WRIGHT COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY MINUTES June 11, 2012

Transcription

1 2:30 P.M. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. WRIGHT COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY MINUTES The regular meeting of the Wright County Human Services Board was called to order at 2:30 P.M., Monday,, by Chairperson Eichelberg. The agenda as printed was moved for approval by Thelen, seconded by Russek, and carried. Chairperson Eichelberg adjourned the meeting at 3:14 P.M. The next regular meeting will be held at 1:30 P.M., Monday, June 25, 2012, in the Commissioners Room, at the Wright County Government Center. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Rose Thelen District 1 Elmer Eichelberg District 4 Pat Sawatzke District 2 Dick Mattson District 5 John Russek District 3 Staff Present: Jay Kieft, Director Carol Schefers, Public Health Nursing Director Jami Schwartz, Financial Services Manager Ruth Maloney, Financial Assistance Supervisor Michelle Miller, Social Services Manager LeeAnn Thimell, Social Services Supervisor Social Workers: Grace Baltich, Beth Hammer, Alli Hancuch, Shannon Thomton Aggie Gunnerson, Secretary Others Present: Judy Brown, Personnel Office MINUTES: Approval of Minutes of May 29, Action: Motion by Russek, seconded by Thelen, to approve the Minutes as printed and sent out. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Social Services Payments Abstract $66, Personnel: a. Anniversary Evaluations Sandra Burke, Catherine Main, Ruth Maloney, Jane McNamara, Susette Rubel, Carol Schefers, Shannon Thomton, Cherryl Williams 3. 1 st Quarter Training Report. (attachment) 4. Contracts all contracts are renewals, with no maximum amount listed: a. Cherished Moments (Mary Meyer-Buskey) - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care; for period of b. Heritage Home Health & Hospice (Foley Health Care, Inc.) - Home & Community-Based Services - Homemaker, Personal Care Assistance, Home Health Aide, Professional Nursing, Home Health; for period of c. Maple Street Haven - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Supportive Living for Adults; for period of d. Meridian Services, Inc. - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, In-Home Family Support, Independent Living Skills, Personal Support, Supportive Living for Adults/Children; for period of e. Modern Day Living - Louise M. Ochocki - Home & Community-Based Services Foster Care, Respite Care, Supported Living for Adults/Children; for period of

2 H.S. Board Minutes Page 2 f. Mykkanen Foster and Waivered Services, Inc. - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, In-Home Family Support, Independent Living Skills, Respite Care, Supportive Living for Adults; for period of g. Bruce M. Napper - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care; for period of h. Angeline M. Praught - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care; for period of i. Recover Health, LLC - Home & Community-Based Services - Extended Home Care, Homemaker, Independent Living Skills, Personal Care Assistance, Respite Care, Professional Nursing, Home Health Aide; for period of j. Marilyn Sager - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care; for period of k. Lori Saunders - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Supported Living/Adults; for period of l. Jean M. Schmid - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care; for period of m. Karrie J. Schmidt - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care; for period of n. Sugar Lake Home Health Care - Home & Community-Based Services - Chore, Foster Care, Homemaker, Personal Care Assistance, Respite Care, Nursing; for period of o. Unlimited Potentials (Functional Industries, Inc.) - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Supportive Living for Adults; for period of p. Tracey J. Van Lith - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care; for period of q. Juanita S. Vaughn - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care; for period of r. Willow Ridge Services (Sharon Piekarski) - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care(FC & Respite); for period of s. Debra M. Zahler & Nelly M. Fladstol - Home & Community-Based Services - Adult Foster Care, Respite Care; for period of 5. Request to apply for Federal Community Transformation Grant - Small Communities Programs; letter of intent is due June 18, 2012; application deadline is July 31, 2012 Purpose of Grant: Fund Live Wright activities Amount of Grant: $400,000 for 2 years Action: Motion by Thelen, seconded by Russek, to approve the Consent Agenda as printed. Motion open for discussion. Mattson asked about No. 5 and are there matching funds. Schefers said there are no matching funds, and Agency is trying for more money. The State applied for a large Community Transformation Grant, and we didn t get any of that money. This Federal grant just came out for communities under 500,000, and is very competitive. Mattson asked if getting the grant would mean people being hired. Schefers said she would be doing the same thing as we did with the SHIP/Live Wright funds, and would require one 1 FTE; we will have two people as we did before. Only grants will be given across the United States. We need to get the Letter of Intent in by next Monday. We are asking for $400,000 for two year period ($200,000/year). Mattson also asked about contracts all being renewals and is pass-through monies, and not having maximum amount listed. Kieft said there is no maximum amount because it depends on the number of service units we buy, and is flow through money. Some contracts will have a ceiling amount, depending on the type of service. REGULAR AGENDA ADMINISTRATIVE PAYMENTS: Action: Motion by Russek, seconded by Mattson, to approve the Administrative Payments subject to audit.

