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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-04-25-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting of April 25 1983 Present Steve Baran, Roberta Black, Judy Zabin, Nancy Zarle, Ilene White, Howard Reynolds, Bea Phear, Angela Frick 1 The Minutes of the meeting of April 12, 1983 were approved as mailed The minutes of the meeting of March 30 were corrected to add Ilene White as present MAPC Angela Frick described her role as the Metropolitan Area Planning Council representative from Lexington. MAPC is a regional planning agency set up in 1963 by the legislature that coordinates planning among the 101 cities and towns in the greater Boston area to include local input into reports It is funded by assessment of 16 9 per person, from the municipalities, and goverened by an executive committee Alexander Zelesky is the new executive director Mrs Frick's position is appointed by the Town Manager Mrs Frick's position is appointed by the Town Manager Her primary role is to contact town boards and agencies and respond to "A-95 reviews, the reviewing mechanism for comment of those requests from state and federal funds There is a three week time frame for response The primary issues are environmental evaluation, housing, transportation, land use, solid waste, energy, and water quality MAPC is not significantly involved in human service issues however they have been asked to respond on Share-A-Ride, the Health Planning Council of Greater Boston and a drug rehab program in Waltham The Committee was curious as to why such major state and federal budget items such as DSS Dr Mystic Valley were not part of this process Bea will talk to MAPC to further clarify what is and isn't required to be reviewed by MAPC (Note Bea called MAPC and was told that the list of programs requiring review was specified by the Office of Management and Budget and primarily addressed only those that caused a physical change, such as acquisition, construction, and transportation Health and Human Services programs are usually subject to review by the area health planning council ) Mrs Frick will invite the committee to any future meetings at which MAPC is further discussed. The committee offered to help her in any review that was relevant however the short time frame required makes it difficult We can anticipate that the Health Planning Council of Greater Boston will be covered each year Steve mentioned that we were interested in health issues, and might be better able to look at that request now that we know to anticipate it Charitable Trusts Bea reported that she had written Mr Rutherford with copies of the proposed contracts There was concern that the timeframe was getting too late for matching funds for CES Bea will telephone Mr Rutherford later in the week and alert him to this concern Mystic Valley Mystic Valley is holding a Sunday bruch open house on May 1 Stan had raised the question about possible violation of their specail permit. Roberta said she had spoken to Kay Tiffany on other matters, and Kay had mentioned that MVMH had received special permission :o use the site on the Sunday April 25, 1983 p 2 DSS Roberta had attended the most recent Replace Board meeting, where they expressed appreciation for the town's effort to get DSS funding for their prevention program DSS Steve talked to Peter Koehan, the Area Director, to discover the current status of our letter of intent Peter told him that the letter had been reviewed by the subcommittee and was negatively received, as not meeting area and regional priorities Bea has tried to discover what these priorities are, but her telephone calls have not been returned Steve will speak with the Area Board President after we learn how the letter is judged not in compliance with the priorities, and who is on the subcommittee Mary San Martino, a Mystic Valley staff person was the only name mentioned by Peter Koehan Members of the Human Services Committee expressed concern that there may have been a conflict of interest Roberta suggested that DSS has a pressing interest in child abuse, and wondered if the Replace program could focus on that in some way It was decided to discuss the whole issue further at the next meeting Providers Council 25 people attended the April meeting on respite care It started with Chief John Bergeron describing his EMT service and making a plea for referral to address the gap when there has been a sudden death and is a delay in the arrival of the medical examiner The Committee felt that this is an area they may be able to find resources for Roberta mentioned the Council of Churches as a possible source of volunteers Nancy said the funeral homes should be addressing that, and can take a body if a doctor has pronounced him dead. Roberta will clarify the legal problems with the Chief and then we will procede with helping to develop a network Providers identified other gaps in respite in that developmentally disabled people have some services, but other clients are unserved (emotionally disturbed, younger alzheimers etc ) It was generally felt that the number of funded days was too few, and that there was a need for adult camps The next Providers Council meeting will be May 16, with Marilyn Lash from United Community Planning Council as speaker The following meeting will be on information and referral, with a demonstration from United Way's new Computer Access Information and Referral Network (CAIRN) Tentative date is June 13 Student Intern Bea announced that she ahs authorization for another intern next year and has applied to B U and B C schools of social work She will also investigate Heller Town Meeting Planning The TMMA In£otmation meeting is Wednesday, April 28 Steve will try to attend, and Bea and Judy will be there It is possible that the question of funding for Mystic Valley will be raised at Town Meeting Steve will talk to Jim Crain about how he woudl like this to be handled Future Membership Steve and Judy both do wish to continue There will be three vancancies Steve has April 26, 1983 p 3 written to Jim suggesting a brief newspaper statement requesting volunteers He will telephone a followup to discuss a process In thinking about interests and skills there was concern that the committee should not be composed of advocates i. for certain perspectives while still retaining a variety of views Committee members were asked to think about what skills were needed This will be discussed at the next meeting Subcommittee Comments Ilene expressed that she had felt some frustration in her subcommittee role as it seemed that the CoA budget was routine, and it was difficult to penetrate the system and give meaningful recommendations Nancy concurred that she questioned if they could make changes Steve was sorry this had not been discussed earlier, as it echoed last year's problems when the whole committee felt discouraged. With this recurring, we could have seen a pattern of no impact on elderly affairs (eg Muzzey) and we could have contacted our liaison. Steve felt it is a continuing theme of problems with communication with the Selectmen. We should ask Jim Crain to come in and hear this Next Meeting May 23, 7 30 pm, room 111 Respectfully Submitted, Ulan Beatrice Phear