HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-02-13-HSC-min.pdf Minutes, Human Services Committee 2/1 /89
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Fresent Renee Cochin, Co-Chairman; Robert Cushman
Co-Chairman Seymour Mandel Beth i: larman;
Harvey Lowell ; Ann Irving; Leonora Feeney;
and Steve Baran, Human Ser ices Loordinator
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l The Minutes of the meeting of 2/ ka~Were corrected as
follows
item 7 Lee Feeney saw this initiati 'e in terms
of the Superintendent and | own Manager
haying made a proposal with the Human
Services Committee being drawn in
later"
change Lee thought communication had been
more .olid betwen the
Superintendent and the Town Manager
than between thP Town Manager and
the Human Services Committee
item 4 Renee cited a need fur demographics and
resources, possibly in the form of a
data gathering team from a chool of
social work "
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change Resources should not be seen as limited
to a team from a school of social work
The Committee was saddened at the death uf Dick
Dougherty -rather
Lee reported on substance abuse guidelines and
Froc2dure^ Dave Wilson, who was praised for his skill
at leading the discussions, wanted comments bv n/17
The ne t meeting of the School Committee was on 2/28,
and it was desirable for the Committee to submit a
minority report Bob Pressman was likely to file a
separate report of his own
Lee felt the guidelines in their draft form needed to
clarify drug-related behaviors Material on what should be
done in the ase of severe problems (see page 4 of
guideline) reated the aura oF a witchhunt The school s
r' sponsibj \ ity for preventi 'e responi.es were not delineated
Psychosocial problems were not clearly differentiated from
forbidden or illegal acti ity The Building Administrators
re` pon�ihi ] if � r 1- r Fl rar act cn `s opposed to the
Team respuns,hilj +v was not meth= clear sinre fhp` Team
should not have a disriplinary role Disciplinary action
had been unnrecessarily added to item lv column 1
pertaining to what should be done when a student confides a
problem Easentially, the approach attempted to bring
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Minutes, Human Servires Committee Page 2
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together treatment and corrections when this was not
appropriate as in the Lase of a teacher s obligation upon
seeing a student purchasing drugs as opposed to responding
to a student who appeared to be into irated
Harvey thought the procedures were too rigid, that the
net being thrown out was too wide so that essentially
the same approach was applied to students suspected of
being under the influence as opposed to students found
to be under the influence Epulsion on a third
offense seemed unduly harsh Use of the Team in line
71 column 7 to "consider processing a 91Ao seemed
inappropriate since itzi members might not be equipped
to alway^ know what was abuse and/or
neglect The psychology of the Team might aLt to
further lien*te +ho``e parents who were '/from the wrong
side of the tra' kso
Steve aid that the mandate of the Substance Abuse Committee
had been to deal with treatment and referrals of students
found to ha 'e a problem with substance abuse whereas the
Human Servires Committee was dealing with a number of other
issues Furthermorev he objected to Lee s characterization
/ of the Substance Abuse Committee as\ \ having a single
`— / perspective Lee agreed that the Committee did represent
many points of view
Harvey objected to Lee s characterization of the
response to be made by the Human Services Committee as
a minority report It was agreed that a subcommittee
would meet with Lee to prepare input to David Wilson s
draft and request that no final action be taken pending
more work that had to be done on a preventive,
educational approach and appropriate intervention
If, however, these recommendations could not become a
part of the report, then the Committee should prepare
Lomments to go to the Board of Selectmen and the School
Committee advising that a longer range analysis should
be carried out Renee noted that policy, as opposed to
procedures, had 'et to be addressed
4 Following a meeting with Rick White and Deborah Radway
and the Committee on 2/6, Renee and Bob had met with
Rick White indicating that the earlier discussion in
the Human Services committee was incomplete Rick said-
he recogni ed the C-Immittee s rroudinn+inj funrtionv
said he had *n Artivist �tance tow4i'd human `e' i �e=
and viewed the Committe as having onsiderable
e pertise to contribute supplementing that of the Human
\/ ` Services Coordinator Renee said that she had a
~^/ positive feeling coming out of the meeting and that
Minute , Human Services Committee Fage
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the" had identified =imilar concerns The ne t 'ear s
review of the Council on Aging would be conducted in a
different manner Renee felt that Rick had minimized
the problems invol 'ed in having reports submitted to
the SeleLtmen by both the COA and the Human Services
Committee, said that she would discuss this further
with Lec McSweeney
Har 'ey said that he was 'er concerned by the
treatment that the Town Manager had recei `ed from
certain members of the Committee, felt it had not been
appropriate or politically sound The Committee had
attributed to him motives he did not have, accusing him
of collusion Renee felt there needed to be
ensiti ity in dealing with others and that in raising
i SURF the interests of the Committee should Le
onsidered Lee =aid that the Town Manager should ha 'e
had repr� `entatives -From the Human Services Committee
on the original Substance Abuse Committee and took
e ceptinn to his having =Laid that the Committee was not
in ontrol
5 Steve reported on the process to create a community
/ \ residence for 12 chronically mentally ill residents at
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`- 196: Mas Ave He had prevailed upon Mary Lou Sudders
to work further with the neighbors before appearing
before the Selectmen, and Rick White had offered to
make the Town Office Building available as a place
where they could meet Steve Doran will chair a
meeting vith the neighbor= It was agreed to invite
Mar} Lou Sudders to the ne t meeting of the Committee
Renee had talked with Stan Finkelstein of the Board of
Health and informed the Committee of their March forum on
AIDS
7 It was agreed that for the ne t meeting of the Committee
Steve should invite Richard Segal , MSW, a social worker in
the Medway public schools and formerly the coordinator of
school based counseling at Boston Technical High School for
Farents and Children s Ser, ices in Bostonv to serve as a
consultant on school-based counseling models The
Superintendent of Schools and his Director of Ruidance were
welcome to attend if they would agree to listen to the
models and not offer the model they favored at this
p rtirular meeting
8 Special needs recreation will be placed on the agenda-
for the nr t meeting of the Committee
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Steve Baran