer's Arkansas began to organize its effort to respond Alzheimer's dementia in two thousand nine by in acting ACT ninety two which established a task force on the effective Alzheimer's disease out of that of Arkansas also had this overlord which we have today in two thousand eleven that task force completed their report which is known as the first one of the first Alzheimer's state plans we have in the country that report largely went unimplemented although there are some factors that that got implemented it also not know activity happened since two thousand eleven hence the need to update the state plan here in Arkansas. again the national act National Alzheimer's planned address Alzheimer's was under federal law in two thousand twelve and and from that more energy around the country began to formulate is more task forces developed so one two thousand eighteen there was a vacuum that's not to say that there weren't other ancillary process policies that were enacted to that impact our population such as you know more regulations around dementia training for healthcare workers some of these bills were passed along the way but specific our population twenty eighteen we we gather to an independent working group to begin the conversation and the process of updating the state plan. And then and ever worry twenty nineteen we raised awareness around the impact of Alzheimer's we basically just passed a resolution in twenty nineteen recognizing Alzheimer's awareness but within that resolution we also recognize Alzheimer's as a public health crisis to the state and twenty twenty one you enacted ACT three ninety one which establishing Alzheimer's dementia Advisory Council and also in November of that year that's when the Health apart receive federal funding of the bold act and then and twenty twenty two for the first time in Arkansas history there was authorization for budget Amendment specific to dementia care givers insult to DHS we receive it to our thousand dollar grants to provide care giver respite grants to those who are providing care for people with dementia. And then just earlier this year just a month ago we of the Advisory Council has met and updated the Alzheimer's state plan which I'm happy to share with you today. just to give you just a missile with the statute of ACT three nine one accomplished a number one established a permanent Alzheimer's dementia Advisory Council here in Arkansas to ensure that the state prioritizes it was its response to Alzheimer's it also requires the state plan be updated every four years and that's to ensure that the state plan is a living document and doesn't just be developments on the shelf and then also to track implementation there is also mandated reporting within the statute requires us to share over the legislative body the status of the implementation but also the barriers and we'll do that prior to every legislative session. just to give you an idea of the make up of the Advisory Council or co chairs for senator Ricky Hill and representative Mayberry that plan to join me today but had a family emergency come up us our state agency partners with the department of health Arkansas minority health commission and department Human Services we want to thank each of one of our state agency partners who helped and this work. And they can kind of see just a list of some of our other stakeholder members that were around the table as we develop this over the next few slides were going to go straight into the recommendation sections assure a lot of information with you but if you only leave today with one thing I want you to understand the importance of establishing a position of dementia services coordinator this position will help us get to the next phase of our work and begin the implementation of the Alzheimer's state plan will also ensure that there's coordination of services as I mentioned the beginning you know the impact of Alzheimer's touches several different state agencies it touches the workforce and so it's important to have a collaboration a collaborative effort to begin addressing some of those challenges the dimensions Services quarter will also ensure that there's no duplication of services because often the resources that are provided at only by state agencies by NGOs like the Alzheimer's association and other A. R. P. those services often remain silent in those institutions and so one of the things that we saw emerge as we had conversations with our stakeholders and state agencies specials is the need to coordinate these efforts to ensure there is no duplication of services and how do we work with in Arkansas's existing infrastructure to improve access to services dementia education at awareness around early detection and diagnosis and so I unintentionally as we kind of look back and got to the fifty thousand state are you fifty thousand foot view of the state plan there was a lot of initiative around strengthening our or our existing infrastructure things that can be accomplished with a limited fiscal impact to the state but we do see the need of establishing this position within state government help us coordinate those efforts and to continue to increase and raise the platform of the profile of Alzheimer's and dementia here in Arkansas. So we looked at the public awareness specifically as you think about treatment development what we see hitting the market and we're we're research seems to be leading us it's going to be extremely vital for us to intervene as prevalence continues to climb age is the highest risk factor for prevalence of but there's also some other factors that we should be aware of that is driving prevalence Arkansas we have a high case number of individual diabetes high case numbers of hypertension we have Stroganov other comorbidities that we have high case prevalence of all of those impacted case province of dimension there's also an outside variable that we all are familiar with call COVID nineteen our early research indicates those with long covert develop dementia so we don't really know yet what the impact of COVID is going to be on dementia prevalence all that we can tell you is that we know that it's going to increase in