HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-11-20Meeting of November 20, 2007
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
2 Fairgrounds Rd.
Agenda
^ Call the meeting to order
^ Minutes November 1, 2007
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^ 11:00 to 11:30 NBHS
^ 11:30 to 12:00 Legal services
^ 12:00 to 12:30 NHSC
^ 12:30 to 1:00 deliberations
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Next meeting date Tuesday November 27, 2007 at 2
Fairgrounds Conference room
*Next Agenda Items -NCH and Community Action Council of Cape Cod
and the Islands
Contract Review Committee
November 20, 2007
'~ 2 Fairgrounds Road
Attending: Alice McWade, Patty Roggeveen, Mary Wawro, Christy
Kickham, Rachel Rosen, Jack Gardner, John Belash Maryanne Worth,
Ann Medina.
Nantucket Behavorial Health Services (Family & Childrens
Serviced $175.000 Peter Swenson, Executive Director
Peter has now been at NBHS over a year and since he started he has
met with the board and gave them a 3 year plan about the changes he
would like to see take place. There was some disorganization when he
took over and some changes have been made. There are separate
programs in the organization which makes it easier to make data
collection and track finances. There is a support services program which
is the front office, administrative, bookkeeping and finance. Mental
Health program which covers emergency services, as well as helps
people struggling with mental illness; Addiction Services looks at all
addiction services provided on the island from adolescent to adult. NBHS
also has a contract with the school working with students which is
separated into its own program. Residential component, there are three
residential facilities, Fairgrounds House residential facility for women
with mental illness, Sherburne House residential facility for men with
mental illness, and the Sober House (Tryworks) with 4 individuals living
there. Quick summary on how we spend resources: largest portion is
spent on personnel; counseling, intervention and support services to
individuals. It is important for the community to know that
approximately 70% of the people that come to us have a problem with
alcohol and drugs with the primary problem here being alcohol.
Emergency services have skyrocketed. The first 4 months of this year
we saw 64, 48, 48 and in October, because of the teen suicide, 305
emergency contacts in addition to clients already being seen. This is
significant because this means someone is called to the hospital to do a
complete assessment, which can take up to 3 hours. The numbers are
huge for a town this size. The community needs to be aware of this.
NBHS is working closely with the community on suicide prevention. We
have been very fortunate to have connected with people who are very
committed to this particular topic. We believe the most effect way to
deal with this is to get a student assistance program in the school
system. We are trying to raise funds to get this in place. The Nantucket
Community Foundation has stepped forward and said they would be
willing to work with NBHS to try and do some fundraising for this.
Last year the committee asked what impact if any the merger with Mass
General Hospital (MGH) would have. NBHS received a $150,000 grant
from MGH that was broken up, there were 3 significant needs that were
not being addressed, there were no addiction services, and we hired the
personnel to develop and put in place an addictions program to service
the community more effectively. We have had to research and purchase
3 different curriculums so that we can give state of the art treatment to
people on an out patient basis which has created an off shoot of 4
separate educational and therapeutic groups that is in place now which
comes out of Hazelden one of the foremost addiction treatment
programs in the country. Excellent curriculum called living in balance a
series of curriculum a person can work with. Also revamped and
reorganized the drug awareness program which is a court mandated
program that deals with people that have been arrested for drug or
alcohol related problems. Also, in agreement with MGH, realized that the
psychiatric services on the island was thin at best, we have a medical
director who is a psychiatrist, who was here 3 days a month and we had
someone 1 day a month who was an adolescent/child psychiatrist. Part
of the addressing the needs on the island through the MGH money was
to increase psychiatric coverage. So what we have done is to increase
our medical director by one day a month to four days and contracted
with Laurie Robinson, who is a psychiatrist and a pharmacologist, she is
here four days a month but she is also available to us because she lives
on-island. Adolescent and child psychiatrist has increased to 2 days a
month. We now have psychiatric coverage 11 days a month. Each
psychiatrist's time is booked within 3 weeks. There is still a great
demand for these services on the island. This is what has been done
with that money. Is that community benefits money or totally separate?
This time it was totally separate not sure as to their motivation for that,
I think their future goal is to have community service dollars in place.
Also listed is $13,569 from MVY Community Services, what is that for?
That is a state contract from DMH puts through and MVY is the point of
contact. It is called 'Flexible Support Services" or "Community Support
Services". We can use that money at our discretion. It was used to fund
the suicide prevention program that was at the school and also it can be
used to reach out and help people in need with heat, rent,
transportation for dental care, educational camps in the summer. This
allows us to help with things that unplanned. This money was available
to NBHS in July and it has been used up already. Is there any
arrangement with NCH and NBHS? The hospital calls and someone is
sent over to NCH but there is no monetary arrangement with the
hospital. Will the changes at A Safe Place make more work for you? We
work collaboratively with them; right now we share an employee who
works with young people.
One committee member mentioned that she would like to see the March
of Dimes give more to the community. They come here and use the
school facility and not much of the money raised comes back here. Also
Catholic Charities is another group that raises a tremendous amount of
money here and none of it comes back.
South Coastal Counties Legal Services $3,900 Raymond Yox,
Assistant Executive Director
SCCLS provides free legal services to low income and elderly residents
on Nantucket in civil cases which includes, family law, housing,
accessing public benefits and immigration law which has just been
added. There are 8 lawyers and 2 paralegals that come to the island the
first Thursday of each month at four different locations on a rotating
basis. A Safe Place, the Courthouse, the Saltmarsh Senior Center and
NBHS are the sites. Most of the services deal with divorce and support;
public benefits (socia/security, unemp/oyment, we/fare benefits, Mass
Hea/th) making sure people get a fair hearing. Their mission is to reduce
poverty and provide equal justice. What are the real needs and are we
meeting these needs. The newest part is the immigration program.
There is a big need for that on Nantucket. A lot of immigrants are taken
advantage of in the payment of wages also with problems with visas and
domestic violence. There will be more outreach to this population also.
Nantucket Human Services Center $24,000 Betsy Brown & Mark
Older
Maryanne recused herself from this presentation because of her
affiliation with NHSC.
The amount of the request will be used for information campaign, ads in
the newspapers to get information out there, more public awareness.
The more the community gets involved the easier it will be to get
Federal help. The Nantucket Human Services Center will be a permanent
home for non-profit agencies that provide services to residents of
Nantucket. Many agencies have to do the'~Nantucket Shuffle"
continually having to move because of high rent. The center will also
provide privacy. One of the goals of the center is to hopefully bring
services, which are currently only available off-island, to the island.
The first phase is the 14 units of workforce housing that will primarily be
for employees of the agencies first then town employees. The amount of
the units has increase because of the need. The second phase will be
the office building and the third phase will be the Heritage Center that
will house native artifacts that were found on the site.
What is the timeline? We are applying for grants from Federal Home
Loan in Boston and hoping to break ground at the end of 2008 or
beginning of 2009. There are preservation restrictions in place and
NHSC has been to Mass Historic and have met with the Wampanoag's.
Do you have any idea how much this media campaign could generate.
Hopefully we could raise $1,000,000.
The meeting adjourned at 1:00. The next meeting is November 27th at
11:00. The Nantucket Cottage Hospital and Community Action Council of
Cape Cod and the Islands are on the agenda.
Respectfully submitted by
.Inn Medina