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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-12-14-HSC-min.pdf Minutes, Human Services Committee Meeting December 14, 1987 Present Harvey Lowell, Chairman; Bob Cushman, Co-Chairman; Syliva Perlman; Renee Cochin; Seymour Mandel; Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator; Meghan O'Neil and Jean Schreiber, Lexington Committee for Special Needs Housing Minutes, 11/30/87 The Minutes of the meeting of 11/30/87 were reviewed Bob Cushman corrected the minutes to show that he was not present Report from Lexington Committee for Special Needs Housing Meghan O'Neil referred to her Committee's report which was earlier distributed with the minutes of a previous meeting She referred to meetings with the Department of Mental Health, LexHab, Lexington Housing Authority and Chuck Howard of the Cooperative for Human Services One of the adult children of a member of the Committee has been accepted by LexHab in the Muzzy apartments and has made a good adjustment ( There has been little turnover in Housing Authority apartments, but adult children of the Committee members would be eligible with Chapter 8 and 707 certificates The Mass Department of Mental Health through Robert Cole, Area Director, has shown an interest, but their policy requires giving priority to 55 year old adult children as far as community clients are concerned Articles in the Lexington Minute-man have brought new members to the group There are now 20 members Equity sharing has been one of the concepts considered Jean Schreiber described her experience as a parent whose son paid rent to her after obtaining housing through a Section 8 certificate The group at present has formed subcommittes to investigate specifically housing and apartments Reporting to the Selectmen Harvey Lowell noted that last year's subcommittee recommendations to the Selectmen on human services budget had been distributed to members of this year's subcommittees and that narrative was needed by December 21 for this year's report Human Services Committee Meeting, 12/14/87, p 2 Council on Aging Harvey Lowell said that he was planning to meet with the Town Manager to discuss the Council on Aging There was agreement that the Human Services Committee had a role to play as an advisory committee of the Selectmen around issues of coordination, communi- cation and consultation with particular reference to the Council on Aging mission and that the Board of Selectmen should be advised to that effect It was further agreed that the Committee should approve the Council on Aging budget request in the form it had been submitted recognizing that their programs had not been reviewed The Council on Aging subcommitee of the Human Services Committee will participate in forthcoming subcommittee meetings with the Council on Aging regarding the Senior Health Monitor program. Senior Health Monitor Program Steve Baran reported that he had met with various members of the Council on Aging Board concerned with the Senior Health Monitor program, and the sentiment seemed to be to proceed with program planning There was considerable lack of clarity as to what to do with the projected case management portion of the plan. Which group should take responsibility for case management? Renee noted that most home health agencies carry out case management, but Bob Cushman alluded to previous concerns about the ability of Visiting Nurse and Community Health to take responsibility for other than nursing care Bob said that he had been in touch with Terry Gent, COA Board President, who said that a memo earlier sent to the Human Services Committee did not properly represent the position of the COA and that a subcommittee should attack the problem. A joint subcommittee made up of COA board members and Human Services Committee subcommittee members reviewing COA and VNCH has been constituted to pursue planning for a Senior Health Monitor program. RePlace Seymour and Jan reported that RePlace was reviewing options which included fund- raising and cutting back staff Their goal remains to obtain $100,000, dictated in part by their desire to make salaries competitive They have shown some interest in obtaining a professional consultant to help with fundraising (Seymour could not recommend anyone) , did not show interest in his advice to make a special plea to corporations in the area The Committee agreed unanimously with the subcommittee that $65,000 should be recommended for RePlace based on their FY '87 funding level plus cost of living increases Human Services Committee, 12/14/87, p 3 Mystic Valley Mental Health Center The Mystic Valley proposal, Sheila reported, seeks funding for such items as staff training and furniture, items "typically not supported by the Department of Mental Health contract" (their wording) This proved to be very difficult for subcommittee members to evaluate and raised question as to what wasbaing done with building space and furniture formerly utilized by mental health coun- selors Dr Weiss is exploring with the school program planning for unconnected and bilingual youth and has a meeting scheduled for February 9 He is unable at this time to propose a program for services in the schools At the present time the subcommittee discovered that there are 6 adults in the Kelliher program for the mentally retarded and 3 in the Adult Day Treatment Program. Additionally, there is one adult being served at 1 Hancock Street Finally, there are a number of clients being served by the Ombudsman program. These are all Lexington residents, but the proposal does not show need for funding of direct services to these residents Dr Weiss failed to show shortfalls for any of the areas in which he sought funding Last year $15,000 in funding was given for 270 clients This year a similar amount is requested for 6 or 7 clients while it would appear that in general Mystic Valley is in good financial shape RespectfullyI1Submitted,t17 -1 L-21 Stephen\Baran, Human Services Coordinator