Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-03-08-HSC-min.pdf Human Services Committee Minutes of the Meeting of March 8, 1982 Present Steve Baran, Stan Finkelstein, Judy Zabin, Ilene White, Roberta Black, Ruth Nablo, Howard Reynolds, Nancy, Tom Zarle also Bea Phear Minutes The minutes of February 22, 1982 were approved as mailed I General Revenue Sharing The hearing with the Selectmen is March 15 Steve will hi represent the Committee It is largely a federal requirement, stipulated to encourage such spending in human service area, but to be absent would be unwise Mystic Valley Ruth reported that Mystic Valley had come before the Town Meeting Members Association meeting over the weeked with a request for $10,000 to be spent on emergency services They also said they wanted to meet with the Committee Stan and Tom already have a scheduled meeting with MVMHC on March 15, having structure of their organization as the agenda item That will probably be set aside in favor of alternate funding proposals, and the rest of the Human Services Committee is also welcome to come CMARC Ruth still has heard nothing from Mr Richardson She spoke to Dr Cook, who said the Mystic Valley area is looking for funding for 25 new clients All the providers are being level funded by DMH, which means they will have to negotiate dropping some clients while at the same time they are required to keep the staffing levels consistent with mandates The area office funds CMARC and one in Arlington, but there are three or four other workshops with other levels that are attended by Lexington residents Ruth will look into them Also she learned at the League of Women Voters meeting that Jim Beck is interested in reducing 766 and investigating using other programs They might have better service in a place like CMARC for less money than the LABS If you look at it that way, it is to the Town's advantage to keep CMARC in ggod health Judy wondered how we can get across to Town Meeting that we didn't support funding because of the nature of their request rather than that ther's no need Also why not fund the ones in Arlington through Mystic Valley if they are in equal need Ruth said DMH has identified 25, with five from Lexington, who are portentially unfunded, however we don't know name, address, or level of disability, and they may not go to CMARC We know CMARC can handle five more and not be crowded, but it is difficult to support unless we know more about those people RePlace Roberta and Steve attended the School Committee meeting at which Replace made its request Linda Conrad was well prepared, and there was a very supportive atmosphere The School Committee viewed RePlace as a professional agency and instructed Jack Monderer to make arrangements to draw up a contract and fund them for services Brainstorming The remainder of the meeting was devoted to exploring roles for the Committee Tom led the discussion starting with a review of the charge and the report of May 1981 He asked what we wanted the legacy of this committee to be, what time we have, and what needs to be done given those two questions The charge ranges from philosphy, to relations among providers, to education and relations with citizens The Report stresses prevention as a theme as opposed to remediation Questions are what do we want to a'nomplish, what skills we have, and what are the needs Issues that nose included process versus product qq getting people together, eg staging an event on the model of a health fair resource directory advanced technology such as cable/computers interviewing agencies in a structured way Kinds of issues crisis f, pressure spots in the community eg Reed street �= high/low profile issues advocacy There was a brief talk about going into the schools We should evaluate how well agencies communicate, even if they have a public relations person There was a decision to try to document requests for help, as one source of data Bea will start tomorrow, and get information from CoA and other agencies as available Perhaps one target period could be used as a sample Restructuring services was discussed Respectfully Submitted, __-7 1 — CCO Beatrice Phear