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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-11-29-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting of November 29, 1983 Present Steve Baran, Judy Zabin Howard Reynolds Roberta Black, Ed Foley, Stan Finkelstein Bea Phear Minutes The minutes of the meeting of November 15 were approved as ammended Coordinators Report Bea visited the Wild Acre Inn on November 16 Although the visit was short, and she did not speak with residents, she was relieved as to quality of care The lodging house was neat and clean, with a somewhat 'homey' atmosphere There was a number of items posted, including a scrabble tournement score, menu, activity schedule staffing schedule and the residents' rooms appeared self-decorated NASW has granted the request to credit the Providers ' Council with continuing education units The series will be worth 0 8 class I CEU's A meeting was held with mental retardation specialists on November 17; Steve Bea and Joan Halverson represented the Town A start was made on gathering some census figures and discussion of needs and services The group will meet again j. on Monday, December 12 at 2 00 pm All members of the committee are invited Report to Selectmen Steve suggested that the committee think in terms of goals for the year either by suggesting a list or by approving Bea's list These goals could be included in the report if they are developed Stan suggested giving a committee report to TMMA. It was suggested that it could be more detailed, with perhaps an outline of the policy, criteria, census data, and whatever was relevant explaining the reasoning of the committee There should be a precis at the beginning The report to the Selectmen will have a summary with explanation of funding recommendations and then discussion of each o the programs that includes a program description four paragraphs each focusing on the criteria clusters, and if applicable, a discussion of the funding rationale Each subcommittee will write a draft and get it to Bea by December 7 She will duplicate and send out for study over the weekend and discussion on Dec 13 RePlace Roberta and Ed recommend full funding of the Replace request of $52,064 They feel this is necessary to maintain the level of service Replace has hired a new LICSW, Lisa Langner, formerly with Malden DSS, on a part-time basis while Stephanie is on maternity leave The fund-raising cost item in the budget was for printing They now plan to go to the foundation library, but fear that grants offered will not be geared to their services The emergency housing request data does not necessarily mean placement as it is often used as start for counseling The committee is interested in the actual number of housing placements , as the volunteer effort can be costed out The subcommittee will ask about that figure Elderly Stan and Thea have no basis to argue with the CoA request It looks reasonable and the increases are in categories that make sense Judy suggested that when they write the report they include some use statistics , as she felt Town Meeting was worried that the new senior center will not be used Mystic Valley Howard and Judy held another meeting with Richard Weiss He submitted more information on his request for funding that included program descriptions They feel that the agency is in better administrative and financial shape than in the past, serving vsc 'about 6741clients per year with a range of services usually after insurance is exhausted. The subcommittee recommends funding as a demonstration that the agency is making a contribution and has improved its practices There is no specific target program and the funding level is not related to a specific need which makes consideration of the amount difficult Howard believes that this makes it the most flexible, and he would be willing to adjust the amount in relation to other agencies Judy feels comfortable recommending the full $15,000 request It was recommended to the subcommittee that their report include as discussion of the rationale behind not targetting a specific program, and that there had been concern last year about the management which was now less of an issue CMARC Steve spoke with Sheri McCann about incorporating the CMARC budget into the Town's budget as a line rather than being a separate Warrant article This is related to the question of their one-time request of several years ago Apparently Steve Politi feels that CMARC should make its intentions known, if they are going to continue to want regular funding Bea said Sheri had discussed this with her Bea feels it is too late in the budget cycle to change this year, and that there are pros and cons on both sides of the question of being an article The CMARC request will be to cover both the Contract Procurement position and a new Job Development position Bea is concerned that job development may be optimistic, given the client population General Steve mentioned a possible concern about CMARC being a specific therapeutic program whereas the others are multi-service and focus more on prevention The committee felt it could be looked at in different ways, as Mystic Valley is also treatment Steve said it looks like each subcommittee is going to recommend full funding, which will be well over the 5% requested by the Manager He thinks is is extremely important that the report makes it very clear in showing problems the agencies have in getting funding He also suggested having a fall back position if the Selectmen come back and request a 5% increase only We should set priorities Next Meeting December 13, 7 30 pm room G-15 Respectfully submitted, Beatrice Phear