[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Welcome, everybody. I'll start by reading this paragraph for the Promote, Prevent, Support Behavioral Health Commission meeting pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021. This meeting of the MedFed Promote, Prevent, Support Behavioral Health Commission will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, and public participation in any public hearing during this meeting Shelby by remote means only.
[Funaiole]: Okay, now we can do a roll. Mary Ann O'Connor. Here. Chief Buckley.
[Unidentified]: Present.
[Funaiole]: Chief John Friedman. Absent. Superintendent Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I believe she said she'd be late possibly.
[Funaiole]: Penelope finally present Neil Osborne.
[SPEAKER_04]: Neil's here.
[Funaiole]: Thank you. Pam Kelly.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[Funaiole]: Michael Durham. Michael stated he wouldn't be able to be at this meeting. Stacey Shulman present. Richard Raymond.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good afternoon.
[Funaiole]: Ian Wong here. Manavi Dhaka, she also stated she was not able to come. She's from Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. Maria Dorsey.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Here.
[Funaiole]: Anchika. Hassan Verma.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: I am here.
[Funaiole]: And Patricia Brady. Present. Thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So do we have a quorum? Do I verify we have a quorum? We do. All right, next on the agenda approval of the minutes of the one 1920 meeting approval to approve by who was that sorry, Brady seconded Maria Dorsey.
[Unidentified]: Sorry, I was muted. Can we do a roll, please?
[Funaiole]: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Marianne O'Connor. Yes. Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Penelope Funigalli. Yes. Niels Osborne.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Pam Kelly. Yes. Stacey Shulman. Yes. Richard Raymond.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: In one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: I'm Chicago.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Motion carries minutes are approved. On the agenda next, I'd like to introduce Andrianne Breton-Cabernet. She is from ACBC Consulting. She is our health equity consultant. She supports a number of projects for the health department and has done so for many years now. So she is going to be presenting the findings from the Culturally Competent Connections to Care Assessment, funded by the Medford Surgery Center, LCC, which is a joint venture of Melrose-Wakefield Healthcare. This work is being done out of the Office of Prevention and Outreach and was created out of a report for multilingual listening sessions on access to behavioral care. I don't, I know, Andrean, there you are, I see you. I know this presentation is still, is it still draft form or have we finalized?
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_04]: It's in draft form, but the recommendations are still finalized. It's the final report that is still to be finalized.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. I'll turn it over to you.
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_04]: Great.
[Funaiole]: Share my screen.
[s-4VJY_TglE_SPEAKER_04]: Let's get ready. Um, well, first of all, thank you for having me this afternoon. I'm really excited to present our findings from this, from these sessions. We, we also, I don't know if it's too premature to say, but we also received the funding for next year's round. So this is a multi year project. I'll just go ahead and start my presentation to the next slide. Because I'm having some technical issues Okay, so this is a multi-year project that we originally had envisioned to essentially, the ultimate goal is to create a culturally competent awareness campaign. But we knew from the very beginning that there were a lot of gaps that we needed to understand before we got ahead and started that campaign. And so we essentially started by trying to build trusting relationships with community, diverse cultural linguistic communities, to really develop a community understanding of behavioral health issues in those communities and how those communities perceive and their attitudes towards behavioral health care. But with the ultimate goal to minimize stigma of behavioral health and that of course is substance use disorder. and to normalize and encourage connections to care. So what we did is we collaborated with diverse cultural linguistic communities in these last listening sessions to really discuss in somewhat of an informal way and an open-ended way the ways in which different communities discuss and perceive behavioral health issues. But again, we're hoping to re-engage those community members as well as additional community members to continue this work in developing a culturally competent awareness campaign. So really thinking through with all the considerations and the things that we've learned from the listening sessions and really integrating that and implementing it for the awareness campaign. So what we did is we had an implementation team out of the Office of Prevention and Outreach. who reached out to different communities through community partners and faith-based organizations to really reach our priority populations of five different languages. So here it's listed. We spoke with folks from Arabic-speaking community in Medford, Haitian Creole-speaking community in Medford, Spanish-speaking community in Medford, Portuguese-speaking community in Medford, and specifically Brazilian Portuguese, and as well as English BIPOC. Additionally, I think it's important to note that we hired session staff to be facilitators who were native speakers in those languages, as well