HomeMy WebLinkAbout1988-06-06-HSC-min.pdf Minutes Human Services Committee 6/6/88
Present Harvey Lowell Chairman Bob Cushman, Co-
Chairman; Seymour Mandel; Leonora Feeney;
Sheila Martin; Marion Shepp; Renee Cochin and
Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator
1 Minutes 5/17/88
Renee said that her remarks regarding the Senior Health
Monitor program appeared in too truncated a form
Actually, she had serious reservations regarding the
ability of CoA to manage the forthcoming Senior Health
Monitor program, and these reservations extended to
planning and joint implementation
Leonora said that it was not correct to refer to her
remarks concerning the report of the Human Services
Committee to the Town Meeting as raising question She
had actually stated that there had been no report
She was referring to the verbal report that customarily
was made on the floor of Town Meeting, not to the
written report
Steve Baran said that he had distributed 80 copies of
the report to Town Meeting Earlier, at the meeting of
the Town Meeting Members ' Association the Human
Services budget was distributed
2 Special Needs Update
Marion said that the Special Needs Committee felt
demoralized following their meeting with LexHab On
the other hand they felt supported by the interest
shown by Harvey and Bob Moreover, Steve Baran with
the agreement of the Town Manager, will be providing
staff support
Marion is presenting a plan for the Committee to react
to at their next meeting It calls for two houses
one for the mentally ill and one for the mentally
retarded
Renee reported on her research regarding the
availability of 707 certificates Chris Tawa referred
her to Peter Gagliardi of EOCD Essentially, there are
no certificates to be had except through the Mass
Housing Partnership
3 Senior Health Monitor Program
Committee members expressed their concern that no
subcommittee had been meeting to make plans for the
projected Senior Health Monitor program Bob Cushman
reported that Terry Gent, Chairman of the CoA board,
had said he was in favor of reconvening the planning
subcommittee or the larger combined CoA/Human Services
group which met when the plans were first discussed
Renee questioned whether the differences between levels
of frailty had been adequately considered as to who
would be served while Harvey expressed concern as to
who would be monitoring the program and what was the
status of CoA staffing for the program since the
original Senior Aide had resigned Renee was in favor
of taking any references to the CoA out of the draft
contract until there was a clear idea of how the two
programs would be interrelated The Committee agreed
to proceeding with the contract with VNCH and dealing
with issues of the affiliation agreement (including
case management) between VNCH and the COA at a later
time
4 Equity Sharing
Bob explained that a computer error undetected until
after Abt Associates had issued their final report led
to a deal which had become unattractive A final
report would be made by Abt to the Selectmen, but plans
for a forum on equity sharing as a relevant option
should be dropped
5 RePlace
Seymour reported that a RePlace meeting which had been
convened for the purposes of conducting a training
session on how to do soliciting did nniatteiadeTilace
No one showed up
The discussion focused on the position of RePlace
within the Town' s human services and its administrative
direction
6 Committee process
Leonora said that the Committee should do much more
advocacy for human services as opposed to emphasizing
the need to work within budget limitations
Further, Lee expressed a sense of frustration on a
number of fronts Emerson Gardens, Senior Health
Monitor program, RePlace Harvey said that these
developments were a natural consequence of the
Committee ' s activist stance during the past year
Since it was getting late, it was decided to defer this
discussion until the next meeting at which time there
would also be a discussion of replacing members whose
term will have come to an end in September
Respectfully Submitted
Stephen Baran,
Human Services Coordinator