our forecast numbers for the state of Arkansas are probably low and that's why I think we need more data collection because the population is very difficult for us together is those with younger onset Alzheimer's the reason why is because many of those cases become undiagnosed and we also know there's other cases of Alzheimer's dementia that are just are not diagnosed and so improved data collection and continued education public health messaging around the importance of driving risk reduction or detection and diagnosis is going to be essential and also educating the public on the ten warning signs and these are things that we can do with a limited fiscal impact working within our existing infrastructure that we have here in the state of Arkansas. And of course to drive costs we may continue coordination of the state's response Alzheimer's and other dementia. What part of that we think we've achieved with Act three ninety one having this permanent vice re council in place that's going to ensure that Alzheimer's dementia stays front and center in terms of our public health response. Also again establishing a position of dementia services coordinator it's going to be key trying to pull all this stuff together and making sure everything is working strategically in the same direction. One of the things again that overemphasize gonna sound like a broken record but they're ours some certain things that are happening in the space that are very encouraging we have the UAMS centers on aging who have reaches down into the delta northeast Arkansas we also have our triple A.'s of the Alzheimer's association A. A. R. P. Alzheimer's Arkansas and other agencies were working in the space and one of the things that we saw just how we collaborate our efforts again to dementia Services corner kinda help doing that but there is interest by the U. MSN's on aging and the triple A.'s to establish dementia resource centers within their agencies the things that we can do to kind of educate the public but not not just consumers for providers away as well on the importance of detection the disease early and diagnostics and so how do we use our existing infrastructure to strengthen our reach to communities that are drastically under served on the delta and a rural communities who are just underserved and don't have the resources so that I think was one of the questions that drove the work around public awareness is identifying some of this existing infrastructure and collaborating their efforts together on access and quality again you're gonna hear the theme of of coordination of existing support services places like the centers on aging Alzheimers Arkansas summers Association and the triple A.'s each of them offer services so how do we coordinate that and make sure there's awareness around the services I think there's also needing some needs to continue to monitor nineteen fifteen C. waivers just to make sure that they are inclusive of the metapopulation and then increasing access to care planning services to manage education and and resources again by using our existing infrastructure. you committee heard me mention about the dementia resource centre is just making sure they have access to available resources up to date evidence based training that can help care givers but also those who have questions about the early warning signs of Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia all of our care and support services like mother like other for non profit partners or offer free of charge we just have difficulty getting that reached down to the delta we already have some existing infrastructure that have those try those relationships in place we need to learn how to work within those systems to expand our reach as well to make sure we get the information out to the people. also we think there's continue work on the need to be done just instantly so you have that of awareness of this there are many more recommendations I'm just pulling out some of the highlights of the section so that you guys can get out here to decent time he but continue to research and support innovative models of finance deliver on the GPS services how we do that by minimizing the fiscal impact of the state. supporting family caregivers of which I was very thankful that the Advisory Council pulled this priority out as a standalone priority it just shows the recognition of the contribution that to mention care givers play it to the delivery of public health services here in the state of Arkansas again more coordination around existing support services but I want to give you just a picture of the impacts that dementia caregivers have here in Arkansas we mentioned a lot about prevalent so we know here in Arkansas there's over ninety three thousand our Kansans who provide unpaid care to people Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia when someone first receive the diagnosis of Alzheimer's or dementia the care giving duties traditionally fall to the family members first and so there's again a huge vacuum that's filled caregivers provided in twenty twenty one estimated hundred thirty nine million hours of unpaid care value to the state at two point two billion dollars you can see the significance of the impact our family caregivers play as they provide care for their loved ones who preferred to remain OR age in place. it just to get an idea of all of the profiled a family care giver over sixty percent of these family caregivers are women more than half of them providing care for at least a year early four years excuse me twenty six percent or sixty five and older two thirds are over the age of fifty so the remaining one third is under the age of fifty those are categories of care givers we identify a sandwich care givers their caregivers who are providing care for an aging parent but also may still have children in the home that's certainly the case in my my case in the my mom and dad at live independently I still have children in the home but I'm also helping support my mom is carried over to my father and what's significant forty one percent of a household income of less than fifty thousand because of that it care giving has a huge