HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-01-04-HSC-min.pdf Human Services Committee
Minutes of the Meeting of January 4, 1982
Present Steve Baran, Roberta Black, Ilene White, Howard Reynolds, Ruth Nablo,
Stan Finkelstein, Nancy Zarle, Tom Zarle also Bea Phear
The meeting was called to order at 7 45 pm
The minutes were approved as corrected For December 29, 1981
a Third paragraph on page 2, clarify meaning to read On the one hand we could look
at Safehouse as receiving Town funding for that project, however this loses sight
of how it fits in to whole services of Mystic Valley Despite last year's Human
Services Committee policy of prefering a contract for Town services, it makes it
difficult to separate out Safehouse from the other components of what Mystic
Valley offers
b Page 1, final paragraph, insert "on paper' Stan felt that of the two on paper,
the elderly request seemed best initially
c Regarding the approval of the minutes of December 17, Ruth requested that
ammendments be spelled out in subsequent minutes The changes of the minutes of
Decemebr 17, that were approved December 29 include
a page 1, paragraph 7 clarify to read " In May 1981 Ruth had suggested
that the report from the Committee be sent to Town Meeting and delete
the last sentence of that paragraph regarding the warrant
b page 2, first paragraph, insert 'The Town Manager's recommendations are
made independently from the Human Services Committee as a new third sentance
c page 2 second paragraph, Steve not Ruth told the Committee
Mystic Valley
Steve raised the auditing question, which had not been resolved last week Roberta
suggested Raymond Block, a CPA and a Lexington resident who had volunteereA to look
at Mystic Valley's fiscal reports Tom felt he and Stan should look at them first
and pass them on Ruth suggested Barry Marshall, a former member of the Human Services
Committee and a current member of the Appropriation Committee, but she didn't know if
he had time or interest It was decided that Tom and Stan woudl talk with Raymond Block
Meeting with Jim Crain
Jim is unavailable the week of January 11 Steve scheduled a brief meeting with him
prior to the Selectmen's meeting on January 18 for a half hour The Committee felt that
they should try to draft something for him before then, even if they were not going to
make a written presentation to the Selectmen on the 18th
Replace
Judy and Roberta visited Replace for an hour, and have a second appointment upcoming
They were provided with multiple copies of the budget request The first meeting was
Human Services January 4 page 2
primarily on budget issues, and the next will be more focusing on programmatic
questions RePlace has more than doubled its budget request, with the major increases
going to an additional counselor who will have primary responsibility for the drop-in
center and expanding the administrative assistant to full time In addition RePlace
wants to pay consultation fees to those who now volunteer consultation time The general
thrust is that the budget should reasonable reflect their needs There is still a large 1
number of volunteers, but the programs have grown and the danger of staff burn-out is
still real Burn-out will be countered by increased staff increased space & reduced
drop-in time
The Committee raised questions about alternative revenue sources, such as contracts,
grants, school department funding, increased contributions and fees These were all
explored somewhat, and will be raised again at the next meeting with Replace
;I
There was discussion about staff salaries It was felt that these are low, but the
Committee did' t know if they were comparable to similar programs That will be explored
in the future, and treated only as a comment at this time Howard raised the issue that
he was reluctant to tamper with their internal discussions regarding salaries If we
look at $20 700 and it seems reasonable on its face, thats as far as we should go Ruth
felt that we should not support consultation fees if they weren!t requested by the
consultants
There was a general sense that Replace is very active, with a more than dedicated staff
and Board Judy felt that they were treading the line and not becoming more of a
traditional mental health agency, but retaining their atmosphere
On the question of program, Ruth asked how many families continue with RePlace rather
than seeking more traditional counseling, and if they are referred out, why? Roberta
mentioned needs in terms of health linkages, especially VD Replace pays full fees to
Lexington Labs for diagnostic tests They seem to need an adolescent medicine specialist
as a linkage
Roberta and Tom asked about our role vis a vis specific funding issues It was felt that
we should make dollar recommendations, both on the bottom line and on individual line
items
VNA
Bea described the VNA request, which is handled through the Health Department They
are asking for four different programs Home Vists $3930, for follow-up on communicable
diseases such as TB, salmonella, and other enteric diseases, and for visits to premature
infants; Clinics $500 for Town-wide flu, pneumonia, and blood pressure; Elderly Clinics
$2270 which are held in four locations each month; and Education $500 The Committee
questioned whether this was duplication Nancy said it was an old way of doing what
was the role of the public health nurse and wondered if other towns were handling it
similarly Ilene also wondered if these were unfunded clients who couldnft be picked
up by the primary care team because of lack of a funding source The Health Department
statement referred to refugee clients, and Tom questioned if this was the tip of the
iceberg for unknown refugee problems Nancy said one of the issues is that Lexington
has no walk in clinic as has Boston Ruth was concerned about the lack of use of the
school nurses, who are on the teachers' contract Bea will find out exactly who the
clients are, how other towns handle the communicable disease issue, and how many cases
are seen by the home visit program
Steve was curious about the small size of the education request He suggested a tie
in with Cable TV and will contact Bill Page on that
Human Services January 4 page 3
Council on Aging
Howard said that they met with Lee Morehouse, the Assistant Coordinator, as Joan
Melcher was snowed in As a consensus they were impressed with with the overall
product and the establishment of a need Ilene and he dropped in at the meal on
Monday and even with the rain, there were about 27 people there They make a donation
of $1 and the balance is paid by the Town It appears that the Department of Elder
Affairs will pick up three days and could reduce the town share
The CoA facility itself is rather modest There is one office exclusively for
them and three adjoining rooms shared with the church They also have use of
the Great Hall for the meal program The overall impression is that the request is
modest and reasonable, and the only question is is of direction, particularly
outreach They depend on mass mailing monthly, the nosy neighbor" and family for
reaching people They also have a small hard core group they continually serve
Nancy said she had questioned the value of the newsletter and asked if they had
contacted the Minuteman They had tried but not been well received and dropped it
Ruth was impressed with the number of high priced recreational activities and was
concerned about those with little money Judy pointed out that they also have the
clinics and adult education classes Ruth had suggested they try for advertisements
in the newsletter, but it had not been followed up
There was a general sense that the CoA needed to be more dynamic Do they do
referrals? Are they looking into alternative housing? Are they trying for matching
funds? Are they coordinating with churches and the clubs?
Nancy had asked them about the need for the Mystic Valley proposal tee had said that
it was needed, and Mystic Valley comes once a month for a roundtable, which was
an important resource
The other question Nancy had related to the $1200 for the piano player for the elderly
chorus They have a volunteer coordinator, but feel they can't get volunteers for
the pianist as there is too much of a need for continuity Nancy isn't sure that
is supportable
The meeting was adjourned at 10 00 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Beatrice phear