HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-03-11-HSC-min.pdf 3-11-80
HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Present Carol Perez, Ruth Butler, Barry Marshall, Ruth Nablo, Stephen Baran,
Nicky Osborne
Also Elizabeth Pressman
Absent Howard Levingston
The meeting was called to order at 7 30 p.m. by Carol Perez Minutes
of the Feb 25 1980 meeting were handed out to committee members These were
approved as corrected Mrs Perez reported on the Selectmen's meeting of
March 10, 1980 at which the committee's reports were discussed and accepted The
Selectmen expressed their pleasure with the depth and quality of the work done
by the Human Services Committee
Mrs Perez then told the committee of the mix-up involving the REPLACE
report Discussion followed It was decided that each agency should receive a !�
copy of the report on their agency It was pointed out that committee members ;..
must take care not to use hearsay in making judgements about any agency After
some discussion the committee concluded that different criteria had actually
been used in judging REPLACE and Mystic Valley, though this had not been clear
to all committee members during the process The question of whether or not
uniform criteria would be used to assess all agencies, despite the difference in
their relative sizes was raised
Mrs Perez told the committee that the Selectmen would like to know
exactly what steps should be taken by or requests made of Mystic Valley by the
end of FY 81 The last paragraph of page 2 of the Mystic Valley report answers
the Selectmen's question The three areas to be addressed are
1) What specific services will Mystic Valley provide with funds
provided by the Town?
2) Who are the clients served?
3) What has been done to correct the internal control weaknesses?
The Selectmen won't review the FY '82 budget request unless these questions are
adequately answered
The Board of Selectmen also suggested finding out what other towns in
the Mystic Valley area feel about the agency Nicky Osborne will write to
Dr Ernest Cook, Mystic Valley area mental health director, to ask for feedback
on the levels of funding by other area towns to Mystic Valley and on what basis
those towns made their decisions
Mrs Perez recommended that matters relating to reports already finished
be handled, now, by the committee as a whole, rather than by the individual
subcommittees
The committee felt it necessary to set ground rules for itself on
dissemination of information Ruth Butler indicated that there should be a
distinction made between a work paper and a final paper being submitted by the
entire committee Papers should be dated and authors identified Agencies should
not receive copies of work in progress It was unanimously voted by the committee
that approval must be given by the entire committee to materials in their final
form If there is a time crunch, the chairperson or vice-chairperson must give
approval
3-11-80
- 3 -
Y
no other funding is available for that specific program in the agency
Fifth, that the agency see itself as part of a system of services and that it
have linkages with other community agencies Sixth that the agency insures
the provision of comprehensive care for individuals served Ruth Butler added
the question of what the agency uses as a diagnostic base Discussion followed
Ruth Butler felt that broader concepts should be defined now Mechanisms,
objectives, and management are three categories of criteria Steve Baran added
that reporting on client satisfaction is important The amount of citizen
participation and make-up of an agency' s board is also important, stated Ruth
Nablo Nicky said this may be hard to measure
Other questions included - What is the data base for the agency?
What is the personnel distribution? Salaries should be in line with general
salaries for people in similar positions with similar backgrounds working in
other agencies Are the right kind of people being hired in order to accomplish
the stated objectives? All licensing and regulation requirements must be met
Criteria should be closely locked with what this committee sees as its function
Mrs Perez read a letter from Bill Page regarding a meeting on March 18
of the Lexington Task Force on Cable TV
The meeting was adjourned at 10 30 p.m
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth H Pressman
3-11-80
- 2 -
Steve Baran then asked how the committee planned to share its
recommendations with the agencies involved? It was decided to invite them to
meet, individually, with the committee, within a set time limit (so that the
{
committee has time left to deal with its ongoing work) At some later time
perhaps all agencies could meet together with the committee A cover letter,
inviting each agency to meet at a set time with the Human Services Committee, ,.
will be sent to each agency together with the report on that agency Any
members of the agencies' boards or staff are invited Forty-five minutes will be
given to each visit Since Mrs Nancy Banks will be speaking to the committee at ''
7 30 on March 18, REPLACE will be invited to the meeting from 8 30 to 9 15
For March 25 the committee will invite CMARC from 7 30 - 8 15 and Mystic Valley
from 8 30 - 9 15 Mrs Perez suggested that at each of those meetings the
committee emphasize to the agencies that this is an advisory committee only The
Selectmen make the final decisions She also told the committee that Howard
Levingston had volunteered, at the Selectmen' s meeting the previous evening, to
work with REPLACE in improving some management areas
Ruth Nablo said that the committee and the agencies should define what
help each agency needs, and talk about where they can get such help Nicky
Osborne wants Howard Levingston to tell the committee just what he plans to do
with REPLACE Ruth Butler mentioned the question of the relationship between
budget and program
Steve Baran passed out state forms used too eva5ua, e4ane e-sijyR th
Butler feels that prepared forms should not be useShe e Teves that agencies
should be able to state measurable objectives Measurements should be made
in a quantified way The relationship between objectives and expenditures should
be shown Other questions raised should be - 1What is the population you (the
agency) are serving, and what is the profile of that population? What other
agencies are serving that same population? The committee then needs to look at
whether the agency is actually serving the needs of its clients
Ruth Nablo told the committee that Nancy Banks had suggested a more
formalized linkage between the Council on Aging and Mystic Valley Mental Health
Center The agencies should be asked what specific linkages they have with other
groups and agencies in Town Steve Baran offered that the committee should have
its own policy and try to get the agencies to fit the Town' s model and service the
Town' s needs A discussion of comprehensive care by one agency and by several
working together followed
Ruth Butler stated that the system is skewed to look at problems as
needs Problems are dealt with not health characteristics
Discussion followed of how changes in society and in families have
changed the needs of young people The amount of community input in human services,
needs of the family, and the roles of both school and visiting nurses were
discussed
Nicky Osborne presented six criteria for evaluating agencies First,
that the agency meets an identified need Second, that the agency have a clear
statement of goals and objectives and can measure its effectiveness in meeting
these objectives Third, that the agency is financially viable Fourth, that