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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12131994 - IO.9 I .O.-9 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 5....L. Contra INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE Costa FROM: ' iia a. i< x�•�:,_: :.... ,Q November 28, 1994 County��"�' =o DATE: STATUS REPORT ON SERVICE INTEGRATION, THE POLICY ACADEMY, FAMILY SUBJECT: MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION AND RELATED ISSUES AND PROGRAMS SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . ACCEPT the attached reports from the County Administrator' s Office and the Health Services Department on the status of the Service Integration, Policy Academy and Family Maintenance Organization Programs in the County. 2 . REFER this subject to the 1995 Internal Operations Committee and DIRECT the County Administrator and Health Services Director to continue to make reports to the Internal Operations Committee approximately every other month or as events warrant more frequent reports . 3. REMOVE this subject as a referral to the 1994 Internal Operations Committee. BACKGROUND: On October 18, 1994 , the Board of Supervisors approved a report from our Committee asking the County Administrator' s Office to make a further report on these subjects to our Committee on November 28, 1994 . Attached are the reports which were made to our Committee. On November 28, 1994, our Committee met with Senior Deputy County Administrator Sara Hoffman; Mary Foran, Director of the Office for Service Integration in the Health Services Department; and Bill Weidinger, Director of the PATHS Project in the Community Services Department. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION C UN Y INIS RATO RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE R SIGNATURE(S): J F H MARK DeSAULNIER ACTION OF BOARD ON De ember 13 1994 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. ATTESTED Ott 13 1994 Contact: PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF cc: See Page 2 SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BYC'a�.���� DEPUTY I .O.-9 Sara Hoffman reviewed the attached report from her office and also noted that the County has received $121,000 in federal funds for planning through the Family Preservation and Family Support Program. The Policy Academy has been designated as the planning body for this purpose and will have to be augmented with additional members in order to comply with the federal planning requirements . Mary Foran summarized her report and described the results which are coming out of the focus groups which the Health Services Department has sponsored. Those results are outlined in the attached report. Our Committee believes that it is important for the Internal Operations Committee to continue to provide oversight to these subjects and to use this mechanism to keep the Board of Supervisors up to date on what is occurring in these subject areas . We are, therefore, recommending that these subjects be referred to the 1995 Internal Operations Committee for ongoing oversight. cc: County Administrator Social Services Director County Probation Officer Health Services Director Community Services Director Public Health Director, HSD Mental Health Director, HSD Substance Abuse Program Administrator, HSD Sara Hoffman, Senior Deputy County Administrator Mary Foran, Office for Service Integration, HSD 2 t CONTRA COSTA COUNTY OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR 651 Pine Street, 10th Floor Martinez, California 94553 Telephone: 646-1390 DATE: November 22, 1994 TO: Supervisor Jeff Smith Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier Internal Operations Committee FROM: Sara Hoffman lj k Senior Deputy Administrator SUBJECT: Progress Reports on Policy Academy, Service Integration and the Family Maintenance Organization The progress report on the Family Maintenance Organization is attached (see memo from Mary Foran). The status of the Policy Academy and Service Integration is as follows: Policy Academy Since its last report to the 10 Committee, the Policy Academy has recruited new members to represent community-based organizations, consumers and geographical interests (see attached list). New member orientation will take place in January, following the recruitment of additional members. Additional members are required for the Policy Academy because the Academy has been designated as the advisory board for the Family Preservation and Family Support Plan. To meet the federal planning requirements, the Policy Academy needs to add members to represent employment development, developmental disabilities, economic opportunities, child abuse prevention organizations and Indian tribes. The Family Preservation and Family Support planning process is being conducted by the Social Service Department. The Policy Academy has heard two presentations from the planning team which includes Kathy Armstrong, Ruth