In-Home Supportive Services (Ihss)

IN-HOME SUPPORTIVE SERVICES (IHSS)

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

Yolo County, California

August 3, 2005

MINUTES

The Yolo County In-Home Supportive Services Advisory Committee met on the 3rd day of August 2005, in the Community Room #167, of the Department of Employment and Social Services, at 25 North Cottonwood Street, Woodland, California.

Entry Item No. 1

Call Meeting to Order

Meeting called to order by Chairperson, Nancy Seyden at 1:30 p.m.

Entry Item No. 2

Roll Call

Members present:Nancy Seyden, Chair; Sherry Kaufman, Lynda Findley, Nelson Hernandez, Dan Kysor and Frances Gracechild

Member(s) absent: Kara Walker-Clarkson and Annie Mae Irby

Staff present: Sergio Alunan, Public Authority Director; Jan Wolff, IHSS Manager; and Cyndi Sechler, IHSS Office Support Specialist.

Guests present:Juan Garcia, RIL Work Experience; Dave Fratto, Media Posse

Entry Item No. 3

Public Comment

Frances Gracechild stated that the IHSS Coalition of California is having a Community Leadership Summit, which will be lobbying for 501C3, and to educate on initiatives. The Summit will be held on August 8, from 1:00-4:00pm at the South Berkeley Senior Center, in Berkeley California. The Summit will be discussing the California Budget Project, which includes 5 initiatives.

Agenda Item No. 4

Approval of the Minutes

Nancy called for a motion to approve the June 1, 2005 minutes.

ACTION ITEM:First: Nancy Seyden Second: Sherry Kaufman All: Ayes (Dan Kysor

abstained, for he was not at the meeting.)

NEW BUSINESS:

Agenda Item No. 5

View Consumer Video & Discussion

Dave Fratto from Media Posse, showed the first 10-minutes of the “Consumer Orientation” video that he and Nancy worked on. They have also created a short video on “Preventing Theft and Abuse”; that was additional text from the script, and felt that is important for consumers to have.

Dave stated that he felt it an honor to work on this video with Nancy.

Dave stated that the Consumer video was aired at the state conference, and more than 20 people are interested in buying the video.

The video can be distributed as a DVD or VHS tape, and also to have available to view over the website. Nancy stated that there will be a distribution of the videos; but the cost hasn’t been worked out yet, we’re waiting to hear back from County Council. Nancy, Sergio, and Jan will meet with Steve Nocita at County Council to discuss the legalities of setting up a separate account using proceeds from sale of the video, to be used to by the Advisory Committee to fund training materials. Jan asked that Gretchen Bender, Division Manager for DESS Financial Management also be present to respond to impacts to Financial Management.

Nancy stated that the second video “Preventing Theft and Abuse”, in her opinion is not complete yet; that it needs to be edited down a little bit, and additional cards with wording should be added.

Nancy would like to budget a little more money to complete this second video to the same level as the first video; but at this moment she doesn’t know how much extra it would cost.

Sergio Alunan stated that depending on the cost to complete the video; the Public Authority has a line item for videos, and would be willing to lend a helping hand to help pay for the completion of video. Nancy stated that within the Communication section of the budget, it is very open and it doesn’t specify.

IHSS Advisory Website

Dave handed out an example/draft of the website. On the home page, the tagline reads: “advocating for persons with disabilities and seniors”.

Dave explained that this website has been designed in a way to promote the broadest level of accessibility of content possible; as well as having the videos available online

that were shown today. The navigation bar includes:

* about the Advisory Committee* minutes from the meetings

* members and recruitment* news and events

* linksand resources* frequently asked questions

* media (videos)* sponsors & contact

Here is some of the information that can be accessed:

Find out if you’re eligible

Public Authority Registry

Becoming an Advisory Committee Board Member

Educational media

Dave took pictures of the attending committee members, to use on the website.

Once Media Posse has heard back from the Advisory Committee, that the design have been approved, Media Posse will build the site, post it one more time for review, to make sure everything is correct, then the website will be released to the public.

Jan Wolff asked what the plan was for the ongoing upkeep of the website.

Dave reported that he sees the upkeep as technical as well as providing the information of upcoming events, news, minutes, photos, success, new links and media, which he will look to the Advisory Committee to provide. Dave stated that any new information that the Advisory Committee would like to add to the website, to send it to Media Posse’s Webmaster, and items should be posted on the website within 24-hours.

Dave has created an Xtranet that we can visit the progress, by going to the Media Posse website: at the client long-in box: user name: IHSSACYolo and password: Rsm53C.

Agenda Item No. 6

Retreat Goals

Tabled for the next meeting

Agenda Item No 7

Provider Wage Increase

Jan and Sergio reported that the this years contract with the Union specified that if the state’s share of IHSS wages increased, which it did, that we would increase the Provider wage to $9.75/hour; and it will be going before the Board of Supervisors on the 6th of September.

The negotiating team for the up coming year will include Sergio, Nancy and Jan. The meetings will start soon.

Agenda Item No. 8

Time Per Task Questionnaire

Jan handed out copies of the IHSS Time-Task Questionnaires, issued by the CDSS Quality Assurance Time-per-task Workgroup. Nancy reported that there is a big concern on the hourly task guideline. The state is sending out the questionnaires to the committees in California, hoping that some of the Consumers and Providers will fill these out; so the state can develop some hourly task guidelines. Nancy stated that she has heard that there is great fear and a lot of concern of these guidelines, and the implications of hours being cut for the disabled people.

Nancy stated that counties are doing several different things. Napa is having a Town-hall meeting to draw as many disabled people as possible to get their input on the questionnaires.

Nancy finds it difficult to fill out the questionnaire. Nancy fears that people could underestimate the time that each task would take, and end up shorting themselves in IHSS hours. Nancy also reported that CAPA is recommending that people not use their name in fear that CDSS will check the reported hours with the statewide CMIPS systems, and that people should add an additional 25% more to each of their tasks for unexpected maintenance.

Sergio suggested that some of the committee members attend the next CAPA meeting and talk to the leadership at the state level and voice their concerns. Sergio will find out when the next meeting will be held, and send out the date and time to all the committee members, so transportation can be arranged through Terry Basset.

Frances suggested Focus group meetings on helping Consumers fill out the questionnaires; not to tell the Consumers what to write, but to explain and help out if there are questions.

Nancy reported that the state is asking the committees to fill-out the questionnaires, and to send them back in, before August 31st.

Adjournment:

Nancy will not be available to attend the September 5th meeting; and asked what the committee members would like to do.

ACTION ITEM:Dan made a motion to cancel the September meeting, and reconvene in

October.

First: Dan Kysor Second: Lynda Findley All: Ayes

Meeting adjourned at 4:20pm

~~ NO MEETING NEXT MONTH ~~

*Please note that the next meeting is scheduled for:

October 5th starting at 1:30 pm,

Yolo County Department of Employment and Social Services

Community Room #167

25 North Cottonwood Street, Woodland, CA

If requested, this information can be made available in appropriate alternative formats to persons with disability, as required by Section 202 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Federal rules and Regulations adopted in implementation thereof. Persons seeking an alternative format should contact In Home Supportive Services.
Yolo County In Home Supportive Services
500-A Jefferson Blvd., Suite 100
West Sacramento, CA 95605
(916) 375-6256

IHSS Advisory Committee Meeting

August 3, 2005 Page 1 of 5