 Well, we would love to see you voting and today we are with Brian Cina who is the house rep from Chittenden 15 Yes, that's our new district 15 formula the district formerly known as Chittenden six What was called the River sliver by representative small from a new ski? Side of Riverside and part of the old east end that was with Winooski has now been added Into Chittenden 15 and then another few blocks of the old north end. So it's a bigger chunk of the old north end and Some people consider Riverside part an extension of the old north end too I should say that and then most of the east district. Well in the old days the French Canadians would walk from Winooski to the French Canadian Church in Burlington along Riverside Avenue Though it was kind of the route. Yeah I consider it the old north end on that side of the hill because it's more of an extension of the old north end Then it is from what's up on the hill. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, why this is your third term I'm running for re-election for my fourth term. Okay, so it's been six years now. And why are you running? I'm running because after six years of work and and Working with colleagues, you know across the aisle and with people all around the state as well as within Burlington I we've accomplished a lot and I've learned a lot and I believe I have a few years left in me to Contribute with that knowledge and with those relationships before I step back and let someone else step up into leadership I do believe we should have term limits and if I could choose I would say 12 years which is plenty of time I would say three four-year terms would be even better than two-year terms So if we had three four-year terms, then I would say, you know This is a warning to the community now that between 10 and 12 years I will need to step back I think or move on to something else But after six years of building relationships and learning I have more work to do and so I decided to run for re-election And it's been hard being a health care provider during the pandemic during a time when the substance abuse pandemic has back exponentially amplified with with the Exponential increase of methamphetamine use combined with opioid use with Record levels of mental health challenges that it's been hard being a health care worker. I've had COVID three times But I think it's important to have perspectives like mine in the state house, so So what committees have you been working on? I've been on the health care committee for six years I'm also on the house ethics panel and I'm also part of various caucuses which we choose we're not assigned so I'm part of the climate solutions caucus the women's caucus The rainbow caucus the social equity caucus, and I'm co-chair of the working Vermonters caucus All right, and so in the health care, what are what are the accomplishments when you say you have more to do? Yeah, what have you been doing and then we'll talk about what you'd like to sure so I Will you know I believe the health care is a human right like many other people I represent and I've been working with people to push closer to that to making that belief a reality to and so We've fought tirelessly to get closer to a universal health care system and along the way what we've recognized is even if People were guaranteed health care where you could just walk in it was publicly financed that if we didn't address the equity issues That create barriers for people then it wouldn't be universal for anyone So while we're still trying to figure out the best approach towards a publicly financed universal health care system The health care committee has focused on all these other back issues with the health care system And one of the big accomplishments of the last few years has been working with the racial justice alliance on a health equity bill and so we passed a bill in the last session That would address health disparities and promote health equity it created a health equity advisory commission That's been tasked with a lot of duties including looking at Coming up with new recommendations for health care provider training around Cultural humility anti-racism cultural competency looking at how the state spends money and and seeing if it can spend it in ways That would be more equitable and address populations that have faced the greatest disparities The populations that we see looking at the data that have faced the greatest disparities are people of BIPOC black indigenous and other people of color LGBTQ plus people and people with disabilities and so we created this health equity advisory commission that currently is seated and they are looking at There it's made up of representatives of those populations from many different organizations working together to advise the state on how to Address health disparities and promote health equity So one of the things I see us doing in the next session is looking at their recommendations and figuring out how to make those recommendations reality Another thing we've done is look at workforce development that our health care workforce before the pandemic was in trouble And as a health care provider, I can say it's been I've been a health care provider in various capacities since 1998 in Burlington And it's been a steady decline in our wages. Don't keep up with the cost of living The education is expensive the cost of business is expensive The acuity of what we're dealing with has increased and the pandemic amplified all of those things And now what we're seeing is something that people are calling the great resignation and it's across sectors We're seeing it across health and human services where there's up to six 40 to 60 percent vacancies in our different health care agencies and programs around the state and country and We did some work last