3 H.S. Board Minutes Page 3 PERSONNEL: 1. Personal Leave Request. Schwartz said request for personal leave is from Heather Ritter, Financial Worker. Schwartz said she wanted the Board to be aware that Financial Services is down five positions, including Ritter, 1 FMLA and 3 vacant positions. In this personal leave for Ritter, Schwartz asked to consider it contingent just upon on documentation and necessity of her being out on personal leave not an opened-ended personal leave but based on the information we have available a doctor s statement until July 10, Ritter may come back and ask for more leave time after that. Personal leave can be up to six months. Schwartz is asking to review it, not necessarily as the entire six month increment, but as it is needed. With Financial Workers it is difficult for them to come back on sporadic basis with the EDMS system and the way caseloads are, it is difficult for us to accommodate a sporadic leave when the case manager is here one day and gone the next. We want Ritter to have what leave she requires. Sawatzke asked what exactly are you asking for here today. Schwartz is asking Board as they consider request that it be contingent upon receiving documentation from Ritter that it is still necessary, and her return be based on a regular schedule, so we could give her a caseload that is either a quarter caseload, a half caseload, or a full caseload depending on the basis she is returning to work. Schwartz is requesting a return to work be a regular work schedule. Thelen said you want to specify that she is gone for a certain amount of time and then check in whether it is still necessary would that be in six weeks. Schwartz said County policy says is request should include the time leave will begin and when the employee expects to return. Right now we have documentation for July 10 th, so Schwartz asked that leave be made available to her until July 10 th, unless something else comes up that should be consider. Schwartz would be okay with part-time as long as it is regular schedule, not intermittently. Eichelberg asked if doing this won t open door for future problems. Gesture from Judy Brown (Human Resources) that there were no problems. Russek said if we give her personal leave until July 10 th, would you allow her to come back part-time. Schwartz said she has a doctor s statement for July 10 th, and if she could return on or about that approximate date at either on a either part-time or full-time schedule, but a regular schedule. Russek said why not give her personal leave until July 10 th, and if she needs anything beyond that she has to come back and we could put the stipulations on that. Sawatzke said we meet July 9 th, so that would be good timing. Action: Motion by Russek, seconded by Sawatzke, to approve personal leave until July 10ath, and if anything new comes up after that we would deal with that at our next meeting. SOCIAL SERVICES/PUBLIC HEALTH/FINANCIAL SERVICES: 1. Elder Abuse Awareness. Beth Hammer, Social Worker in the Adult Services Unit, said June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month. She is an Adult Protection investigator in Wright County. A handout on Adult Protection/Vulnerable Adults was distributed to the Board that contains definitions of abuse and neglect, and statistics on VA reports. VA stands for Veterans Administration, but also stands for Vulnerable Adults. There are two types of vulnerable adults: 1) Categorical in a nursing home or hospital; and 2) Functional living in their home, and have services coming in into their homes. Case examples were given. Every other month, a Multidisciplinary Adult Protection meeting is held with representatives from the hospitals, nursing homes, County Attorney s office, and law enforcement. At a recent meeting, the team discussed garbage houses. A case example was given of a woman living in garbage house, she had a job, showered at her workplace, had a car, was able to make her own choices and wanted to live her life that way. She didn t want to make a change, didn t want counseling, and didn t want help cleaning up her home. When people want help, our hurdle is how do we access money to clean up the home or to get counseling for them. Thelen asked if there has ever been money, or any effort to get money, or has this been an unmet need forever. Hammer said this has been an unmet need. Thelen asked if this is true everywhere else (other counties). Hammer said the larger counties have money put aside for this. Michelle Miller said the only funds we have would be our Special Needs Funds used for emergencies. When somebody chooses to live that way and are able minded, we can t do anything. It would be a