as an in-session note taker to really jot down all the important mentions, and as well as what we call the post-session reviewer, which is really just to make sure that whatever was captured in the notes was reflected and in case anyone forgot anything live. So what did we hear? And I think this is probably the most, what you're all here to hear. So what did we hear? The major barriers. Of course, I think one thing that we have often heard time and time again is stigma. But it was very interesting to hear how it was broken down into Three different types of fears, the first being the fear of ostracization from within the family and from within the community, fear of discrimination from providers, and fear of healthcare services broadly and generally. Another added barrier was limited accessibility, so that is the availability of care, mobility access and affordability access to care, and limited language support and language care. So this also like sort of ties into unclear communications and supports, that is the limited language, because though some providers did offer language services, it wasn't clear to community members that that was available. So that's why it's sort of, they're related, but I did put them in different boxes. But they're also unaware of the health issues that are worth seeking care for. So I think there is clearly a cultural connotation of what is a severe enough problem for me to receive help or what is not. And then the limited understanding of what nearby services are available, uncertain of the medical processes for care. What does that mean if I go seek help? What is going to happen to me? Will I automatically be admitted? Things like that. And again, the limited client support to navigate these processes. Then the benefits that we heard from these communities was this idea of unburdening. And I put it in quotes because it was actually shared in Spanish as desjugarse, so the unburdening of oneself and of your family, so that you can share your personal aspirations and challenges in a confidential space without the judgment or the ear of someone else that might want to have a say, but also not worrying your family or burdening your family with worry. and the loved ones that you are seeking help, that for you, it's important for you to take care of yourself, but in a way, it's taking care of your family and your community by not adding to their worry. Another piece that came up was around personal growth, and I put here self-care in quotes because, and this will come up in a later slide, but self-care was very much referred to as an English term, but that it sort of resonates in terms of how we understand self-care. So that they saw that, you know, to go receive behavioral health care, you could really ground one yourself and better understand yourself, that it's a safe space for taboo issues that you might not be able to speak to about with your family or your community. But all across the board, they all really spoke to how behavioral health care has a lot of benefits and value for mental health care, and that we should be very explicit when we advertise the service of how it can bring value to someone's life and someone's personal growth, and not just the illness per se or a disease. And then finally, that the support services, so those folks who were aware that there were language supports, definitely appreciated that. However, they did add the importance of having a provider from the same cultural background, not just the same language, due to like understanding context, cultural context that they have to share. And then also that those who had access to MassHealth also had a huge, were very cognizant of that benefit to access behavioral health care. And then, how many, sorry, why? That is really, okay, here we go. So this was the campaign that was presented to the listening session groups. The one on the left, or your right, actually, I'm not sure how you see this, but there's obviously one in English, and there's one in Spanish. The one in English describes healthy habits, and the one on the right describes the five signs that's mentioned in the English one as well. delineates the five signs. For example, the health habits of take care, check in, engage, relax, and no five signs. Those were the campaigns that we asked participants to comment on. And so they shared their input for improvement. So what I thought was interesting, at least from my perspective of translating materials, It can be helpful just to have bilingual text that you don't necessarily have to completely translate an entire document without any English or whatever, but that you could have English and then the other language or other target languages that it can sometimes actually help with learning English as well. They mentioned that the colors that were chosen were very dull and uninviting. Unfavorable was another term, which they felt sort of added to the stigma even. And that the smelly face cartoons did not really resonate at all with how they were feeling. And it would not call to them if they were having an emotional issue. They also mentioned to clarify the message and the call to action that there was not clear sense, especially in the English one, what the five signs were. And within that particular promotion material, each slide should essentially be a standalone slide, even if there was one another promotional material that explained it in more detail that it should really stand alone. And they were unsure like the purpose of these materials. Was it to raise awareness or was it to encourage access to care? It wasn't really clear. So they did suggest to add a little bit more direction of what to do. And then the last component here is beware of interpretation. So we had English speakers in our Spanish speaking group, and they commented that the English material was much more positive and