Citizen Review Panel

Friday, December13, 2013

Noon to 1:00p.m.

Teleconference with Christy and Travis

Minutes

Present:Diwakar, Margie, Ben, Kristin

Absent: Dana, Susie

Guests: Travis, Coleen, Joanne Zimmerman, Brian

Agenda

1)Discuss Barrow trip report

Guests:

  • Brian Houston, Barrow office supervisor
  • Coleen Turner, Northern Region CSM
  • Joanne, supervises North Region non-Fairbanks field offices

Diwakar: Specific questions are welcome. But we’re pleased with how things are going, how well office is being run. We had a few concerns about operational details offered by staff. Biggest issues were relationship with Native Village of Barrow. Seems like it’s falling through the cracks. I know everyone is trying to keep things going well. In Barrow we noticed that there’s an active agreement, but NVB didn’t know it existed. What we heard from OCS, is the other side isn’t ready to be active partner…we need people to think about how to move forward. You have the report. Any questions?

Coleen: I’m surprised by the comment from NVB person didn’t know the MOU existed. We’ve gone up there several times recently to talk about MOU. The people we talked to are still there. Maybe you could help me understand that a little better?

Diwakar: I was shocked by that. We didn’t have an appointment and we just showed up. I showed it to her, director of social services at NVB, she didn’t know. Brian also expressed that it was surprising that she didn’t know. The actors currently involved aren’t the people still involved. Player who were part of it, aren’t there now. Is what we learned.

Coleen: I think it’s correct that NVB don’t have the structure or resources to meet the agreement as it’s constructed. We looked at PSRs sent to NVB and saw repeats going to NVB and were concerned families are falling through the cracks. We tried to talk to them, but never got anyone who was willing or able to respond. We haven’t been able to have conversation.

Diwakar: Brian conveyed the same sentiment. We understand the difficulties. What we’re trying to push, is that didn’t work, what can we do differently that might work?

Coleen: Do you think they are willing to renegotiate that MOU?

Diwakar: They keep saying it’s our families, our children who are being impacted. So it seems like they should be interested.

One more thing, we know you are thinking about this. It just came to our attention, and we were shocked. So we had to make an appointment.

Travis: Just so I understand what’s happening today? Are we strategizing or just debriefing?

Diwakar: Debriefing, since we have other items on the agenda. We just wanted to make sure our observations made sense to you guys.

Margie: Can you say something about regional intake?

Diwakar: We heard concerns about regional intake. Most from NSB Police. They say it’s not working for them. CRP understands the thought behind the regional intake. People don’t like regional intake because they don’t know who they are talking to, don’t know what happened. This was the response that we heard across the board. There is systematic region for doing it. We didn’t go too far explaining it because they weren’t ready to hear it. There is heightened discontent.

Travis: Just PD or everyone?

Diwakar: Almost everyone except one school counselor. Everyone else said regional intake isn’t working for them.

Brian: We went to everyone and talked to them when we switched to regional intake. School district created their own forms and got into it.

Diwakar: Maybe a lot of it is just reaching out and telling them what and why and what benefit is. Maybe people just need to be educated.

Travis: I hear a lot of complaints around the state on RI. Do they feel like reports that are making aren’t being addressed? They don’t know if they are being addressed? Theycouldn’t get through when they called?

Diwakar: We heard all three of those things.

Travis: That’s unfortunate, I hear all those things.

Coleen: Because of MOU with NVB, more than 80% of PSRs get screened out to NVB. I think that might be part of the misunderstanding with NVB, we’re not involved. I think it’s part of the NVB problem.

Ben: Do you let them know that NVB is taking over and provide contact number for NVB?

Brian: We do tell them it will go to NVB.

Kristin: Does RI tell people?

Coleen: RI doesn’t tell people that.

Diwakar: Is there procedure to tell people (responders) what happened?

Coleen: Yes, we do tell people.

Brian: If the reporter asks to be informed of outcome we do that. But most people don’t ask.

Sylvan: DO they know they have to ask?

Travis: I think this is probably something we need to take a closer look at. When I think of how real people would expect something to happen.

Diwakar: Any specific questions or suggestions?

Travis: I just love the opening sentence under leadership section.

Coleen: We’ve got work to do and appreciate insight.

Barrow people left.

2)Bethel trip rescheduled, January 30-31, Diwakar and Sylvan

Diwakar: If there’s room in your calendar, we’d love for you to come.

Travis: I’ll coordinate with Christy. I could maybe do a day trip. I can work it out.

Diwakar: In my case, it all depends on my daycare situation. Dana might go.

Travis: I’ll let you know who else is coming.

3)Met with Kim and Bernita

Diwakar: We met. Anyone else have something to add?

Margie: I thought both of them were very helpful and responsive. Interested in concerns we have and others have.

Travis: What were topics?

Diwakar: Kim was telling us about intake and in-home. She was excellent. She provided a lot of information. She shared a lot of materials. That pushed us along a little more. Kim met in person with Susie and Diwakar and rest on the phone. Bernita was all phone. We talked about how to do case file reviews. She shared with us what she does, how she does it, she went into more detail about the effort it takes. We should do something similar to what she’s doing, but not duplicate effort.

Margie: She suggested pulling QA report before we go on site visit. She said she can inform us.

Diwakar: We tried to do that before Barrow, but it was so glowing we couldn’t reallyuse it. It’s a learning exercise. We’re happy we did it.

4)Will meet with Travis

On the 23rd. Topic is screening, decision making….

