HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-06-25-HSC-min.pdf Human Services Committee Minutes , 6/25/90
(
Present Renee Cochin and Bob Cushman, Co-Chairmen ; Leonora
Feeney; Dick Dougherty ; Steve 8aran, Human Services
Coordinator
The Minutes of 6/ 13 were approved
Steve reported
A Human Services Emergency Relief Fund was to be set up
under the auspices of the Trustees of the Public Trust
beginning with $ 180 donated by Beacon Communications
The American Heart Association was seeking Lexington' s
involvement in a regional effort to educate the public
around prevention of heart disease
The Lexington Interfaith Outreach was a group of
members of various churches and synagogues interested
in feeding the homeless
So far , the announcement of an AIDS task force had not
resulted in any letters from interested persons The
Center for Health and Retardation Services, Inc based
in Watertown was taking over the contract for provision
of regional psychiatric emergency mental health
services
The Committee began to consider both deficiencies and areas where
they might move ahead with recommendations as well as how to make
the report public
Concerns were raised that the report was biased in not
getting the viewpoint of consumers ( the Committee had
been aware of this bias before the data was gathered,
Dick noted) There was a quality of being overly
oertain, indeed, brash, of looking to find fault and of
generalizing beyond the data Child abuse and neglect
although noted as a serious problem in a table borrowed
from RePlace included in the appendix, was not alluded
to in the body of the text Allegations of members'
insensitivity did not ring true, particularly in the
area of the youth where the Committee had been
particularly involved
Valid points of departure included looking at other
models of human services in other municipalities and
using the Committee as a sounding board for emerging
issues such as those concerning special needs
populations
There was some thought given to reproducing the
(
sections on recommendations, but the two different
` ~
Human Services Committee Minutes , 8/25/90 Page 2
sections tend to overlap while having points of
difference Moreover , the recommendation sections do
not allude to findings on need
Committee members noted that there was no mention of special
needs in the affordable housing reports in spite of the presence
of a special needs advocate un one of the committees It was
agreed that there should be a letter to the Minuteman This was
considered in order since the Selectmen had already endorsed
affordable housing Renee will draft a letter for the next
meeting of the Committee
Respectfully submitted ,
)
Stephen Baran
Human Services Coordinator
c_