Maine's Work Group for Community-Based Living: 2/28/01 Minutes

February 28, 2001 Work Group Meeting Minutes
The William S. Cohen Community Center, Hallowell, Maine

Present: Dixie Leavitt, Chandra Murphy, Alice Conway, Kay Dutram (staff, Muskie), Drew Buldoc, John Baillargeon, John Shattuck, Susan Wygal, Jill Morton (staff, Muskie), Donna Lerman (staff, Muskie), Deb Parker Wolfenden, Stephanie Crystal, Tracy Piantoni, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Christine Bartlett, Lora Perry, Kathryn Kazenski, Nat Hussey, Catherine Ormond (staff, Muskie) Eileen Griffin (staff, Muskie)

Not Present: Jane O’Loughlin French, Tonya Labbe, Helen Bailey, Cynthia Sudheimer, Deborah Williams, Margaret Forbes (alternate with Stephanie Crystal), Ron Welch, Kat Douin, Jane Gallivan, Tom Bancroft

Deb Parker Wolfenden chaired the meeting. Donna Lerman facilitated the meeting. Donna, Kay Dutram and Jill Morton facilitated small group activities.

1. Check-in and Roll Call

2. Vision Statement
| Deb Parker Wolfenden read the Vision Statement: "All of us together, in community, happy, fulfilled, and equal in dignity and rights." She also read the mission statement: "The Work Group was formed to develop a coherent plan, across departments and programs, to make certain that the State is providing services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs and preferences of each individual."

3. Minutes
Review and approval of the January 18 and January 24 meeting minutes were tabled until the next meeting to give Work Group members another opportunity to review them.

4. Legislative Briefing
The Work Group discussed how to go about briefing the key legislators on the Work Group’s activities and the implications of the Olmstead decision. It was agreed that a sub-group would form to decide who to brief, what the briefing should look like, and who should do the briefing. The following people signed up for this sub-group: Christine Bartlett, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Tracy Piantoni, Stephanie Crystal, Susan Wygal, John Shattuck, John Baillargeon, Drew Buldoc, Alice Conway, and Nat Hussey.

5. New Members
John Shattuck proposed that the Work Group add a new member to represent the culturally deaf community. The Work Group agreed and John agreed to take responsibility for contacting the Maine Center on Deafness to ask them to identify someone who could represent the diverse views of the deaf community. Chris Zukas-Lessard reported that, although a letter inviting the Brain Injury Association to name a consumer representative had gone out some time ago, she has only been able to exchange phone messages with Susan Sullivan, the director of that organization. It was agreed that every effort would be made to have new consumer representatives identified and present at the next Work Group meeting. John Shattuck agreed to take responsibility for briefing the new member from the deaf community. The Work Group also agreed to put the question of whether to add other new members on the agenda for the next meeting.

6. Guidance for the Subgroup
Eileen proposed that the Work Group adopt four standards for developing its plan and these standards apply to the sub-groups activities as well. These four standards are:

The Work Group cannot require anything of anyone who is not present to agree to it. Work Group members can develop a strategy for getting people outside the room to agree to something by having a Work Group member volunteer to follow up on the strategy and be accountable for reporting back outcomes, progress or lack of progress to the group. Having someone who is willing to be held accountable will help to make sure that the plan will not be ignored. And if no Work Group member is willing to be held accountable for following through on the planned strategy, the Work Group may have a good indication of how much support a proposal has.
The plan should include estimates of cost as well as the basis for those costs.
The plan should be as specific as possible. The Work Group should list the steps that need to be taken; identify who will be accountable for implementing the plan; recommend a mechanism for monitoring the performance of the plan; establish some standards for monitoring performance of the plan once it is implemented.
The Work Group should support its plan with evidence and data whenever possible.

7. Subgroup Activities
The Work Group broke into three sub-groups to address the three priority areas identified:

Services. We need to make sure that people have access to the health, mental health, developmental, allied, and other supportive services they need to make it possible to live in the most integrated setting appropriate to meet their needs and preferences including consumer-directed options.
Workforce. We need to improve the quality and capacity of the provider workforce so there will be enough providers to provide the services people need to live in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs and preferences.
Coordination. We need to make sure that the State coordinates and assures the quality of its services and programs to maximize the State’s responsiveness and flexibility in serving people with disabilities.

Before doing so Donna explained that each sub-groups would be asked to agree on a long term goal and then identify three (or more or less) objectives to support that long term goal. Work Group members were asked to think about what can be achieved in the next six months. The goal of this sub-group activity was to develop a task plan for accomplishing these objectives within the next six months.

Each sub-group reported back as follows:

Services. This sub-group was facilitated by Donna Lerman, and staffed by Eileen Griffin.

Sub-Group Members: Tracy Piantoni, Deb Parker Wolfenden, Alice Conway, Dixie Leavitt, Chandra Murphy, Kathryn Kazenski (and Margaret Forbes, not present).

Long Term Goal: People have equal access and equal opportunity to the health, mental health, developmental, allied, and other supportive services to make it possible to live in the most integrated setting appropriate to meet their needs and preferences including consumer-directed options.

Opportunities for Improvement: 1. Direct funding to consumers, including grants, vouchers, other options. 2. advocacy, self-advocacy, and self-monitoring. 3. Index budget for kids transitioning to adult services.

Workforce. This sub-group was facilitated by Kay Dutram, and staffed by Eileen Griffin.

Sub-Group Members: Lora Perry

Long Term Goal: All levels of need will be met by qualified providers. (Note: Should the term "providers" be changed to "professional" to promote a cultural shift that all levels of providers are professionals.

Opportunities for Improvement: 1. Establish criteria to determine which services to deliver make available. 2. Attract the participation of private sector to offer funding, training of labor force, services. 3. Assure livable wages and benefits for workers.

Strategies: 1. The legislative Health and Human Services committee should determine the efficacy of a service (based on data, peer review literature) and the cost/benefit of a service. 2. Need to inform and educate potential funders (businesses and philanthropic) and knowledge sources (academic and health care institutions) through face-to-face meetings, mailings, public speaking, participation in task forces and work groups. 3. Need to define livable wage (assume 40/week; assume for Maine) (see Blue Ribbon Commission report); need to set public/private third-party reimbursement rates with livable wages as a factor. This is related to recruitment and retention; other issues related to recruitment and retention: societal value for the work; and the stress of the work.

Coordination. This sub-group was facilitated by Jill Morton, and staffed by Catherine Ormond.

Sub-Group Members: Drew Buldoc, John Baillargeon, John Shattuck, Susan Wygal, Stephanie Crystal, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Nat Hussey.

Long Term Goal: The State will maximize its responsiveness and flexibility in serving people with disabilities through effective inter-departmental coordination, quality assurance and policymaking.

Opportunity for Improvement: Link resources, systems, and services among the five state departments.

Strategies: Review systems and describe. Identify areas of overlap. Identify gaps. (Create a matrix of departments, programs and services.)

9. Next Meeting
Agenda items for the March 28 meeting include: adding new members to the Work Group, the HCFA grant solicitation, and sub-group activities. The March meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 28^th from 1:00-to-4:00pm at the Cohen Center. Ron Welch is the chair of this meeting.