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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-04-15-HSC-min.pdf 4-15-80 HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Present Carol Perez Ruth Butler, Stephen Baran, Howard Levingston Also Elizabeth Pressman Absent Ruth Nablo, Barry Marshall, Nicky Osborne The meeting was called to order at 7 45 P M by Carol Perez (Lateness due to being locked out of meeting room) Mrs Pressman passed out the minutes of April 8 and also a letter to Selectman Crain from Jack Sarmanian Mr Sarmanian had suggestions foi questions that the Selectmen could ask Mystic Valley Mental Health Center The minutes were accepted as written Discussion about Mystic Valley Mental Health Center followed. The committee wondered whether or not they should meet again with the agency to let them know how the committee feels, i e dissatisfied with responses to committee questions These answers indicated a lack of effective performance Will it confuse the agency to get questions sometimes from the H S committee and other times from the Selectmen? Is part of the committee' s function to help agenL.ies perform adequately? Is the committee supposed to see that citizens are served adequately? Discussion of these and other questions ensued It was stated that the committee should educate citizens so that they themselves could evaluate any human service provider Ruth Butler gave an update on the status of CMARC That agency seems to be making good progress in rectifying some weaknesses At their last board meeting, which she attended, they indicated that they felt it unnecessary to hire a salaried contract procurement person There are many offers of contracts, they stated, that come to -them. Ms Butler, told the committee that CMARC made very favorable comments about Mrs Perez's introductory remarks in the report to the Selectmen It would be helpful for the committee to look again at that part of the report, Ms Butler suggested The new director of CMARC has listed twenty-three areas of concern to be addressed by the CMARC board The financial area seems to be of highest priority There is also interest in broadening the representation of their board Ms Butler suggested inviting the new director to present a program to the committee, sometime in May, after she has been on board a while Ruth Butler wilt attend the May board meeting of CMARC She will write a memo to the Selectmen, for committee approval, about possibly writing the CMARC contract differently from the committee's original recommendation Finally, Ms Butler said that she was appalled by the instrument used to write individual service plans at CMARC The director is unhappy with them and had asked the board to give her permission to request from DMH that these forms not be required. Steve Baran and Howard Levingston gave an update on their REPLACE report Mr Levingston said that he had spoken to the director, Bill Blout,ahout the report Mr Blout was unhappy with some factual errors and background information in the first two pages, but had not indicated concerns about the specific recommen- dations at the end of the report Mr Levingston will write an addendum to the report correcting the factual errors It was decided to look at the recommendations in both REPLACE reports together with the agency when they come to the next H.5 meeting Some kind of consensus should be reached Discussion followed It was thought that there should be a dialogue with the agency about what they feel they are preventing 1 4-15-80 The committee next discussed the possibility of sponsoring a workshop that would address problems found common to all three agencies reviewed There should be a meeting with the Selectmen about such a workshop Rather than having experts" lead the sessions, the 'agencies invited would work some problems out with the H S committee This could further the committee' s relationship with the agencies The committee would still maintain its evaluative function In addition to CMARC, REPLACE, and MVMHC, the committee would invite representatives of the Scnool Department and other agencies to participate Human Services are seen by the committee as contributing to the total community rather than to segmented parts of it The Health Committee would see their role as contributing to the well-being of the total community There is a commitment to a humanistic value base Ruth Butler stated that the H.S committee should have a very firm statement as to what should be the contribution of human services to the community The committee should develop guidelines that anyone could use to appraise the status of a program There should be a base for looking at performance and effectiveness of a program Mrs Perez read to the Committee a letter from Dr Ernest Cook He responded to the letter the committee had sent to him for information regarding MVMHC He suggested that the committee refer the questions to the agency and to the individual towns involved An invitation to the Mystic Valley Mental Health and Retardation Area board' s annual dinner on May 7, 1960 was extended to the committee Mrs Pressman will notify the committee of the date when the Selectmen will discuss the questions for MVMHC The agenda for the next meeting, April 29, was set as follows 1 7 30 - 8 15 meet with REPLACE 2 Ruth Butler' s memo re CMARC 3 Continuation of discussion identifying goals and priorities 4 Work further on evaluation criteria (criteria format to be completed by June 24) 5 Workshop discussion The schedule of meetings in May will be May 6, 13, 20 and 27 at 7 30 P.M The meeting was adjourned at 10 P M Respectfully submitted Elizabeth H Pressman EHP/jt