motivating, really would get her to seek care if she needed it, but the Spanish one seemed very negative and very, sort of like all the negative sides to emotional care and did not really see that inviting. And again, the term of self-care was not really culturally resonant. So instead of saying self-care as like a placeholder for many different activities, to just be explicit about what kind of self-care we might be suggesting or offering or giving clear examples really. And so then what do we recommend based on on these, what we heard, and these are also directly from the listening sessions that they recommended. They're really, oh, it's not loaded yet. Okay, there. There are really important cultural considerations for behavioral health care, and that is specifically around privacy, emphasizing dignity, and the power of community. So as for the importance of privacy, that within many of these listening sessions, many mentioned the culture of denial or culture of dismissal of challenges. And so it can be really hard to bring up the idea that I need help because the idea is, no, everyone's saying, no, you don't, or that's not a problem. So sort of internalizing that denial and dismissal. So it's really important that everything be very private and not just the normal privacy of a patient client or a patient provider, but also like how the services are named, you know, if you say, oh, I'm going to, where are you going? If you say your mom asks you where are you headed, you're going to, you know, if you have to obviously state a center that within its name is a mental health provider space, it can bring up that tension. And then the name of the service as well. So is it, Is it therapy or is it, you know, a personal growth session or, you know, just as an example. And then emphasizing dignity and that many of the participants mentioned the desire for belonging and cultural exchange. And this is, again, something that we've heard over and over again in many different types of listening sessions, but that their cultures are authentic, worthy of recognition and celebration. and that there's this opportunity to sort of lean into the ways that folks describe themselves and describe their cultures and to find ways that the way that we might understand mental health might resonate the way that they see their own health and their own mental health. And also that there's an opportunity here to partner with some faith groups for religiously competent care as well. since they are really trailers and anchors for some of our immigrant communities. And then finally, the power of community is really, many folks shared that this kind of open discussion with this honesty and the safety of community members really did help to reduce the taboo of these subjects and really feel like this was important to talk about, but that it just wasn't being talked about. And then the added piece of how family is so important, but there is this kind of disconnect between immigrant parents and their children who are growing up here and parents not really knowing how to connect with their children over the struggles that they might have in that in that process. So, you know, there's an opportunity here for alternative therapies for family bonding that might not be called family therapy, but something else. And so from this, really focusing on the three levels of care, the first being the promoting general wellness, updating and developing materials with culturally resonant language with our cultural linguistic communities that we reframe for the positive mental health care benefits and not the unburdening as I mentioned. and that we can support families bridge this cultural understanding between the cultures that they're coming from and the cultures that they're now living in here in Medford, but also for their children. And then the second level would be to prepare support systems. So creating community-led mental health first aid with also perhaps the faith-based communities that we can develop a database of culturally competent mental health resources. So if someone is asking for support in a certain language or from looking for someone from a particular background that we have that on hand to refer people to. And then we can also identify services available in languages other than English for a similar reason of someone looking for a service in a particular language. And then lastly, the third level is really within treatment and evaluating the treatment process. So we can review where institutions can support future providers of color or who speak languages other than English to diversify their workforce, because they are interested in hiring folks who speak languages other than English, but they haven't necessarily been supported in that career path. So really supporting through the employment development process as well. And then finally to the math, the intake and the assessment practices with cultural humility and really assessing, you know, what questions are being asked to understand a cultural background or cultural, or someone's culture. And that's through both, you know, here intake, especially because folks really shared the frustration of having to go through a therapy session and not really receiving any or feeling like they received any support because they spent most of the session explaining, you know, how their family is structured and the dynamics between their grandmother and their mother and how that, you know, it might be in one culture very common in that way and it's very quick to, it's a lot quicker to explain oneself and that she felt that she didn't really have the time to get to what she wanted to talk about. So yeah, thank you very much. And thank you for listening. Thank you for having me here. And I hope that these recommendations can also help with your commission and the projects and the initiatives that come