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HomeMy WebLinkAbout201301_DDAB Minutes Developmental Disability Advisory Board - Minutes 01/22/2013 Page 1 of 5 JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH 615 Sheridan Street  Port Townsend  Washington  98368 www.jeffersoncountypublichealth.org Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board (DDAB) M I N U T E S January 22, 2013 Board Attendees: Carl Hanson (Co-Chair), Lesly Sheinbaum (Co-chair), John Austin, Catharine Robinson, Kim Rafferty, Leesa Monroe, Claudia Edmondson Board Absentees: none Guests: Bekka Bloom, Lisa Falcone, Janie Nelson-Achodor Staff: Anna McEnery, Julia Danskin, Donna Marvin (recorder) Call to Order Co-Chair Lesly Sheinbaum called the meeting to order at 3:22 pm. Approval of Agenda No proposed changes or additions to the agenda. Member Robinson moved to approve, Member Austin second, motion passed. Approval of Minutes from September 25, 2012 No changes or corrections to the minutes of September 25, 2012. Member Robinson moved to approve, Member Austin second, motion passed. Public Comments No comments at this time. New Business and Presentations: Introduction, Claudia Edmondson Anna McEnery, DD Coordinator, introduced new Board Member Claudia Edmondson (Director of Camp Beausite). Claudia shared details about her background, education and her extensive experience. She also talked about plans for improvement of Camp Beausite and some of the challenges she faces. Claudia is a welcome addition to the Board. “WORK WITH ME” Employer Breakfast - Community Connectors Planning Group Members of the Community Connectors Planning Group, Bekka Bloom, Janie Nelson-Achodor and Carl Hanson gave reports on the recent “WORK WITH ME” breakfast event. All gave glowing accounts about the overall success of the event and the great collaborative effort that went into pulling together the many details. Everyone worked together in a professional way to incorporate their ideas and it resulted in an event to be proud of. The breakfast was very well attended and offered a great opportunity to educate and thank employers; to give them recognition; and to help raise money. The videos served to put a “face” Developmental Disability Advisory Board - Minutes 01/22/2013 Page 2 of 5 to the people who are successfully working at jobs in the community. The message that was emphasized: employing people with disabilities is not charity, but is good for business. The event required a lot of planning and a lot of work, but was well worth it; and it should only continue to improve in years to come. Transition Academy Susan Prince will give a detailed update on the Transition Academy at the March meeting. Janie Nelson-Achodor gave a brief update, noting that Transition Academy is “going wonderfully”. There is a great mix of students and 25-27 job sites that have been developed where students experience all kinds of different work. They are also learning life skills from staff working with students. The schools are very supportive and it is a great program. State ARC DD Information for Legislative Session Anna reviewed materials from The Arc of Washington State giving statistical data about children and adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities. The issue of concern is that there are many, many people (approximately 15,000 – 16,000) who are on the DDD caseload, but get no service, (the list is called the Non Paid Caseload). The legislative session is asking to do some forecasting for some of these families because one-third of them could get the Medicaid Waiver if they had a Case Resource Manager to help them, but do not (due to a lack of funding). Anna explained that the Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC) is a Governor appointed council that works to educate and promote services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They also do system change activities and advocacy. She discussed the findings of a survey administered by the DDC. They received substantial comments from people explaining the difficulties that they are facing; they need critical services right now; and they don’t have enough information and support. All they have is an 800 number to call (since the Case Resource Managers have been eliminated) and they are not getting responses to their calls. It’s a challenge to find these individuals since their addresses are held as confidential. Again, one-third are SSI eligible, so they could definitely get Medicaid and Respite - they just would need a Case Resource Manager. This is going to be a big issue in developmental disabilities. Advocacy groups are trying to talk to their legislators about the need to start a caseload forecast for families and people with developmental disabilities and funding of Case Resource Managers. There will be an Advocacy Day event and legislative reception on Wednesday, January 23rd . There will be a weekly Advocacy Day beginning February 6th through April 17th that includes a briefing on current issues/events and appointments to talk with local legislators. Group discussion on what’s happening in the legislature. Anna explained that we no longer have a Parent Coalition Coordinator, so she will be sending out legislative information as more bills come up. Olympic Workforce Development Council Update Anna talked about her conversations with Jim McKenna, WorkSource, following-up after his presentation the September Board meeting. He corrected his statement about there being hundreds of job openings coming open, when in fact there are only 61 job openings in Jefferson County and another 148 in Clallam. She distributed a list of the assistive technology tools noting Developmental Disability Advisory Board - Minutes 01/22/2013 Page 3 of 5 that Jim has not (as yet) been able to post them on the WorkSource website; people have no way of knowing that these resources are available, so we are trying to get the word out. Anna met with Sheila Ramsey from Olycap about finding a volunteer to conduct computer classes. Jim recommended that any new volunteer should go to Kitsap County WorkSource and sit in on their classes which are taught by a volunteer professor from Olympic College. They have a very basic, introductory curriculum. WorkSource has 6-8 computers available. Anna and