HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-11-09-HSC-min.pdf Minutes, Human Services Committee
( November 9, 1987
Present Harvey Lowell, Co-Chairman; Bob Cushman, Co-Chairman; Sheila Martin;
Marion Shepp; Sylvia Perlman; Renee Cochin; Jan Eustis
Absent Leonora Feeney
Town Office Building, Lexington
Leonora Feeney
Harvey Lowell announced that Leonora Feeney was not able to attend due to
back trouble
Minutes of meeting of October 19
The minutes of the meeting of October 19 were approved
Subcommittee Assignments
Subcommittee assignments of Committee members to review applications for
funding were made as follows
1 Council on Aging
Renee Cochin, Sheila Martin, Marion Shepp
2 RePlace
Seymour Mandel, Jan Eustis
3 Cooperative Elder Services
Jan Eustis, Sylvia Perlman
4 Central Middlesex Association for Retarded Citizens
Harvey Lowell, Bob Cushman
5 Mystic Valley Mental Health Association
Sheila Martin, Renee Cochin
6 Senior Health Monitor Program
Sylvia Perlman, Bob Cushman
Draft of Summary of Human Service Activities for 1987 Annual Report
It was felt that the Report should put more emphasis on accomplishments
including opening up communications on crisis response, convening meeting
on youth and drugs, reporting to the State Advisory Council on Mental Health
a
Human Services Committee, Minutes, 11/9/87, p 2
Iand obtaining funding for studying equity sharing as a mechanism to assist
different groups of citizens with human need and then convening a panel
to review the hiring of a group to do the study and review their products
In general, the emphasis should be on bringing agencies and groups together
and improving communication between them.
Review Process on Mental Health Services
Renee Cochin advised the Committee that it should seek to talk to Department
of Mental Health and Department of Mental Retardation board members as well
as board members of the Mystic Valley Mental Health Association as part of the
review process Sheila Martin commented that Connie Dineen said that she
had not been informed of the review process during this past year
RePlace
Seymour Mandel and Harvey Lowell said that they had heard sentiment from
Replace board members in favor of avoiding involvement with the Human Services
Committee and going directly to the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting
Seymour said that he was well impressed by the efforts of a fundraising
committee established to approach foundations $95,000 was being requested
from a number of different foundations Board members have discovered that
they have contacts among foundation trustees
Steve outlined options that he had discussed with Bill Blout, Replace
Director and Connie Counts, Board Chairman These included 1 cutting back
staff; 2 fundraising; 3 becoming a Town department Steve had offered
to provide technical assistance in exploring these options He was advised
that there were a number of initiatives around fundraising beyond seeking
funding from foundations and that he would be invited along with Seymour
Mandel to a Board meeting to discuss them This invitation was later cancelled
Bill Blout declined assistance in talking with Steve about cutting staff
but did agree to have Steve assist him in exploring models from other
towns which had human service departments
Harvey commented that an advantage of having Replace as a Town department
would be that it could then be in a position to aggressively seek State
funding On the other hand, RePlace would no longer have the same identity
In general, there was a sense on the part of Committee members that the Board
had not seriously reviewed what was involved in a fully competent administra-
tion This was seen as the Agency's major weakness
Senior Health Monitor Program
The Senior Health Monitor program plan was seen as still lacking in terms
of two key ingredients 1 an administrative presence within the program
itself; 2 professional case management capability at a minimum of 15 hours
The preliminary budget showed inadequate funding from the Town's human
services budget, and this should be within the rangeof $12,000 to $15,000
On the Spenseside money can be saved due to the expectation that increasing
Human Services Committee, Minutes, 11/9/87, p 3
the number of clients served up to double the present caseload will not
happen all at once but rather during the course of the year
Finally, it was understood that the immediate administrative responsibility
and accountability for the program would henceforth reside with the Council
on Aging which had demonstrated administrative capability and a will to do
outreach, an essential aspect of the program.
Respectfully Submitted,
Stephen Baran,
Human Services Coordinator