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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1988-01-11-HSC-min.pdf Minutes, Human Services Committee Monday, January 11, 1988 Present Harvey Lowell, Chairman; Bob Cushman, Co-Chairman; Renee Cochin; Sheila Martin; Sylvia Perlman; Marion Shepp; Jan Eustis; Seymour Mandel; Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator Minutes The Minutes of the meeting of December 21, 1987 were accepted The Minutes of the meeting of December 14, 1987 were accepted with the exception thatSheila Martin was present, not absent The Coordinator apologized for this omission United Way Review of Replace An undated review by United Way of Massachusetts Bay of RePlace in relation to its request to become an affiliated and funded agency was distributed to the Committee This review had recently been given to Steve Baran by Bill Blout Reasons given for not accepting RePlace were failure to obtain diversified funding; absence of minorities from the Board; too narrow geographical area served Steve mentioned that he had recently carried out a performance audit of Re- Place at the request of the Town Manager and agreed to send this to the ( Human Services Committee Senior Health Monitor Program Bob Cushman updated the Committee on the Senior Health Monitor Program. A joint subcommittee composed of members of the Council on Aging Executive Committee and Human Services Committee met on January 4 The COA Board had previously voted to support the program, but the Executive Committee has had a number of reservations Executive Committee members of the joint sub- committee are formulating an approach based on the original RFP This morning (1/11) Bob, Harvey and Renee, together with Steve, met with Rick White, Town Manager to consider the time lines and communications be- tween the COA and Human Services Conaittee It appeared from a review of the Human Services budget that SHM would be possible He planned to attend the next meeting of the joint subcommittee and would arrange for the Human Services Committee to present its budget recommendations to the Selectmen after that date Sylvia said that it was her impression that COA did not seem ready to proceed This was particularly true for the COA Board President, Terry Gent Renee agreed, though the program was in jeapordy, was not sure the Committee would be prepared to accept the new COA proposal on the Senior Health Monitor program. Committee members discussed the rationale for proceeding with the program. There was a budget from a number of sources allowing for the caseload to be increased and case management to become a part of the program. Need had been identified in the Human Services Committe Hearing while Linda Crew Vine had announced that the COA was moving in the direction of serving the frail Minutes, Human Services Committee, 1/11/88, page 2 elderly Moreover, the Bylaws gave to the COA the responsibility for serving the elderly and coordinating services to the elderly It is expected that both the Selectmen and the Town Meeting will support serving the frailelderly Most of the COA Board was in support of the program which had been investigated in the field by Seymour Mandel while testimony had been obtained from the medical care community as to its value Stevewas asked to communicate the position of the Committee that it had $33,000 to spend on the program. He was asked to identify funding sources Authorization for payments by the Town to RePlace The Board of Health makes payments to RePlace of Town of Lexington funds even though the RePlace budget is reviewed by the Human Services Committee Renee Cochin speculated that this was based on funds which may have originally flowed from the Mass Department of Mental Health through the Mass Division of Drug Rehabilitation to the Board of Health which alone has statutory authority as a health agency Notification of Human Services Committee Recommendations Steve will formally notify agencies of Human Services Committee recommendations and probable date for Selectmen review, 2/15 Equity Sharing Warrant Article The Committee did not approve of warrant article phrasing proposed by Abt which referred to recommendations by the Human Services Committee Moreover, since the results of the feasibility study were not yet known, and since no funds or action are being requested at this time, it began to seem inappropriate to submit either an article calling for money or a resolution calling for discussion Bob Cushman will explore this further with Paul Marshall It was agreed to hold a forum on equity sharing between 6 p m. and 8 p m. on Monday, March 21 Among those to be invited include the elderly, the Town Manager, the Selectmen, Ed Markey, Steve Doran, Dick Kraus, Norman Cohen, the Clergymen's Association and Abt Associates The focus will be on examining the findings of the feasibility study Respectfully Submitted, LStephen Baran, Human Services Coordinator