4 H.S. Board Minutes Page 4 different situation if they would want to get rid of the stuff, we would be able to work with them. Thelen mentioned a friend whose house was cleaned up, and a week later was back to where it was. Eichelberg asked if neighbor(s) are affected or be offended. Hammer said there is no funding source to help that person move out or clean up or get counseling, and usually there are no family to help. Russek said if you have family, would you let them live like this, you don t let it get this bad, especially if person is physically fit to live there. Hammer said you would think family would help, but most have burnt their bridges. Carol Schefers said we have gotten some things cleaned up in the past. The problem is if people don t get help, it goes back to how it was. Russek said if they become a public nuisance, isn t there money then. Schefers said the County cleans it up if it is declared a Public Health Nuisance. If the person chooses to live like this and it isn t hurting anyone else, and they aren t considered unable to make good decisions, there isn t a lot we can do. Shannon Thomton said there is a psychological problem, and the person may have lived this way for so long. If the house were cleaned up and you went back a week later, you will see that the person will have gone back and started the collecting process again because of something mentally that is going on with them that hasn t been taken care of. They will not access health insurance to get medical help, as they don t see this as a problem. Thelen said she knew of a person who was extremely traumatized when the stuff was gone. Russek said if this were his relative, he would need to do something about it. Shannon Thomton said there has been an increase in financial exploitation cases. The majority of calls reporting this come from nursing homes and banks, and gave a case example. Often law enforcement takes the lead in most cases, our Agency takes second on it. Often self-neglect and caregiver neglect reports go to the State Office of Health Facility Complaints, and may be referred back to us to investigate. The increase in financial exploitation could be due to the times people don t have money, and Social Security is a standard - every month something is coming; also, laws have changed so there is more reporting. Grace Baltich spoke about a self-neglect case she had where person did not have cognitive capacity to take care of themselves. It took forty reports to the local police department and numerous vulnerable adult reports to our Agency to get to where we could place her on a law enforcement hold, get her diagnosed by a doctor, and have her committed. The Agency got guardianship/conservatorship over person. Some cases are more complex than others and take a lot of time, have numerous reports, and require doctor s statement saying person doesn t have capacity to make decision on their own. Eichelberg said it looks like there are serious cases in the County. Thelen referred to case where a Letter to the Editor was sent to the paper. People were living near a sewage plant, and thought to be exploited because they were old and lived next to the sewage plant what is the line there. Baltich said it has to be a physical/mental health issue that is preventing them from providing for themselves, they need to have capacity to make decision and understand result of decision. Baltich said the definitions in handout received today are an excerpt from the MN State Statutes Kieft said one of the greatest challenges is the public eye is very different than the statutory eye in these cases. If we had all the time to respond to those types of queries, we d help the public understand those statutory lines. Reports come to us from City Administrators, Sheriff s Department, or Chief of Police, they see these visible situations. There are only so many times that we can help we can t always respond. Demographics in report are against us, 333 reports have been received so far. We are getting older and are in a mobile society. We don t have nuclear families like we use to have. People have spread out to where the work is. Older people are isolated. We want you (the Board) to understand and know our challenges. Referring to family living near waste plant, Hammer said one of our challenges as a vulnerable adult investigator was to make sure they are VA. Russek said he sits on the Planning Commission, and that Albion Township Board okayed the sewage plant. Eichelberg thanked presenters for report you made us aware that you are limited to what people choose.

5 H.S. Board Minutes Page 5 ADMINISTRATION: Annual Report. (attachment) Kieft commented on annual report, and said it was nicely done. Each division manager/supervisor put together the information in report, and Aggie Gunnerson did the layout. Kieft presented a charge to Commissioners to take a look at report, and will put it on the next agenda if there are questions. Information you received today on Vulnerable Adults is found on page 16. The annual report is meant to help respond to constituent s questions. The value of this document is in our ability to share it. All County Departments will receive copies, as well as critical providers we work with. This year, report will be sent by a mass to the faith communities with a letter stating that the mission we aim to accomplish at least parallels if not intersects a lot with what the faith communities are dealing with in their parishes and congregations. Kieft wants the general public to have a better understanding of what the Agency does. He asked the Board to formally accept report. Action: Motion by Thelen, seconded by Sawatzke, to accept the Annual Report. Motion carries 5-0.