First, be sure to mark your calendar for our next meeting:
Tuesday, May 11
9:30-11:00 am
DMH Haskell Building, 1 Prince Street
Northampton, MA
(Remember our alternating time/location deal!).
Immediately following this meeting, we will have a Hampden County triage planning meeting until 12:30 pm (a stretch included!). All are welcome but this will focus on coordinating next steps towards streamlining Hampden County diversion/rehousing efforts.
Also, please note in the minutes below the response from ICHH regarding the concerns expressed at the last meeting about the high burden of reporting requirements. Laila would love more of your feedback!
Finally, in terms of a more coordinated release of information form, the Boston regional coordinator agreed to share with me their “community release form” that is available via their HMIS system. I will report back when I get additional details.
Meeting Minutes – 4/13/10
Attendance: Sarah Slautterback, ESE, Martha Ceplikas, DHCD, Marcia Crutchfield, HAP, Jim Reis, HAP, Andrea Miller, CHD, Toni Hochstadt, Community Action, Suzanne Smith, Network, Barbara Bonnett, Berkshire Community Action, JD Hebert, Berkshire Community Action, Pam Bennett, Berkshire Community Action, Heidi DeLeone, DPW For Families, Kim Lee, Square One, Dave Christopolis, BCAC, Steve Huntley, VOC, Donna Nadeau, DHCD, Jane Banks, CHD, Sarah Dudzic, NELCWIT, Janis Broderick, Freeman Center, Brad Gordon, Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority, Betsy Sanchez, Project Rise, Jane Lindfors, DTA, Tom Salter, NEFWC, Pamela Schwartz, Network
Heidi DeLeone offered an update on the services FOR Families provides across the region and we had a discussion about how best to integrate services and assessments. Family providers expressed a sense of urgency about better coordinating both assessments, release forms and reporting requirements across the region and across state agencies and providers in order to more efficiently and effectively serve families. Pamela agreed to take this concern to the regional coordinators meeting the following day and report feedback.
Note following the regional coordinators’ meeting: At the statewide regional coordinators’ meeting, other coordinators acknowledged the reporting burdens experienced by their providers as well. Laila asked for concrete feedback from providers about what is duplicative in the reporting process. She noted that the ICHH Assessment Tool was developed so that the vast majority of data asked for is the same as what is currently in HMIS and only needs to be entered once. She welcomes a better understanding of the concerns and is happy to follow-up about them. Please send me additional details of your concerns and I will collate and send to her.
Next meeting agenda item: Thanks to Andrea Miller of CHD for suggesting our next special guest: We agreed to host a representative from the MA Child Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI) in order to learn more about this effort to better integrate services for constituents who have a mental health disorder, a substance use issue, or both, with services for families at risk of homelessness.
Next meeting: Tuesday, May 11
9:30-11:00 am
DMH Haskell Building
1 Prince Street
Northampton