Travis: I don’t know if anyone has been following Arizona, investigations not investigated. I’ve read a little on it. If you aren’t familiar with it, I’d encourage you to review it. They had an enormous backlog of investigations not being completed. I think this is a nationwide issue. The strategies we’ve been working on to avoid a backlog. They are living what we’ve lived in the past. This is a national and state problem. Basic things about are we responding when there are cries for help. I find it personally disturbing.

5)Update on turnover and vacancy

Travis: I hadn’t met new ORCA person. I don’t have anything to report. St. Mary’s two on-two off. It’s been a long, long journey. I met with personnel last week. I thought I was going to be told this wasn’t going to happen and to drop it. We’re switching to one on/one off. We have a draft letter. I think some we’ll have a final letter of agreement with union. We’re at the cusp of having this be a reality. I hope this will be the start of a game changer for rural services.

It’s cheaper. I can’t tell you why one on/one off is better than two on/two off. I said I’ll take it if we go to one on/one off and that will make it work.

Ben: Can you tell me what the issue is? An initiative to allow rural staff to live elsewhere.

Travis: We’ve always done CPS as 8:30 to 5:00 sort of thing. The normal work week with some having alternate work week, but pretty standard. We’ve been unsuccessful in retaining staff in isolated field offices so we were looking at alternative. Slope workers have a long history of effective work. Troopers have success with this in some rural offices. We’re trying to accomplish that. We have hard time filling and trying to get stability.

Ben: My brother works two on/two off in the Slope.

Susie: We’ve got to start somewhere.

Travis: The travel won’t be less expensive, but the overtime will be less in one week. We pay lots to cover vacant offices. It looks more expensive if we could recruit someone. But in reality, we pay so much for travel and visitors to come in. This is cheaper than what is happening.

Sylvan: Is there a place for people to stay in St. Mary’s?

Travis: OCS isn’t taking that off. We had a good conversation with Nicki about that. We’re trusting that human ingenuity will figure it out. If that doesn’t work, we’ll revisit.

Kristin: Even if they were full time there’s a hard time finding housing in St. Mary’s.

Travis: What I’ve consistently heard is you can find it, but it’s not fun to live in. I’m hoping that people can cope better when not their real place to live. Very expensive, need tarp for roof.

Kristin: I’ve been to St. Mary’s. We heard there was not housing.

Dana I don’t remember that. I rmember last person full time was living at mission school alone in that huge building. What has OCS done to seeking housing in St. Mary’s for housing?

Ben: Have you talked to Nicki at personnel?

Travis: I’ve talked to Nicki. This is encouraging. We said any help would be great. As much as I want to pursue housing, we can’t have delays. We left it so Christy and Nicki can follow up. We have been working on this for a year, we need people in there. Bureaucracy will delay as long as I allow it.

Kristin: I think that’s a good point and I respect that. I think we’re talking about housing because it’s been such an issue. Try this first.

Travis: Trying to get this one effort completed. It’s hurt a lot to get this off the ground by leaving those positions open. It’s been a year; we thought it’d be a month. I’m frustrated. Get one layer done. Things move so slowly. I’m hopeful that Nicki can help us done something undoable.

Dana: What’s population of St. Mary’s? Is it stable?

Travis: I haven’t looked recently. St. Mary’s proper is one factor, but they serve that entire area. There’s a huge population of kids in custody that they serve.

Dana: If the school population is dropping then troopers and teachers might have housing.

Travis: Nicki said she had a magic list of all housing being provided by other organizations in the state. I don’t’ know if there’s a capacity section. If they have housing that’s not being used.

Diwakar: 524 in St. Mary’s. Slightly up since 1991. 441. Peak was 2003 578. Pretty stable population.

Dana: I think statewide there’s been a decrease in educational funding. Maybe there are fewer teachers due to that.

Ben: If there’s point person for housing to keep spreadsheet. I track openings in Juneau. Do you go with them? Are there regional offices with fewer turnovers?

Sylvan: You said this would be desirable, why?

Travis: Travel team is great retention, two on/two off and they aren’t permanent employees. These employees will be permanent employees.

Travis: I believe they offered the Kotzebue supervisor to someone a couple weeks ago. It should be filled soon. It was someone from in-state who used to work for us.

  • How is new ORCA person?
  • St. Mary’s two on/two off?
  • Kotzebue supervisor?

6)Family services assessment case planning

Margie: This is new model in SE. I attended training and it was interesting. It’s a pretty serious change. It’s worth knowing about.

Travis: Basic orientation? I’m not foremost authority. I’m attending training in Bethel in January; Basic concept is that we’ve been criticized for cookie cutter planning. It’s not really the case, but the stereotype is out there. The case planning methodology is out there; we’ve been using it in Fairbanks and Anchorage and are trying to work out the kinks. We’ve had more engagement with parents in selecting activities. There’s regular evaluation of activities. Can review case plan goals, I transparent. Formal review every 90 days. A very outcomes driven, behaviorally based, really clear about whether the parents will be able to effectively parent, parents are involved along the way.

It fits together nicely with IA methodology, all built with National resource center. Trying to make it more coherent.

Diwakar: You mentioned evaluation?

Travis: It’s a case by case evaluation with the parents. SA is problem. You completed SA counseling, has it affected your ability to parent? Rather than did you jump through hoop.

Dana: My question is this being implemented at two sites?

Travis: For the last two years in FAI and ANC

Dana: Is there evaluation? Will it be better or worse than past?

Margie: This is based on another state that has been using it Participant PIN

7)Christy’s choice