impact on the work force fifty seven percent report having to leave or take time off to attend care giving duties eighteen percent how to go from for part time we have at least three care givers that we work with who have left their careers to become full time caregivers at home. A representative turnout promotion because if you're over caregiver duties if I had to take a leave of absence quit work entirely lost job of benefits one particular caregiver whose mother received a diagnosis at the age of fifty seven was in the prime of her career had her own business she was a small business owner one of the impact she had because of the early diagnosis she had to leave her her business and care for her children who were living at home five of those children all of my under the age of ten at the time so having to balance that and be a full time caregiver for a mother because her father had to remain in the workforce so it has a significant impact not only on the person who is diagnosed but on care givers and so I was thankful that are Advisory Council recognized a need to provide support to these care givers I'm again working within our existing state agencies and NGO organizations just to make sure that we are expanding access to care giver support services of such as caregiver training and education also support services such as of uh support groups respite care those kind of things and so identifying those areas as well we also Recommends that we establish a permanent dementia caregiver respite grandpa program really briefly to give you a snapshot of how the pilot program is performing that pilot program was funded the second week of July with two hundred thousand dollars none of that two hundred thousand dollars was allocated for administrative expenses so every bit every dollar goes directly to care givers we are in November we have spent over a hundred and ten thousand dollars of that grants the money is almost gone through this grant we're learning early one of the things that we of the threshold to be placed in there is that at least twenty five percent of the grant funds had to go to rural communities because what we realized it with exert existing grant funds there really isolated to Pulaski County and you know the the the the thirty forty corridor they want expanding out to the rural areas I am happy to report that our providers ensuring were at least thirty percent going to rural areas but our reach is still not getting down to the delta or northeast Arkansas we are learning a lot about need to this pilot program we we've we feel like in the in the next few years Arkansas needs to take the step to make this more of a permanent funding program what was unique about this pilot is that it was designed specifically for dementia care giver care givers who without an income threshold and the reason why we did that is because care givers may have made too much to qualify for Medicaid services an existing waivers but they did not make enough to pay for a care giver to come in and provide that respite services and so investing in your in respite certainly that's something that the parking services understands the value and the legislature clearly understood the value of that so more investments to support our family caregivers and allowing people to agents in place in the long term reduce Medicaid spending by the. RT those funds to long term care. And then the last section we looked at was the healthcare workforce it perfectly the dementia training standards that are currently in statute as prevalence continues to increase we think the need for more dementia training is certainly evident but our Advisory Council and a class of course I said the association having. Are not tone deaf to the fact that the pandemic has had a severe impact on our health care workforce and so working with other individuals to ensure that we are recruiting and developing our existing workforce will be a priority going through the next few sessions I'm short but really making sure that our healthcare workforce our emergency first responders are prepared to meet the unique needs of individuals with dementia. And so again looking closely at dementia specific training requirements for a certain job categories that we're looking at here in the next session just establishing dementia specific training requirements for or adult protective services workers our long term care ombudsman our investigators members of our law enforcement and first responders certainly those categories of workers need to be prioritized to make sure they have engagements with individual dementia they are able to recognize the warning signs we also think that with our existing infrastructure with the mental health diversion centers that's an opportunity for us to also provide some dementia training to those centers as those beds of according to the R. A. R. home structure or going to increase of more training on recognizing the signs of dementia is going to be important as someone who may be exhibiting a mental health disorder to also be impacted by the you know just the impact of dementia because that does influence behaviors and communication strategies and so making sure that people can recognize warning signs of dementia but also have knowledge of where to again refer folks for resources and help is going to be essential those are really the broad four categories with some recommendations that we see servicing here in the next few months but among our our lead ask as an association an Advisory Council is again the importance of establishing that position the commission services coordinator and with that someone leave my contact information on the screen Mister chair happy to take any questions If the art. In representative representative Springer ma'am you're recognized. Thank you again Mister chair good afternoon Mr cook and thank you so very much for this very thorough detailed report I really appreciate it of the first thing that comes to my mind I would like to emphasize as a part of your report for you and you indicate the public health impact of Alzheimer's and dementia family could Kerr givers and you indicated the report over ninety three