Department of Human Services / Council on Aging

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING January 13, 2021 PRESENT: Charlene Bonenfant Laura Miola Tracy Heger Ted O’Brien Ann Kardamis Kelley Sylvia Barry Burke Jennifer DeLuca Herbert Day ABSENT: Joanne LaFerrara, Lori Gonsalves Meeting called to order at 10:00 a.m. by Ted O’Brien Ted O’Brien made a motion to accept the December 9, 2020 meeting minutes. Laura Miola seconded. All in favor. Director’s Report Board Meeting 01.13.2021 Old Business:  Status of the Director’s Position – The interim Director did not receive follow up from Mayor O’Connell thus the Director’s position remains status quo and as reported at the December 2020 board meeting. The chair reported that he reached out to the Mayor for an update and he received a response from David Gay from the City Solicitors office. Ted reported that the letter stated that the position continues to be part of collective bargaining and the union has met and progress has been made however COVID has made it difficult. COVID 19 AND Program Updates o Elder Outreach – Elder Outreach continues to conduct all outreaches via the phone; in emergency cases or supply drop offs outreach workers and the nurse still do not enter the homes. There have been 4,046 elders in the City outreached directly by a staff member via telephone since July 1, 2020. 888 of those calls were wellness check in calls to get a status update on the individual’s medical and mental status, supports in the community and any unmet needs. The remainder of the calls were Case Management calls to assist with referrals, applications, information, etc. Visits have been limited to outdoors only throughout the Pandemic and have been on an as needed basis. 981 visits have been completed to assist with SHINE, mail translation, application completion, mask delivery, food delivery and medical supply delivery. There have been 2096 contacts outreached for information and referral services. The Outreach Case Workers delivered a total of 110 meals during Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as 50 one pot meal bags. o Senior Center – On January 11th we started taking calls for our “Spread the Love” event being held on February 16th starting at 11:30 am at Memorial Park. This event is in collaboration with Park & Rec. Seniors who register will be getting a boxed lunch from the Council on Aging as well as other goodies from City Departments that will be in attendance. The cutoff date to register is February 5th.  The AARP Tax Aide program is a free tax assistance program of trained volunteers that assist in filing the 1040 forms and basic schedules. AARP will be at the Senior Center starting March 2nd thru April 14th on Tuesdays and Wednesdays by appointment only. We will start taking appointments on February 1st. Usually this program starts in February, but because of changes in the IRS forms, AARP has to wait for those changes to be made in order for them to make their necessary changes to their forms. We are still taking SHINE appointments in person and by phone as we get many calls daily looking for help with the Medicare process. Just some quick stats on SHINE numbers from our office:  2019 open enrollment (Oct. 15th-Dec. 7th) - our office helped 559 individuals  2020 open enrollment (Oct. 15th-Dec. 7th) – our office helped 424 individuals  From January 1st, 2020 thru – December 31st 2020 our office helped 931 seniors Tracy explained the SHINE Program to CJ. Since the Senior Center closed again for programming at the end of October we still have been recording a weekly Fitness class, Meditation class, Zumba class and Tai Chi class. These classes are posted to our Facebook page, YouTube page and sent to TCAM, the city’s television station that are aired on the Taunton cable channel 15 for Comcast subscribers and channel 22 for Verizon subscribers. Ted asked when the Senior Center is expected to re-open to the public. Charlene answered that would be up to the Taunton Housing Authority since it is their building; but added we may get permission to host outdoor events come better weather. Charlene added that her and Colleen from the THA hope the Center will become a Vaccination Site soon. o Community Relations Program- With the Extension of CARES Act funding our department is managing a COVID Social Service Coordinator. This contracted employee works from home utilizing their Taunton Housing Authority phone and email address. Mary Beth works closely with the individual to make sure that all resources are afforded those who have been impacted by COVID. We will be receiving a $250,000 Earmark due to Senator Marc Pacheco as I mentioned in the last meeting. Marc stated that he would like the funds to be funneled to address food insecurities, elder needs and for financial emergencies faced by those in Taunton, Raynham, Dighton and Berkley. In December 2020 we approved 11 applications which assisted 21 unduplicated individuals 2 of the applications were assisted through UW Family Fund FY2021 1- non-heat related utility and 1-heat related utility 9 of applications were assisted through UW Family Fund COVID19- 2- heat-related utility, 2 utility assistance, 1-utility old bill, 1-security deposit and 3- Rental Assistance. o Emergency Fund – There are still funds available in the TETF COVID emergency fund. These funds came from the United Way and from community donations.  ANNOUNCEMETS AND NEW BUSINESS o The TOTF will reconvene their meetings in February – Charlene and Lori have spoken and have a couple of goals – like a PSA – to propose to the group o The Board Chair will be reaching out to the Board members to create supportive working groups to assist the staff with enhancing and creating programming as well as possibly looking at rebranding. The Interim Director will forward the email addresses of the members to the Chair. Ted made a motion to form a Sub-Committee for long range plans for the DHS. Seconded by CJ. All in Favor. o The FY21 Formula grant was approved at $12.00 and elder – the new figures for the 2020 census have been released and we are cresting on about 4,000 more elders than the 2010. Due to this the EOEA may look to reduce the Formula grant per elder due to a $6 million short fall. o The CDBG grant for FY22 is due January 29, 2021 – an application will be submitted for one nurse and for two caseworkers for 30 weeks into the next fiscal year. o We have reached out to the community and offered to memorialize those lost to COVID with a special section in the March’s newsletter. We want to be part of healing the community from this disaster. a. Next Meeting: March 10, 2021 Ted O’Brien made a motion to adjourn @ 10:45 a.m. Seconded by Barry Burke. All in favor. Next meeting: Wednesday, March 10, 2021