session on spending federal money in ways that might support the education of new health care providers and provide some benefits to existing ones to retain Us in the workforce, but there's still many barriers So we're gonna have to look at how those programs are working and I believe there's more to be done I think I don't think spending money on what we've been doing a loan is gonna solve the problem We have to really realign the way we provide health care and that's gonna take a lot of work not just in the legislature and in agencies at the you know at the sort of Management level but on the ground and really trying new programs out on the ground And I'm excited to talk a little bit about some of those ideas today that we might some of the things We've we were exploring and some of the things we might do I don't know if you have other questions because I've just said a lot Well, I have always questions, but I'm interested. Why don't you keep going examples? All right? so one of those examples so one of my one of my part-time jobs, I'm a I'm a substitute crisis clinician at the Howard Center for first call and also a member of the Union there after me local 1674 and As emergency mental health workers We've seen some of the really difficult things during the pandemic and we've been trying to provide those services With endless waiting lists every day There's people waiting in the emergency room for assessments and an equal number of people waiting for bed somewhere and the systems completely clog And people languish in the emergency room and it's really demoralizing going in and seeing people not getting the help They need and we're just barely like sustaining people Until they get another, you know placement that may not even solve the problem and I'm also a private practitioner So I have so many I'm so busy every day. It was hard to squeeze in time to come do this That I can't keep up with the phone calls telling people I don't have openings like the waiting lists Across the border or endless so we have to try doing things in new ways And so one way I envision us providing services differently might be finding out ways to for therapists like In myself in private practice to go into the emergency room and provide services there when people are waiting So they're not just getting food and drink and being watched and reassessed every day But that that moment of crisis could be a moment of learning and opportunity and growth for a person While they're in the emergency room and if that is not possible Maybe new ways of providing services to people while they're there another idea is the idea of changing mobile crisis Like the city of Burlington issued RFP That to look at a model similar to what they do in Oregon called the cahoots program I don't know exactly what cahoots means if in that in terms of the acronym But the idea is that you pair an emergency service provider like a paramedic with them with a clinician And they respond to overdoses or other mental health crises with with a medical provider You know for the for the physical health with emotional mental health and they work as a team to do a crisis intervention And we haven't tried that out here yet But I see great promise in that approach and I would be happy to sign up and be a substitute Clinician for that program because I think that's a first call does great work, but we're overwhelmed and there's different Responses called for in different situations and that's a piece missing. So those are two examples I do see greater coordination between law enforcement and emergency services and health care and the criminal justice system being important I would like to see a consistent Consistent training roll out for people providing public safety Interventions around harm reduction so that everyone has equal training and harm reduction approaches and cultural humility Because what I hear from people all the time is that it depends on who you get it depends on which officer responds It depends on which doctor is on duty. It depends on which clinician you see and so there's inconsistency In our in the delivery of services and I believe there's that we can do better and the state has taken some initiatives Like we did we have a zero suicide initiative the state's been offering cams care It's collaborative assessment and management of suicidality and I signed up for it for a very low cost Received a lot of CEUs and training and a really great approach to managing suicidality with patients The state should continue to offer these kinds of trainings and then eventually require it so that When you interface with the public safety system, you're getting a consistent and fair and equitable response So those are a few ideas and then we were talking about public safety before we went on the air You were talking about the Norway model. Yeah. Yeah Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so maybe just to make some to put it in context The governor issued a 10-point Action plan on violence prevention and I don't think anyone would disagree in Burlington or in Vermont right now that we have a problem That violence is up nationwide 20 to 30 percent across the board So we're seeing an increase in violent crimes and incidents of violence in our society And we can sit here and spend a lot of time trying to understand why but I think most people if you step back and think Look at what we've all been through that our society is going through an adjustment disorder we've all had various degrees of trauma and stress and Resource it you know lack of access to resources compounding on existing mental health substance abuse issues People are acting out violence begets violence like Martin Luther King said so it's get we have to intervene But our response to violence cannot be more violence