Shiela will meet with Deb Simone from the local WorkSource to try to find the volunteer. WorkSource is very happy about the prospect of having classes again. Healthcare Reform Julia Danskin, JCPH Public Health Supervisor, shared information about Healthcare Reform in WA State. The State is working quickly with the Federal government to get the systems in place for more people to qualify for medical assistance by January 2014. Currently there are many adults without children (even at poverty level) that don’t qualify for medical assistance. In January of 2014 adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level will be eligible to receive medical assistance. This is a huge number of people and they are referred to as the “newly eligible”, and their costs will be covered with federal dollars at 100%. Along with the increase in the Medical Assistance program the State is figuring out a subsidized insurance program for people at 138% - 400% of poverty level. The State is deciding what that benefit package will look like – it will resemble general basic health insurance. The State will be using a website called Health Benefit Exchange as the web portal to apply for both medical assistance and the subsidized insurance programs. The subsidized insurance program should be cheaper than what is currently available on the market today for a single adult without a job. Those under 138% will receive it free. The website is supposed to be in place by October 1, 2013 so that people are able to start the application process and be signed up with subsidized or free insurance by January 2014. There is concern about people who do not have internet access or ability to navigate a computer system. There was discussion about ways to provide computer access and help for those people. There are many dilemmas and transitional issues to be faced. More information available on the Healthcare Authority website: http://www.hca.wa.gov/ . Julia also mentioned a new State program called Health Path Washington. It is a Federal Waver grant received by WA State. The purpose is to do an integrated care model for what they call dual eligible’s (people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid). There are some DD clients (as well as other populations) that fall into that category. If someone is dual eligible and has a chronic health condition WA State will provide a Health Home Network that will provide some coordinated care to try to keep costs down. Pierce County is the first to start, April 1; Eastern WA follows in July, and this region probably not until September. Developmental Disability Advisory Board - Minutes 01/22/2013 Page 4 of 5 Old Business & Informational Items – Anna McEnery Anna gave updates on the following:  Grant from WA State Arc– we were one of three Counties that received a $15,000 grant from the State Arc. The basic premise is to help parents begin thinking about transition and preparing early. We are required to write the curriculum for all trainings for the parents. Anna has been working with the Arc of Jefferson and Kitsap; there have been administrative changes there and the new Executive Director is Dave Rasmussen. Anna will be working with schools and has contacted the new Special Ed Director/teacher at Quilcene School. We hope to do a presentations at Quilcene, Chimacum and Port Townsend School Districts. The presentations will include “flight teams” where people from Employment, Parent-to-Parent, the County, DVR, speak with the parents. She will keep the Board updated.  DD Community Forum – There was not a good turnout for the forum (it was on Election Day). Discussion about the survey and forum. Those who met stated willingness to meet again, but we’ve not yet established a date. Carl missed having the opportunity for discussion and he feels we are “in limbo”, but noted that we do have information from the survey that we can move forward on. Anna emailed the Power Point survey results and also the 7 topics for additional discussion. Kathy Goldenberger would like to schedule something in February for the team to discuss goals and outcomes which connect with the County Performance Measures and Service Information Goals for the State. This could possibly be done during a DD Board meeting instead of an extra meeting. It would be important that everyone is up-to-speed on the input from the survey. Anna will send out that information to everyone and so it could be incorporated into the Board meeting. She thanked everyone for the time and work put in on the survey and assessment.  Transition Network Meetings – Anna shared the calendar for meeting dates for the Transition Network. The focus is not only on people with developmental disabilities but anyone with a 504 Plan, an IEP, or anyone who has a learning disability that is transitioning from high school into the adult world. She noted that there are some great teachers that attend and also the Division of Voc Rehab, Case Management, DDD, Providers – it’s a great group who has done a lot of creative work around transition and is continuing to move forward. Upcoming Workshops/Meetings:  “Community Summit” – Ellensburg: – Previous conferences in Ellensburg have always been about employment. This 2 day summit will be about how to build and participate in inclusive communities that enrich everyone. Themes are leadership, innovation, 21st century tools and technology, and community building. Anna will be talking to some of you about attending. If interested please talk to her. The hope is to try to budget some money for this ($295/person). There will also be a pre-conference day.  Future ACES/Disability Presentation: Anna attended a training on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) in connection with disability and employment. She would like to present some of that information at a future Board meeting. Developmental Disability Advisory Board - Minutes 01/22/2013 Page 5 of 5 Public Comment No comments at this time. Agenda Planning Focus on Performance Measures in connection with the survey results, goals and outcomes & follow up meeting on the Community Forum results. Adjournment Motion to adjourn meeting by Member Austin, second by Member Rafferty. Meeting adjourned at 4:40 pm . Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 3:15 – 5:00 pm