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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-03-14-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting of March 14 1983 Present Steve Baran, Stan Finkelstein, Howard Reynolds, Judy Zabin, Ilene White, Bea Phear Charitable Trusts Steve spoke at the Selectmen's Meeting on March 7, requesting that they vote on the Committee's recommendation for Charitable Trust money The Selectmen asked for further information about who was actually receiving services from these agencies and what the procedures for funding and reporting would be Bea presented draft contracts to the Committee, and will send them on to the Board of Selectmen incorporating suggestions from the Committee Howard expressed concern that the Trustees may not be willing to dole out money on a quarterly basis Bea will investigate this Judy suggested that the three day limit on agi care services was too restrictive in the case of emergency That clause will be eliminated, as the sliding fee guidelines already mention that three days is preferred, except in emergency Wild Acre Inn Stan reported that the Wild Acre Inn had been consistently unresponsive to requests for information from the town, and the Committee had so reported to the Selectmen, with the recommendation that the Selectmen send a letter to Mr Mason the Wild Acre Inn attorney The Selectmen sent a very strong letter with the request that Mr Mason contact Stan To date there has been no response Stan will be out of town next week, and Howard was designated as the liaison Bea will telephone Mr Mason to inform him of this Department of Social Services Bea reviewed the history of the attempt to get DSS to fund RePlace through the Public Private Partnership Program which has been a saga of misconnections DSS has a priority of donors being found from the business community rather than local governments, and the decisions are made at the central office Bea now feels that it might be a futile effort, and is reluctant to ask Bill Blout to complete the arduous RFP forms if there is no chance of money Judy felt it was a real need to locate additional funding for Replace, and perhaps the Committee could work with the Replace Board to help find business donors, using matching funds as a selling point Steve was concerned about the citizen participation issues, and suggested we write a letter to the DSS area board with a cltnology and saying we are still interested in FY84 funds There should be a copy to RePlace, in order to demonstrate our concern Stan also suggested pointing out that the Committee is concerned that Lexington is neglected by DSS and is not getting our share of funding He also suggested that Stephen Doran be sent a copy of the letter It was decided to ask Bea to draft a letter to the Area Board president, and to send a copy of the "Charlie Brown cartoon, that had appeared in the RePlace minutes Providers Council Steve briefly reported on the March 1 Providers Council meeting, and expressed concern that attendance was relatively low, and that a number of people left before the afternoon was over He wondered whether another morning meeting might be better Judy felt frustration about dropping the topic of crisis services, since there seemed to be a sense that they needed more planning Steve thought this might be an opportunity to capitalize on the improved relationship with Mystic Valley, and have us all pu25n it together, with an announcement that the H S Committee priority is somewhere halfway between emergency services and information and referral, and building a planning nucleus perhaps including Linda Roemer, who had been interested in the topic at the Providers Council Bea thought it was part of the issue of the purpose of the Providers Council, either as an opportunity for providers to meet one another and learn about a specific topic as an "audience , or as a planning team. Bea feels the former pattern is the one we have used so far, and the group is too large and divers to really plan together Although topics and specific agencies could be located through the council, the actual planning discussions are better in smaller meetings Stan thought it important to lead to collaboration, on the principle that we should follow-up on something that was identified. Ilene asked what the providers wanted, when they come to a meeting, or why they don't come She suggested a follow-up by Renee on what they were looking for Howard thought it was information and referral knowledge and a chance to learn something, but they probably were not interested in planning Steve thought that if we knew there was an enthusiastic acceptance of the current model, we would feel better It was felt that, since the next meeting was already announced for April 11 on respite care we should go ahead with that, and relate it to information and referral Judy asked that Renee go back over her notes and develop an invitation that stresses that we, as a community, want to plan together and allows more time for discussion Ilene suggested a final meeting before summer that functions as a wrap-up Mystic Valley Stan said MVMH is closer to getting a new director He said Kay Tiffany had approached him and Bea about the write-up in the Town Meeting Members Association information packet. She felt it was too negative and should have an additional sentance referring to improved dialogue Bea will contact Mardy Rawls about adding such a sentance Stan mentioned that he thought MVMH was distressed with him as a liaison, feeling that he was not longer objective, and wondered whether the H S Committee wanted to designate someone else The Committee thoguht his role was misunderstood, and they asked him to remain as the liaison Howard also volunteered to be added to the MVMH subcommittee, since CoA affairs are less pressing and the CoA subcommittee has more members It was also felt that Tom was not well, and the MVMH subcommittee work could be spread out some Stan brought up a memo he had received from Bea about the committee participating in the DMH contract award for crisis services for our area This year both Concord Crisis team and Mystic Valley will be bidding It was felt that we did not have enough information to make a useful contribution, but that the committee should make contact with the state agencies in the future and get involved somewhat with state planning issues that effect Lexington Coordinator's Time Bea reported that she will be taking a leave of absence this summer from July 11 until August 26 She is going to Africa with her family Next Meeting The meeting of March 28 was cancelled because it is the first night of Passover It was rescheduled for March 30 Respectfully Submitted, Beatrice Phear Human Services Coordinator