that if we crack down on violence by being violent by Beating people down dragging them to jail keeping them in an environment that dehumanizes them It reinforces the trauma that is driving the violence and when the city was evicting residents of Sears Lane I volunteered through mutual aid efforts to go down and feed people ended up building Relationships and getting to know people and have and working with them to advocate and to access resources in a voluntary capacity and What I heard is jail never helped most people You know it sometimes it breaks the cycle briefly but in general experiences and corrections hurt people and I've met with corrections officers to hear their concerns about how Do you want to demoralizing it is for them to have to work over time over and over again? Because there's not enough in jails that they feel like aren't just making things worse so I support the idea of holding people accountable and and Getting people help and protecting the public, but we have to do it right or we're gonna make the problem worse so if we are going to Hold people accountable arrest people for violent crime prosecute people and put them in jail Where the sentences could be three to five years? Jail needs to work better and the Norway model is an approach developed in Norway That's now spreading around the world and around this country where instead of treating an inmate like a prisoner We we view them as neighbors the idea is like our neighbors in trouble How do we be better neighbors to make better neighbors? And so the Norway model people are essentially Their freedom is taken and they live in walls, but it's but they have Good living and working conditions and they are offered certain they're offered all kinds of treatment. That's community based It's it's not isolated to the facility. It's integrated into the community and they are offered housing and opportunities to work While they're there and as they transition out So instead of the state of Vermont holding people captive with with very little services and then dumping them to the streets Which is what often happens? Let people learn skills For the jobs we need to fill Give people the training pay them let them save up the money and then as people transition into community They could take a job in a they could take one of the jobs We need to fill they could and as we're providing people this treatment and we're building new housing people can Transition into housing with money to for down payments with you know or what is it called a deposit? Not a down payment maybe for some people it would be a down payment, but the idea is that instead of that if we're going to use the correction system to reduce violence it must Address violence in a way that will prevent violence and that instead of fighting violence of violence We are in hate with hate we address it with love and understanding and we give people a chance to reintegrate into society So that's a bit about public safety that I think is important and going back I would like to for the state to look at all of our actions and the harm the state causes when we try to do good When we do when we use harm reduction with the individual It the idea is that we're asking people to look at the benefit of a decision They make and the harm and to try to reduce the harm of that decision and And get the benefits in another way if the state thinks about that in every decision we make What is the harm of our policy and our practices as a state? How is our actions causing further harm in the world and what benefits are we getting and are there new ways to get those benefits? and so That philosophy can be applied in many ways And I hope to go back to Montpelier and encourage my colleagues to think differently And I believe if we come together in this in that spirit that we can do better and and Recover from the pandemic, so I want to just say we have two minutes left And I want to ask you if you feel you have the allies in the legislature to get this work done And you see this kind of a little bit of a sea change that's happening in the legislature coming up is something hopeful to Move some of these very important ideas forward. Yeah, well You know in when it comes to changing the world No one ever does it alone, you know, no, we never do it alone We even when we think we're doing it alone We can't do what we're doing if it isn't for everything other people are doing to support us And sometimes we may not recognize that someone is growing our food Somebody is working at the power plant. Someone is picking up, you know, so in that regard I've learned in the legislature that it's important to build relationships and it's important to try to find common ground and You know to to not ignore our differences because those because those differences can lead to stronger solutions And I do have plenty of allies In the legislature coming back. I look forward to making new relationships I regularly reach out to the governor and and to the governor's credit The governor has asked members of the administration to meet with me and hear my ideas and Partner with me on various things over the years. So I am excited to go back and see what we can do But I feel like I have a lot of allies and I look forward to meeting all the new people I do believe new energy is gonna bring fresh ideas It's gonna be it's gonna bring political will and Opportunity to engage more people in our democracy Branching I want to thank you so much for your service. Thanks for making time tonight I want to remind people that our election is the 8th of November. So make sure you vote and this is district Chittenden 15 It's the fit chinin 15 now chinin 15 And I just it's been great to talk to you. So thanks so much and stay tuned for more coverage here at town meeting television