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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDDAB_Minutes FINAL 9-25-18_1 Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board (DDAB) MINUTES Tuesday, September 25, 2018 FINAL Board Attendees: Carl Hanson (Co-Chair),Kelly Matlock, David Sullivan, Claudia Edmondson, Laura Cook & Kelly Matlock Absent: Kim Rafferty (Co-Chair), Pamela Adams & Dale Wilson Guests: Robin Burdick, Vicki Shaver, Iris Wehrle, Lani Peterson, Chris Tibbs, Amanda Smith, Taylor Webster, Claudia Coppola, Deb Fa’aita, Shaine Salter, Janie Nelson Achodor, Jake Baker, Julia Danskin, Holly Patton, Sandra Gessner, Melanie Garret, Christine Haine, Iris Wehrle, Serenity Lumbard, Amy Lystad and Vicki Shaver Staff: Anna Mc Enery CALL TO ORDER Member Hanson called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Member Hanson called for approval September 25, 2018 meeting agenda. Member Sullivan moved to approve the agenda, Member Matlock seconded. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM July 24, 2018. Member Hanson called for approval of both July 24, 2018 meeting minutes. Staff Mc Enery indicated that Member Laura Cook’s name was missing as absent, and Dale Wilson’s name is shown as Dale Evans. Member Sullivan moved to approve meeting minutes July 24, 2018 with the corrections as stated, Member Edmondson seconded as amended. INTRODUCTIONS PUBLIC COMMENTS No comments were made. NEW BUSINESS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Welcome/Meet and Greet Introductions of new PTSD Special Ed Director-Sandra Gessner, new Quilcene Special Ed Director-Melanie Garrett, Chimacum Special Ed Director, Holly Patton. Staff McEnery invited the community and DDAB members to hear from the Special Ed Directors since schools have responsibility for people with disabilities from age 3- 21 years of age. How can the DDAB and County DD Program continue to communicate and collaborate about transition? What visions do the new Directors have to share? What can the agencies and providers here at this meeting share about their services with the Schools? a. Melanie Garrett the Quilcene Special Education Director, indicated she is spending time getting to know the community and families with children with special needs. Melanie is working to understand the Individualized Educational Process, (IEP) and to identify special needs students that need services. She is also familiarizing herself with the admin team, contracts and staff. Her focus this year will be to comply with IEPs, individualize the student’s plans and focus on the transition process. 2 b. Sandy Gessner, Assistant Superintendent for PTSD Curriculum Instruction and Special Education Director indicated her vision is to get special ed back into the core and not separate from general curriculum. Her expertise is actually building administration and working with the federal laws, NCLB (No Child Left Behind, which all schools failed by 2014) and its replacement ESS (Every Student Succeeds), which identifies the quality of schools, the progress of schools and education gaps. Of the 200+ WA schools, most all of them were identified because of gaps for students with disabilities. So what are we not doing to help succeed? c. Holly Patton, Chimacum Special Ed Director, is in her 2nd year. This year, she has two new Special Education teachers and is doing a lot of training that relates to writing relatable core goals. Member Hanson indicted transition is a big issue. He would also like to see more seamlessness in preparing students to move from school to a work environment and support them to achieve what they are capable of. Member Matlock said she is a parent of a 32 year old son with autism and can’t emphasize enough how important the transition process is. Member Edmondson is the Director of Camp Beausite and sees a lot of people who have fallen off the transition cliff because there’s not enough paid professionals working with students everyday so they aren’t prepared to leave school. Claudia would like to expand weekend camp programs that focus on young adults by creating additional opportunities to learn, socialize and recreate through cooking and photography camps. Member Sullivan believes that it helps to educate and create understanding in others about individuals with disabilities. What plans will there be to assist with educating/identifying others’ roles in the environment of the individual with disabilities? He said many people with disabilities know what works for them/what they need in their support system. Laura Cooke is a Speech Therapist that works with students from 5th grade to 21 years of age. What can we do to change our environment to support both inside school and out, how do we support people so they succeed after school? Julia Danskin, a Public Health Nurse who is also the Children with Special Health Care Needs Nurse who works with children with special health care issues. The goal is prevention and planning, ensuring healthy pregnancies, a healthy environment when born, getting necessary immunizations, identifying early developmental delays and recommending an appropriate treatment plan. After that they liaison with school nurses and our community on physical and behavioral health issues. For example, next week there will be a training about Developmental Screening for local physicians. Amanda Smith, is the Assistant Director of Arc of the Peninsula’s and supports Parent to Parent programs, which address issues parents with children and adults with developmental disabilities face. Amanda works with schools to get information to parents on resources entitled to and available. Chris Tibbs, Executive Director of Arc of the Peninsula’s introduced himself and said he was here to listen and learn. 