thousand R. Kansas's eighty provide unpaid care to people with Alzheimer's and other dementias these care givers provide more than one hundred and thirty nine million hours valued at over two point two billion dollars that is very telling that we definitely have a health crisis here with respect to this disease in Arkansas so I'd just like to emphasize once again thank you so very much for this report I totally support the work that you all doing thank you Mr chair thank you ma'am and representative very you're recognized thank you Mr chairman and the in relation to the dementia services coordinator what date would that be housed under health or Human Services. Some very thank you for the question that is a subject of ongoing debate with the health department and department Human Services we feel like it's better fit at the vote rigging services since they house the Division on aging and behavioral services we think it makes more sense for it to preside over the apartment Human Services for those are conversations we're continuing to have with both agencies okay and so what what is the impeding the the staff pursuant of a coordinator position what what it what is the big hold up there. we don't have authorizing language yet so just having the session come up here's one just a just really deciding at the whether it's where where the positions going to reside and that's just an agency I'm going agency conversation so I think we're getting closer to having those decisions made but just waiting for the session here we have language that were we plan to introduce okay now I'm hoping Nicks you Mr chairman if I may call right that we speed that process up because it's not going to get it any better yeah it's only going to continue to get worse is specially with my my colleague back there a representative slate but and and also same problem that's holding up the establishment of the resource center in the area agency on aging. We so we are having Collaborative question of conversations between you and S. also market awesome Association triple A.'s to kind of build that out strategically to making sure we we get what we need out of that so we're we're developing that again the those will be what I mean very minimal if any fiscal impact to the state because our resources already there we just want to House to expand access to those resources of education materials those trainings and things so we are making progress on making profit progress on that okay good deal thank you very much and I thank you Mr yes Sir in representative McElroy sure you're recognized thank you Mr dealing with this with with my mother and Preciado all the hard work that you're going through the questions and always gets down to the money on this these positions and send it to you have a ballpark figure on. The. not at this time but we are we will get a fiscal impact of of that position would be federal money and state money or this statement that you would be needing. our preference would be state revenue so we you know that it's a permanent established position of federal money is is temporary and so we need a more permanent solution not to say there is not federal money out there available to find something like this to like ACL and and different organizations like that what we would prefer it being allocated in the state budget as well thank you for from the association's perspective thank you so much Mister cook thank you Mr. And representive Smith. You're recognized. And representative Ryan gyri you're recognized. Thanks thank you Mr chairman David my day and basically died with Parkinson's disease which is similar but Davis anything that we can do we need to do that because there's a. Tremendous amount of people across this state is having problems with Alzheimer's Sundowners parks is anything we can do David is a very very serious situation. Thank you. I would. Right. Representive I'm sorry but and resent McElroy sorry that you're dealing with on a personal level the prevalence is going to continue to increase and I would as we think about fiscal impact the cost of doing nothing is much more substantial because prevalence is going to grow if we don't intervene but if there's things that we can do if the research is suggesting we could drive risk reduction was the things that we we need to do we already do it with other chronic diseases we just haven't got there yet with Alzheimer's dementia but prevalence is going to continue to crime to climb and with that US representative Springer point test case prevalence climbs so does the amount of care givers needed to address the issue follow follow up please Mr chairman all right his or. David this is not just a disease that affects a person with that disease this affects a tremendous amount of people surrounding that person so is a very serious thing that we're looking at here. Right. It is extremely serious it's it's the sixth leading cause of death in the state it it's a public health crisis we've we've already established that but to your point it does impact of not just the person living with it but care givers are direct way If I could take liberty my mom especially as a care giver who absorbed a lot of those care giver duties with my grandmother when she had Alzheimer's in the nineties and now she's doing it with my father just the stress and the physical and emotional stress she's she deals with complicates her own personal health issues depression things like that more frequent visits to the doctor and so when she has to go do that I usually sit with that so I work from home more you know and so those those kind of things that have direct impacts on on people because it is a degenerative brain disease and it it has a significant impact on our state. And. Members. I'm sorry. Joel berry Sir you're recognized just one quick one my apologies Mister chairman but can you make your slides available to the staff. Yes Sir thank you. David thank you Well I think his home with the laws of this. Appreciate report thanks. I think you have plenty report of support to do this. Thank you thank you. In members. seeing no other questions and nothing else on the agenda. We are adjourned. Right.