Goodin and Sharon Bacon. At the first meeting, the Academy was given an overview of the planning requirements as well as discussion of the relationship between the Academy and the planning process. This discussion was concluded, and the time frame reviewed at the second meeting. The Family Preservation and Family support planning must be completed by the end of April 1995. The Policy Academy has also been working on defining an organizational framework and decision making process. Service Integration The Family Service Centers are now established with 218 families enrolled at North Richmond and 699 families enrolled at Bay Point as of November 18, 1994. These are families receiving AFDC, Food Stamps and Medi-Cal. Each site also has approximately 50 public health nursing cases and 35-45 probation cases. In addition, the Bay Point Family Service Center has started an AA chapter for women that is providing day care. A very initial, exploratory meeting was held with the Cowell Foundation to discuss funding support for the Family Service Centers. Three areas of support were identified: 1) training for the service integration team members, participating families and teachers of children being served by the program; 2) a longitudinal study of the impact of waivers on program efficiency and effectiveness; and 3) data base software development to support the family assessment record and case management systems approach. A meeting will be scheduled for Cowell Foundation representatives to visit the Family Service Centers. The foundation seemed most interested in providing support training; however, it should be emphasized that this was a very exploratory first meeting, which may or may not result in actual funding support. Carol Hatch, of Congressman George Miller's office, sponsored a meeting to brief the Congressman's Washington staff on service integration and its needs. In particular, we emphasized the need for greater flexibility to exchange information between workers (i.e., confidentiality issues) and waivers on time consuming, non- productive regulatory processes. The Congressman's office was very interested in introducing legislation to help us with the confidentiality issue. As a precursor to that, the Congressman's office contacted the Youth Law Center which has done considerable research on confidentiality. As a result the Youth Law Center has expressed interest in working with us to identify critical areas of change necessary for confidentiality. In addition, as part of the effort to position the County to receive crime bill funding, Carol Hatch sponsored a meeting with Michael Yamaguchi, U.S. Attorney, Department of Justice, with various County representatives. Service integration was discussed at this meeting as an example of positive collaboratives. The State Health and Welfare Agency will be announcing the names of counties selected for participation under AB 1741 on December 1, 1994. We will inform the Board as soon as we receive notification. NEW POLICY ACADEMY MEMBERS Mary Rocha, Coordinator Richard Lujan Parkside Healthy Start UCSSO Pittsburg Unified School District 837 Arnold Dr., Suite 100 Martinez, CA 94553 C. Jane Wright 239 Scotts Valley Dr. Mary Shavies Hercules, CA 94547 622 Eighth St., #B Richmond, CA 94801 Ryan Klovas 5016 Sweetwood Dr. EI Sobrante, CA 94802 Taalia Hasan West County Youth Services Bureau 4237 Florida Ave. Richmond, CA 94804 Wayne Simpson Drake House 808 Grayson Rd. Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 Michael Hardwick 3420 Longview Rd. Antioch, CA 94509 Michael Hackett Cherry Lane 1603 Pleasant Hill Rd. Lafayette, CA 94549 11-21-1994 04:32PM FROM CCC OSI TO 96461353 P.02 Health Services Department OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR Office for Service Integretion 597 Center Avenue, Suite 365 Martinez, CA 94553 (510) 313-6254 (510)313-6708 - Fax r ` co" r To: Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier Supervisor Jeff Smith Internal Operations Committee From: Mary Foran Director, Office for Service Integration Date: November 21, 1994 Subject PROGRESS REPORT ON PLANNING THE FAMILY M,AINTENANC9 ORGANIZATION Since our Jut update to you in August, the FMO staff have convened 15 focus groups of Contra Costa parents. A total of 141 parents (and grandparents) participated. These parents, representing a mix of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds and geographic locations talked to us about what it is like to raise children in the county, what problems they encounter and how we could do a better job helping them. (See Attachment A for a summary of the groups' demographics.) We are in the midst of fully analyzing the focus group findings. Our initial review of the group discussions reveal the following key issues: ♦ The parents we talked to seemed to be hungry for advice and support,provided on their own terms. They want to help themselves but are asking for assistance to do