March 27, 2002 Work Group Meeting Minutes
The William S. Cohen Community Center, Hallowell, Maine

MORNING SESSION

Coordination Sub-Group 

Present:  John Baillargeon, Stephanie Crystal, Eileen Griffin (Muskie staff), Danny Westcott (Muskie staff), and Chris Zukas-Lessard.

 The Coordination of Services Sub-Group met in the morning to review and comment on Eileen’s revised draft. For this meeting, Eileen had re-organized the draft in accordance with last month’s stated wishes of the sub-group.  The draft now begins with an introduction (rather than a list of recommendations) and everyone liked that.  The Work Group spent some time discussing which is a better label, “case management” or “care management”, and trying to sort out where the community support worker fits into the picture. The Work Group was concerned about people needing certain services and not being eligible for them. For example, people who need community support services (other than adults using mental health services) cannot get these services; and people with brain injury cannot receive supported employment services under the waiver because they meet the medical criteria for admission to a nursing facility. And finally, some target populations (people with traumatic brain injury and people with physical disabilities not covered under the waiver) are not eligible to receive case management services. The Work Group recommends that such services be made available to these groups. 

When gaps in information are identified and important topics are missing, how should these issues be handled?  The sub-group decided to focus only on the non-glaring gaps for now and to recommend to the full Work Group that a future meeting be devoted to addressing large gaps.

AFTERNOON SESSION

Present:  Christine Bartlett, Danny Westcott (Muskie staff), Stirling Kendall (Muskie staff), Myra Champagne, Drew Bolduc (chair), John Baillargeon, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Deb Parker-Wolfenden, Stephanie Crystal, Jonathan Connick, Shirley Bastien, Eileen Griffin (Muskie staff), Tonia Boterf (visitor) and Vicki Purgavie (visitor).

Not Present:  Cary Gifford, Tom Bancroft, Ron Welch, Tonya Labbe, Cynthia Sudheimer, Jane Gallivan, Chandra Murphy, Alice Conway, Kathryn Kazenski, Nat Hussey, Linda Jariz, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Helen Bailey, Tom Bancroft, Peter Driscoll, and John Shattuck.

Drew Bolduc chaired the meeting; Stirling Kendall facilitated.

At the direction of the chair, some items on the agenda were rearranged and some were omitted to ensure ample time for Work Group members to review and discuss the Employment and Services Sub-Group drafts.

1.  Check-in and Roll Call
The formal check-in and roll call was omitted.

2.  Vision Statement
Drew Bolduc read the mission and Stirling Kendall read the Vision Statement.

3.   Meeting Minutes
The Work Group approved the February 27, 2002 meeting minutes with minor revisions.

4.  All-Day Meetings?
There is important work yet to be done by the Work Group before the roadmap is ready for public exposure and little time to accomplish it.  Several draft sub-group reports have to be reviewed, possibly re-reviewed, then approved; gaps have to be identified and filled in; and the Work Group has to identify and approve a set of recommendations for future directions based upon its work.  The Work Group discussed whether to hold all-day meetings until the work is done.  Rather than meet all day, Drew Bolduc proposed, and the Work Group agreed, to meet from noon to 4:00 p.m. During lunch (provided by the Cohen Center) we’ll check in, read the vision statement and approve meeting minutes.  Stephanie suggested that the Work Group drop the rest of the meeting protocol, particularly sub-group reports, and focus only on agenda items needing Work Group feedback and consensus.  In advance of the April 24th Work Group meeting, Danny will send an email to Work Group members informing them of the change in time and protocol.

5.  Reports from Sub-groups
Public Communications Team (PCT).  The report of the March 14th PCT meeting was not given.  The Work Group, however, did consider and approve PCT’s proposal to have the April 24th Work Group meeting taped in action and on location at the Cohen Center.  The Spring Point Media Center at Southern Maine Technical College has agreed to tape the meeting and then use portions of it as “cutaways” on the short video they’ll help us produce.  Only Work Group members who wish to be seen on camera will be taped.  The Work Group asked Danny to email absent Work Group members informing them of the planned taping, assuring those who don’t want to be taped that they will have that right.

