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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-04-13-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting of April 13, 1981 Present Howard Levingston, Nicky Osborne, Steve Baran, Ruth Nablo, Carol Perez, Ruth Butler. also Bea Phear Guests Dr Donald Lund, Arlene Katz from Mystic Valley Mental Health Center Association Bea had two announcements 1 The Manager decided to fund the Mystic Valley second quarter, since it had dragged on so long 2 RePlace has decided to investigate going to a fee structure, and would like consulting assistance from the Committee Nicky will send Bill a sample of her sliding fee system and applications Steve distributed a draft for a Human Services policy for Lexington, a distillation of Ruth Butler's ideas and comments from the committee Ruth Nablo suggested adding recreation, transportation, and education in the first paragraph, to reinforce that these are human services Nicky was concerned about "temporary imbalance" and Carol added 'hmmeliorated" The Human Services Committee is the focus of planning' was changed to "vehicle" Bea questioned that it doesn't address the Town's role, but it was decided to put that in another section Ruth Nablo was similarly concerned about duplication Steve suggested 'possible duplication of services should be a continuing concern of the committee", while Nicy cautioned that duplication is not always bad, but leads to choices Ruth Nablo mentioned the need to bring in the private sector Dr Lund and Ms Katz arrived and were welcomed The Committee mentioned past problems in communication with Mystic Valley, ac i described the role and goals of the Committee Dr Lund said he is also frustrated at not having statistics, and is working on improving his data base Right now they only way they have of assessing needs is rates under treatment He said he sees the Center changing from its long-term analytically oriented therapy of the Boston tradition He sees a need to rebalance There are excellent deinstitutionalization programs in Arlington and Woburn, and they are woring to establish a day activities program, probably in Burlington He plans to move the agency into these types of services to the deinstitutionalized as well as the at risk, to expand emergency to 24 hours, and to have a mixture of maodalities moving towards more behavioral inter- vention and brief therapies For exmple, they did a stress workshop for approximately 55 people at the Sacred Heart, and assertivieness also for 55 people Steve spoke of the role of the Town in bringing agencies together in cooperation Dr Lund said he was focusing in Arlington right now, but is eager to contact them here He felt the turf issue was not a sufficient obstacle to preveting cooperation He spoke about the cost per service unit, and said his goal is to make the social workers 50% productive, from their current productivity rate of 38% (Productivity relates to the relative time spent on administrative, case management, research etc time as related to actual time with clients ) What they really need is case managers who can relieve the direct service workers as he had initiated in New York Initially it would show an increase, but in the long run, there would be a reduction in costs Ruth Nablo pointed out the value of case management being comprehensive and a town function and tied to a variety of agencies Right now, Dr Lund anticipates there could be a need for two case managers for the Lexington population which doesn't address the needs for a broader popualtion He said that Lexington could use three to navigate the systems Ruth Butler asked about volunteer time that was billed to Blue Cross Arlene will look into that 2 Dr Lund said that he does intend to present the need for Town funding to Town Meeting There was some discussion of procedure The Committee felt it would be valuable for Mystic Valley to demonstrate what is being prevented by the expenditures e g teen age car crashes or vandalism. Arlene responded to a question of Ruth Butler's about discovering problems in the school system Her role is in fmily systems, and she said her approach is very much developmentally based, with an emphasis to foster parental support Ruth discussed the need to show preventative intervention in a positive way, and the need to show positive indicators on entry When asked about his background, Dr Lund said he got his Ph D in Sociology at Yale in the tradition of social psychology and epidemiology, then he went into the service, and to Florida as Assistant Professor in psychiatry, worked in a mental health center, and in 1974 went to N Y as the State director of program evalaution, where he designed quality assurance guidelines, licensure, and program evaluation He has had some management and finance courses The guests left at 9 45 The general feeling of the committee was encouraging It was decided that Bea should write him and invite him to submit a brief proposal to the Selectmen, to be reviewed by the Committee, since Jim Crain had said the issue of funding Mystic Valley was not a closed door Ruth Nablo asked what gaps would exist with Minuteman Home Care not being paid Nicy pointed out that emergency services was a high State priority, and would probably be funded anyway There was question about the tight time frame, given the Committee's own agenda Nicy asked Bea to set up a timeframe for the Committee' s report (I will have an outline at the next meeting) Ruth Nablo brought up the subject of assigning the human services responsibility with the Board of Health rather than the Town Manager' s Office, since they work with the Visitn Nurses and have more contact with the schools Bea is concerned that the health department's focus in now so much on issues of sanitation and that they are not tuned in to general human service issues Steve mentioned that it would lead to a danger of too much focus toward health, and pointed out the need to balance Ruth said she thought this would be a way to change that focus- This subject will be brought up again at a future date Steve thought that maybe we could have a subcommittee with a health orientation. Next Meeting April 27 Will NOT be with the Youth Commission Work on Mystic Valley submission (if any) and on the Recommendations to Selectmen May 11 With Youth Commission at 7 30 pm for one hour Respectfully Submitted, Beatrice Phear