3 Vicki Shaver is a DDA Case Resource Manager and works with individuals with developmental disabilities age 4 to the end of life, but all services are voluntary, which makes it difficult to identify people in need of services. DDA is interested in working as a partner on transition students by communicating about DDA services. Jake Baker is with Concerned Citizens, we sub-contract with the state and county to provide a variety of services. He is involved with employment related. Reason transition is important is Clallam County schools provide employment services with students 18-21 years of age in the special ed classes. Planning to work with Jefferson County schools to coordinate the same type of programs into the schools. Janie Nelson Achodor is the Program Manager for Concerned Citizens-East and wants to continue to partner and provide services seamlessly. Shaine Salter is the new Family Resource Coordinator and has a background working with schools. Deb Fa’aita, Program Manager for Skookum said our goal is to provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities, which involves educating employers, community, the client and families about their abilities so it’s not so scary to hire a person with disabilities. Robin Burdick is an Employment Specialist with Skookum and spoke about the importance of effective transition into adulthood. Lani Peterson is an Employment Specialist with Concerned Citizens. She is excited about Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) and will be partnering with Shaine and others to see how we fit within school programs. Christine Haine is the Disability Coordinator for Headstart and is excited to meet everyone. They screen children, do referrals and coordinate efforts. Iris Wehrle, is a Rehab Counselor with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, (DVR). Iris interfaces with many people with disabilities and will support the County to staff the Transition Network, assist with IEPs and the transition programs. Serenity Lumbard, is a DVR Rehabilitation Technician and will be assisting Iris. Amy Lystad is a DVR Transition Specialist from Olympia, but also works in Jefferson County School Districts. Her focus is a result of WIOA regulations, which mandated DVR to work more closely with schools on coordinating services for students in transition. She provided the 5 key areas that the Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) is focused on:  Job exploration  Workplace readiness training, i.e., social skills and independent living skills  Workplace learning  Self-advocacy  Post-secondary exploration Taylor Webster is the Executive Director of Cascade Community Connections. Her agency serves people of all ages with disabilities, e.g., Transition Services, Employment with DVR, Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS), Community Guide and Community Engagement. 4 Claudia Coppola is the Olympic Neighbors Program Coordinator and has past experience working with people with disabilities on the east coast. Claudia said we have the only licensed adult care facility in Jefferson County, which provides 24- hour care to 6 adults with developmental disabilities. We have the only adult home because of the complicated process to establish one and the limited reimbursement. Olympic Neighbors is advocating with legislators for changes to the State reimbursement guidelines. They would like to partner to educate students/clients about state supported housing opportunities. Staff Mc Enery highlighted the DDAB and DD Program mission. We assure citizens with developmental disabilities in Jefferson County have the choice, opportunity and support to achieve inclusive, productive participation in community life. Staff Mc Enery said we support real life, functional education both in school and out and would like to see effective transition services available for all students regardless of where they live in Jefferson County. The County DD Program would like to brainstorm creative opportunities with the schools to plug transition gaps and create work opportunities that any student can access regardless of what High School they attend. 2. Presentation from attendees at The Community Summit in Wenatchee/Jake Baker, Concerned Citizens and Robin Burdick for Tonya Brinkley, Skookum Jake highlighted several sessions he attended: Staff to Team, which suggested using the person center planning process with staff to identify who the individual is, their dreams/goals, obstacles they face and then make a road map to attain those goals. The other session was Lead for Strength, presented by a professional who is outside the DD experience. He addressed “perceived weakness” which may seem like a weakness but isn’t, and “actual weakness” which can be learned and overcome. The presenter said by focusing on improving an individual’s strength, you will find that 70% of their perceived weaknesses will improve and/or disappear, while you may also discover that actual weaknesses may be less significant for job performance and not worth focusing on. The presentation called the Happiness Advantage was presented by a Harvard professor/brain scientist who indicated that happiness precedes being successful. He provided test data results which indicate that happy people are more productive, use less sick days, more intelligent, energetic and creative. There also is no common denominator among happy people around the world. Robin Burdick spoke for Tonya Brinkley about her attendance at Onward Together, the Alzheimer’s Sate Plan and Dementia Action Collaborative. Robin provided a handout and referenced the website on it. The organization has seven goals; but there were several that really stood out for Tonya, i.e., increasing public awareness; exploring different practices around the world on how you survive the disease, how to live with it and screening tools for primary caregivers and families. A highlight to note is that dementia is the third leading cause of death in WA for our age population. Kelly Matlock attended a session about a new Federal trust that is different than the Arc Special Needs Trust. Member Hanson suggested additional research for another meeting. Kelly also attended session discussing the need for more mental health services for people with developmental disabilities. Staff Mc Enery suggested that as a topic for a future DDAB meeting. 