a better job. They want someone to talk to when they do not know where else to turn about problems with their children. They want to be able to ask for help without risking adverse consequences for admitting their need for assistance. Some like the idea of classes and support groups. Others said help by telephone would work Many need help with transportation and/or child care in order to take advantage of programs. In most cases they also meed programs to be very low or no asst ♦ Many parents told us that they do not get what they need because information about available resources is confusing and not readily available. Others explained that when they did ask for help, they found it, but sometimes it took a lot of luck and A-3o6 Contra Costa County 11-21-1994 04:32PM FROM CCC OSI TO 96461353 P.03 Progress Report on Planning Page 2 the Family Maintenance Organization November 21, 1994 persistence to get it. Some parents talked about staff not knowing enough about resources in the community and not taking the time to help them figure out what they need and how to get it. ♦ Parents frequently cited lack of parental employment, lack of affordable child care, lack of well-supervised recreational activities for children and lack of job opportunities for teems as concerns which they knew put their children at greater risk for school failure, low self-esteem, and exposure to crime and gangs. ♦ Violence emerged again and again as an issue. The parents we talked to were fearful for their children's safety and their own. Manny also talked about the negative effects of racism on their children. ♦ Parents who used county health or social services both praised and criticized the services, depending,it seemed, on their personal experiences. Criticism focused on system rigidities, lack of coordination across programs perceived negative staff attitudes, and waiting times for care. Praise was given for caring staff who did their jobs well. For many parents,there was a marked stigma about using county services. ♦ Lack of health insurance and loss of Medical and child care benefits when trying to move off welfare were very significant issues for parents. Many stated they felt trapped by the rules of the system. ♦ Some parents specifically asked for more mental health services, affordable dental care, developmental services for children, more translators for services and information and referral. As we continue to sift through the focus group records to expand and clarify what the participants said, we are defining the areas for FMO follow-up. 'While our strategies will become more specific with further study, we anticipate action in the following areas: 1. Defining specific parent support benefits to be incorporated into the health system, such as issue-specific support groups or easy access to a parent advocate or "help- person"who could connect parents to resources and/or provide advice or counseling. 2. h(aking the systems more "family-friendly"wbicb will include addressing the gaps in information and referral and the need for better advertising of services, as well as attention to child care and transportation barriers. These issues might be approached for the health system alone and/or for the broader family-serving inter- agency system of county departments and community agencies. 11-21-1994 04:33PM FROM CCC OSI TO 96461353 P.04 Progress Report on Planning Page 3 the Family Maintenance Organization November 21, 1994 The focus groups gave us a rich store of information to consider. We were struck by the seriousness of the challenges facing the parents who talked with us and the honesty with which they expressed their need for help. Many of the forces buffeting parents are economic and the result of a fraying social fabric. The cballeuge for us is to define the specific ways by which we can be part of a support system which helps parents overcome these challenges, rather than increasing them. During the next six weeks, we will be consulting with members of our advisory groups parents,program,policy--and the implementation team to flesh out the next steps with the goal of defining specific support benefit options by January. We anticipate bringing the system change proposals to the Policy Academy for discussion and action. We hope this report is useful to you. Please let us know your comments. aev�b�•S:lmap�•Rv cxw Mark Finucane 11-21-1994 04:33PM FROM CCC OSI TO 96461353 P.05 in co CL ka c M OIC s M i R L i • 1 s g OL ± F $ iF G $ 1 E 'aco 1 rn in O 1 � $ 3 � a N %n .i uy 1 1A Q !� N I ; N �' G Qf E rn 1co � Y� Ja o Q O C O C Q O 1 `.•1 C ii � CV 1 1 1 ► 96 }+ C 1 o t a m _ � � E s CL a a s t � 1 LLI 1 M. atm /�1C1� •� 1 cc: h O = F m wten tp \Ij L1 il.► 1 P. V N 40 N b 1 11-21-1994 04:34PM FROM CCC OSI TO 96461353 P.06 a � L d z ; � S Al S + CL t o v s ] o m 1 co w m 8 O w s z 0r a to 4 71 Q O U. j � + CL i c a m cl + � t Og v a i � w t t �-+ W Y m C C C, 5 CL $� W CL Q t]i TOTAL P.06