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