5 3. DD Coordinator Update/Anna Mc Enery  Staff Mc Enery gave an update on the RFQ for Employment & Day Program services. Jefferson County has a new Employment/Day Program Provider called Cascade Community Connections. Members of the DDAB and Staff conducted an interview with Taylor Webster after they received her RFQ. A contract with Cascade Community Connections will begin November 1st with Jefferson County Public Health, the DD Program for Individual Supported Employment and Community Inclusion services.  A film called Wonder will be shown, October 20, 2018 @1130am at Rose Theater- sponsored DDBA and DD Program. This is a special ticketed movie for JUMP and Special Olympics.  DD Board Member Orientation Date – We have completed one and just a reminder that we need to schedule a second date in the new year.  Alderbrook Employment First Conference – Staff Mc Enery passed out document, from the 2017 Employment First Conference at Alderbrook. The handout focuses on how to get more employment into our community, addresses our available resources, what successes we’ve had, our challenges and our primary objectives. It’s easier for larger counties to work on goals with more representation at Alderbrook, but we partnered with some smaller counties. This year we can send 2 people to Alderbrook. The plan is to revisit next steps and objectives at the upcoming conference, (some of which are more like 3-5 year plan). Staff Mc Enery would like to increase parental education on effective transition, adult services and community resources. Another objective is to increase living wages for people with disabilities who are underemployed or not employed by 10% over the next three years. Staff Mc Enery would like to meet with some of the employment providers to start discussions in early 2019. OLD BUSINESS-INFORMATION ITEMS & FUTURE MEETINGS A. Informational Items 1. Update- Port Townsend Film Festival Movies on Disabilities Staff Mc Enery attended the film “Intelligent Lives” with Member Matlock. She thought the movie was very moving and effective in showing the importance of using parental expertise. She believes we are seeing a shift in social norms towards more inclusion. Families and people with disabilities want more services in the community and effective transition services that support real life. Staff Mc Enery and Member Matlock viewed another movie prior called “Woody’s Order”. The film was about a man born with cerebral palsy in the 1950s who had been institutionalized since 8 years of age. The film did not show Woody with a communication device and he had very few opportunities for him to be included in the community. A discussion ensued about how evident it was that Woody’s brain was intact, it was just his body. You could see that he understood when his sister performed a play for him. The play described his life in her words and how taking care of him had impacted her. Member Matlock spoke about her perception of the movie and how important it is to support the family who is accommodating their family person with disability. Member Matlock has daughter who was involved in a sibling support project called Sibshops. This is a national program that focuses on the kids who have a sibling with developmental disabilities. Sibshops helped her daughter learn she wasn’t alone. 2. DDAB Legislative Priorities 2019 Staff Mc Enery is working on draft of Legislative Priorities for 2019 and will share them at the next DDAB meeting. Please provide input. 6 3. Next Steps/Goal Setting/2018 Developmental Disability Community Forum/Subcommittee Needed – Carl Hanson, Kelly Matlock, Pamela Adams Staff Mc Enery made copies of the information and said she needs the top three goals in each section identified. Member Hanson suggested that everyone who was facilitating a group table at the Community Forum share the top three in their section with the Board/Staff via email. This will enable the subcommittee to pare the list down to the most significant three. B. Information Items Iris Wehrle stated that as of January 1st DVR is back under the DSHS secretary. DVR is working on assistive technology modernization , i.e., laptops, I-phones. They will be hiring a new Transition Manager soon and have a lot of new staff at DVR. The change of staff will involve a lot training. Vicki Shaver stated that the DSHS secretary has proposed a budget for 2019-2021. The budget focus for DDA is the following: adding Basic + Waiver capacity in anticipation of new transition clients, residential rate increases, increasing capacity in SOLO program, planning six new overnight respite beds. C. Future Meetings/Events 1. Accessibility Community Advisory Committee (ACAC) Regular Mtgs (Grant from Governor’s Committee on Disability) to be held from 1-3pm @ Public Health/Pacific Room in 2018 on:  Monday, October 1st  Monday, November 19th 2. Transition Network mtg to be held from 3:45 – 5pm  Tuesday, October 9th to be held @PT School District  Tuesday, December 11th. to be held @ Quilcene School District PUBLIC COMMENTS None were made. Future Agenda Items  Jefferson County Transition Workshop Update  DD Employment Provider Updates  Working Image Presentation NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Meeting was adjourned.