HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-13-HSC-min Town of Lexington Human Services Committee
Wednesday 1/13/2021 @ 7 PM
Conducted by Remote Participation*
MINUTES
Participants: Gail Fields, Leslie Zales, Doug Lucente(Select Board Liaison), Betty Borghesam (Council on
Aging Liaison),Martha Kurland,Melissa Interess (staff), Tony Serio(staff)
Welcome&introductions: Zoom Meeting Called to order 7:04pm
1. Reviewed and approved minutes of November 4, 2020 meeting
a. Identified Committee Member to take minutes.
2. Police and Human Services Partnership Discussion
a. Police videos were produced and posted-not many people have viewed to date. Committee members
reporting viewing videos and feeling impressed, that they were informative and spoke to the diverse
role of current policing.
b. Viewing videos raised some questions for committee members:
- GF-interested in knowing more about search requests and whether there is vulnerability in this area
for racial profiling.
- LZ-raised ongoing question of role of social workers to support police. Disc'd members knowledge
of other communities (including reviewing recent incident in Newton). Committee members seem to
see value in exploring this issue further and consider talking with other towns about this intervention.
- MK notes high incidents of Domestic Violence(DV) calls and wonders whether there are repeat
callers and whether there is any room for further intervention or support with this population.
- MI shares that there is currently a Community Crisis Intervention Team which acts to provide
preventative intervention. Human Services (HS)will receive referrals from this group. She also
notes that HS gets called in by public safety for hoarding issues.
c. Discussed whether there have been complaints from the community towards the police. Reportedly
there have been 4 official complaints this year. Questions raised regarding this are: I) Is there a
mechanism for complaints? Are citizens aware of the complaint mechanism? Would it be helpful to
have an Ombudsman? (DL reports that the town budget for FY22 to be voted on at Town Meeting
includes a diversity inclusion officer to start in July 2021).
d. Next Steps: Ask someone from Police Department to meet with us. The hope for such a meeting is
to partner with them to enhance the mutual goal of assessing the current services and how to make
them better. Would it also be helpful to connect with the Select Board?
MI will reach out to Police Department. Committee members will develop questions in advance of
the meeting to share with the Police Department.
3. MI provided feedback on Citizen Advisory Council for the Diversity,Equity, and Inclusion work
being conducted by the Town in partnership with the consultant,All Aces, Inc. All Aces have now
met with the Advisory Council and completed focus groups with Lexington staff,board/committee
members, and citizens. They are gathering data on where Lexington is doing well in the arena of
Racial Equity and in which areas Lexington could do better. DL and MK both attended focus groups
and shared experiences.
Next Steps: Report from the consulting group All Aces. They will then provide another round of
coaching for staff and some experiential sessions for residents & staff.
4. Human Service Updates
a. MI: MI and Valerie Viscosi met with Steering Committee for CRNA grant(Mental Health Task
Force). They discussed adjustments to the timeline as a result of the pandemic. The CHNA Steering
Committee has approved the adjusted timeline, which includes pushing out some of the major tasks to
later 2021 into 2022(e.g., Critical Incident Response Protocol,repository for available mental health
programs and services). The task force will continue to focus on completing a Community Mental
Health Assessment on the Adult population for the majority of 2021. Completing this assessment will
give much-needed data for the adult population and will provide insight into areas of need, gaps in
programs &services, and barriers to accessing mental health services/supports. It will also allow our
school partners to continue to prioritize operating and educating in a pandemic; and plan for next
academic year, as the school personel will not need to be as involved in developing the assessment for
adults. MI has begun discussions with Framingham State Center for Social Research to assist with the
survey. MI will gather stakeholder input on the draft survey questions once they are available.
b. MI: Announces that there will be a presentation on January 27th on the Psychological
Consequences of Racism in the Black Community. Announcements have been sent out.
c. MI: William James Interface Program continues to be steady with 51 referrals over the past 6
months (June 1-Nov. 30). This is similar to prior referrals with adult population up and under 18
population down. A new contract was signed with Interface for the next 2 years.
d. MI: COIVD Vaccines. Current planning with police/fire/board of health. No vaccine in
possession and not anticipating much until late February. There have been lots of inquiries.
e. TS: Setting up more QPR trainings for February. Feels Zoom has been an asset. They are
training two new QPR trainers on the school side,Julie Fenn and Kristi Demirev.
5. Action Items:
a. Committee members will send questions to LZ regarding things they would like to discuss with
police department personel.
b. Share the links for police video to other groups/connections in town.
6. Next meeting date- set for February 24th at 7PM.
7. Adjournment- at 8:30