Reports from the Drafting Sub-group, Steering Committee, CHCS Activities, and Quality Choices Grant were not given so that the Work Group could devote more time to reviewing the employment draft and the three drafts of the Services Sub-group.

6.  Employment Section
The Employment draft was reviewed in its entirety. Work Group members made important contributions to the draft, including these recommended changes: clarify, in the introduction, how employment is defined (substantial gainful employment, assuming integration and excluding sheltered workshops); include information about self-employment options across programs; beef-up the section about eligibility criteria using Title I of the Rehabilitation Act’s 1995 presumption of eligibility; expand the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 section; report the results of the 1999 program audit of BDS’ practices in planning and delivering vocational services; update information about BDS’ Business Leadership Network; update or delete outdated information under “Maine’s Healthy and Ready to Work Project” and “The Ticket to Work”; get current information about the waiting list for vocational services, including possible changes in policy; and finally add phrasing to clarify the role of  Medicaid in promoting employment. Tonia Boterf said that right now there is a national thrust toward promoting self-employment for people with disabilities.  Drew Bolduc asked Tonia to investigate what is currently available in Maine and to report findings to Danny.  This information, along with other gaps that are identified along the way, will be addressed at a special Work Group meeting sometime in the future.

7.  Services Sub-group Report
The Work Group made significant progress in reviewing and commenting on the three Services Sub-Group drafts: Advocacy, Self-Advocacy and Quality Monitoring; Flexible Funding to Promote Integrated Services and Choice and Control; and Using Data to Make Sure Needed Services Are Funded.  Some of the comments and suggestions are reported below.

Advocacy, Self-Advocacy and Quality Monitoring.  The Work Group recommended that “individual advocacy” be added to the title and be defined in the text; Stephanie will help with that definition.  The Work Group discussed the  “Recommendations” section at the beginning of the document and suggested that some of the ideas be consolidated and the section be restructured to provide “guiding principles”.  The guiding principles would support “best practices” in the field and provide a basis for the State and other groups to reinforce the importance of consumer participation. When addressing barriers to participation, the Work Group thought it important to take into account the distinction between barriers caused by socio-economic factors and those that are disability-specific (economic barriers vs. the need for accommodations). Tonia believes that advocacy training should begin in the formative years; thus she urges the Work Group to make a recommendation that young adults in transition be given training.

Using Data to Make Sure Needed Services Are Funded.  The report was reviewed for accuracy and its message. The Work Group filled in the missing information where possible and discussed the importance of data being used principally to drive programs and apply standards of performance. The Work Group also discussed the general tone of the report, which, at least to some, could sound more positive. The Work Group agreed to help revise the draft by giving Eileen specific examples of changes in wording they would recommend. And finally, the Work Group recommended that an introductory sentence be added to the “Waiting List Data” section to say something like “we recommend that the State set standards on the types of data to collect”. 

Flexible Funding to Promote Integrated Services and Choice and Control.  The Work Group only had time to review and comment on the first few pages of the draft.   The Work Group’s recommendations included: striking the William Joyce quote from the Findings section (since it is not a finding) or moving it to the introductory paragraph, eliminating the nursing home example (and the gatekeeper/gateway language) and replacing it with a sentence about the need for holistic assessments coupled with multiple funding. The Work Group will review the draft again at a later meeting.

8.  Announcements
Drew Bolduc announced that he has resigned from the Maine Parent Federation (MPF) to take a position with United Advocates of California providing SAMSA-funded technical assistance for children.  Drew said that although he will no longer be representing MPF at Work Group meetings, he would like to continue to serve as the parent of a consumer.  Drew also announced an upcoming event at the Hall of Flags sponsored by the Maine Parent Federation on April 1^st called “a Celebration of Community”.  Myra Champagne announced that the 12th Annual Individual and Professional Conference presented by the Brain Injury Association of Maine (BIA) will be held April 24-26, 2002 at the Sheraton Hotel in South Portland.

9.  Next Meeting
The April meeting at the Cohen Center is scheduled for Wednesday April 24 from noon to 4:00 pm.  Lunch will be provided.  Helen Bailey is the chair of this meeting.  Ted Miles of the Southern Maine Technical College will be present to videotape the Work Group’s proceedings.