I. Introductions were completed.
II. Minutes from September were accepted.
III. Announcements
Hawthorne Country Day School
There are openings in their Behavior Management Planning Program. Please see attached for more information.
YAI
The vacancy list is attached. The Autism Parent Support Series is in progress. Please see attached for more information. The Autism Full day Conference on Bullying is on 11/28. Call YAI LINK at 212.273.6182 for referrals and any other information.
Terence Cardinal Cooke
Please see attached flyer for openings
AHRC
The vacancy list is attached.
FEGS
Please see attached flyer for openings and contact information.
QSAC
There are many openings that are available. Please see attached flyer. Call (718) 728-8476 for more information.
UCP
The vacancy list is attached. Please see attached flyer. Please call 212.979.9700 ext.70 for more information.
Presentation
Presentation by Monica Garcia, Community Education Coordinator, NEDAP. Please see attached.
IV. State News – Liz Cambra
Liz Cambra reported that there is still NYS CARES money available, but only through the end of March, 2013. Agencies are encouraged to submit proposals.
Community Habilitation 2 is being rolled out. This is an option which combines day and residential habilitation services of the same provider and offers more flexibility.
There will be several mortality review committees across the state. These will be piloted in New York City. In the pilot, voluntary and state medical and quality improvement people will review all deaths in the five boroughs.
PROMOTE, the new training that will eventually replace SCIP-R, is gradually being rolled out. OPWDD is now conducting training for the trainers.
V. City News – Sandra Piggee
No report today.
VI. IAC / Federation Report – Jim Malley
IAC
IAC participated in the Direct Service Professionals Day at City Hall on September 14. Margaret Puddington was an eloquent, if unheard, speaker.
SED’s Scope of Practice sunsets in June. Without major changes, there will be big upsets in the implementation of behavioral plans in residences and day programs. The State’s workers are permanently exempted from these rules.
Effective the first of this month, the funding mechanism for services to people in day programs who reside in ICFs is radically changing: the ICFs will receive the person’s full payment (for residential and day) and the day program will bill each ICF for services provided. IAC developed a boilerplate contract for use to help minimize confusion and concerns.
IAC held a special meeting on September 12 on services to people with autism.
IAC worked as an advocate for pre-school children during the busing nightmare that played out the first week of school.
The State’s budget is due to be released the week of January 21. Each department is once again being asked to remain flat. The Commissioner will be a guest of the membership on January 31.
IAC’s lobby days are scheduled for February 26 and 27.
Federation:
Boro chairs met on Friday, September 14. Despite the City and State budget being down to a total of $7.1M, there were two areas of positive news: (1) the DDPC has agreed to fund the DD/Substance abuse project for an unprecedented 4th year and (2) the amount allocated for autism services was increased from $1.2M to $1.3M.
Dr. Cohen seems particularly interested in funding for DD research coming to places in the City.
This past Spring, the boro councils helped develop local government plans for meeting services. From the beginning we knew that, as a city, we could have up to 10 “Tier I” priorities and any number of “Tier II” priorities. The City compiled the recommendations of the various councils, consolidating them into similar areas and publishing a grid of priorities and strategies. A next step could be to develop a baseline and reasonable target goals for those which pertain to our boro.
VII. Committee Reports
DD Council Executive Committee – The Committee Chairs met on October 8th to discuss the activities and future of the committees. See attached minutes from that meeting. We discussed how to increase engagement, coordination, and collaboration across committees.
Family Support – At the last meeting, the committee discussed the November 29th Fair. Please see the attached brochure. The committee asked the DD Council members to put the brochures in their waiting rooms, forward them to families by e-mail, send them home in individuals’ backpacks. MSCs will get credit for workshops and are urged to encourage their families to come. Volunteers are needed to set up, clean up, greet, and register. There will be Spanish and Mandarin/Cantonese interpretation at the workshops. There will be an Information table. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 13th at 10 AM at YAI, 460 West 34th Street, 11th floor. The main focus of this meeting will be the Fair, as well as home care and managed care. The December meeting will focus on toys. Call Amy Bittinger at 718-859-5420 x 234 for more information.
Jennifer discussed the problem of mandatory enrollment in Medicaid managed care. Please see the explanatory attachment. She pointed out that the letter states that to be exempt from mandatory managed care, you do NOT need to be in the waiver; you just need to be OPWDD eligible.
Legislative – The legislative breakfast is tentatively scheduled for March 15th. The next meeting will be determined. Call Jim Malley at 212-928-5810 x 101 for more information.
Transition – At the last meeting there was a review of the Adult Day Services Directory. The next meeting is on Wednesday, November 14th at 9:30 AM at Life Adjustment Center, 1430 Broadway (at 40th Street), Suite 503. Call Kathy Kelly at 212-780-2724 for more information.
Manhattan Family Support Services Advisory Council – At the meeting on 9/27, Catherine Jones, YAI, gave a presentation on sexuality education. The next meeting will be a jointly sponsored Family Support Services Advisory Council / DD Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 30th, 5:30 – 7:30 PM at YAI, 460 West 34th Street, 12th Floor, Room J & J1. Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and his Chief of Staff, Wendi Paster, will present on effective legislative advocacy. Please see attached for more information, or call Margaret Puddington at 212-799-2042.
Service Coordination – Carol Lincoln was appointed co-chair of this committee. The MSC Forum will be in a new place next year, which will be determined. There will be a training for MSCs on PCSS and comprehensive needs assessments in November. Agencies are asked to invite MSCs to participate in this committee. The next meeting will be announced. Call Irina Tuchina for more information. She can be reached at 212-273-6100 ext. 2418.
Children’s Committee – Joan Flood Dwyer, of the Kennedy Child Study Center, is the new co-chair of this committee, which has speakers, presentations, and workshops as well as opportunities for networking. The committee deals with EI, preschool, and school age issues. The last meeting was well attended. Paul Hutchison, the education advocate at AHRC, presented on his program. The committee discussed their mission and vision and decided not to focus on a particular age group but to deal with issues relating to children up to age 21. The next meeting will be announced. For more information, contact Christina Muccioli at 212-780-2532.
Nominations Committee – The committee nominated Jessie Backe as Treasurer for Council. No other nominations were brought forward, and Jessie was unanimously elected as the Council’s new treasurer.
VIII. New Business
Elly Rufer announced that the council now has a facebook page. You can go to the council website via www.manhattanddcouncil.org to find the link to facebook, or go directly to the site and like us via http://www.facebook.com/ManhattanDDCouncil. Elly pointed out that the facebook page can be a virtual platform for people who cannot attend Council meetings. The Council thanked Elly for her hard work in creating the facebook page.
Next meeting: Thursday, November 8th, at AHRC, 83 Maiden Lane, 11th floor.