forth. Thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Andrienne. Does anybody have any questions for Andrienne on the presentation or the process or the information she provided? And we will be continuing this work going forward this year. So more to come. No questions. Thank you. Thanks again, Andrean. All right. So last time we met, we talked about the vision, mission and values, and the consensus was that a subcommittee would get together and try to work on this for us and then come back and share with us what they did. And I believe all of you have received it previously. I don't know that we got any comments, but I'd like to have some discussion on that and get your feelings on what the subcommittee came up with. The members of the subcommittee, could you identify? I know Ian, you were on the subcommittee and Penny, or I will stop reading. Yeah. Okay, great. Great.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: And Anshika Hansen, Burma.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Great. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you for your work. Penny, do you want to share the screen? Okay. So I think, you know, as we all know, a mission statement should be, you know, concise and realistic. operational, something that we can look to, as well as be informative to folks who read it so they understand the work we're doing. So the mission statement here presented by the subcommittee is to support, promote, and establish community efforts that utilize evidence-informed strategies to promote mental wellness and community belonging among all members of the Medford community. Do we have any discussion on that? Do people feel it's realistic and concise and informative and operational, I guess, to the work that we do?
[Osborne]: I have a general question. Where did the language come from? Is it borrowed from somewhere else?
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: I'll defer to the subcommittee. No, I think we talked about it as a group and came up with that language together. I certainly wasn't referring to any other site or anything.
[Funaiole]: As a reminder from the previous meeting in January, Ian had drafted, he had set a draft, and then we edited it from there. I also, Ian, you can comment, but I think that particularly this mission statement really is being pulled from the ordinance as well.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, so this is a follow-up. It wasn't taken from anything. You know, it's just, what we put together again, if anything, we drew from the ordinance and try to stay as close to that as we could.
[Unidentified]: How do people feel? Do we agree with it?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Do we like the mission statement to represent our commission? Do we feel it's representative, I guess I should say, of the work we do in our commission?
[Unidentified]: Sounds good to me. I like it.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Any other comments, thoughts? Do you want to just put it out to a vote to accept this as the mission of our commission? Hearing no, I guess that's what we'll do. So I'd like to make a motion please to accept the mission statement for the Promote, Prevent, Support Behavioral Health Commission. As presented, can I get a motion?
[SPEAKER_08]: I'll make a motion to accept the mission statement as presented.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: I second it.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. Okay, so let's take a roll then vote on the mission statement.
[Funaiole]: Maryann O'Connor. Yes. Chief Buckley.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Penelope Funigal. Yes. Neil Osborne.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Stacey Shulman. Yes. Rich Raymond.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Ian Wong.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Maria Dorsey. Yes. Anshika. Yes.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Is that everybody?
[Funaiole]: Yes, that's present.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, motion passes. We have a mission statement. Thank you, subcommittee. And again, thank you subcommittee for the next statement, which is the vision. statement presented here, which, you know, vision statements should be, you know, short phrases or aspirations or sentences that convey what we hope our community will look like or have in the future based on our work. So can we zoom in a little, Penny, on that?
[Funaiole]: Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on. Sorry about that. That's better, I'm sure.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Vision statement that promote prevent support Behavioral Health Commission envisions the city of Medford as a leader in the role of behavioral health. where all sectors of Medford life consider behavioral health to create a healthy community that supports education, prevention, early intervention, and reduction on reliance on emergency services to meet wellness needs. that promotes equitable access to services for all members of the Medford community, that fosters a stigma-free culture allowing for healthy choices that fosters happiness and self-worth among its community members, and that seeks effective utilization of existing behavioral health services and resources and expansion of services to address existing gaps. I think that covers
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: everything.
[Unidentified]: Any thoughts?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I mean, it's certainly aspirational. And I think it says where we want our community to go and be. And it's our hopes anyways, right? Opinions, thoughts, comments? Anybody from the subcommittee want to talk to Anishka?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Sure. Just one brief comment as I reread this. I think it looks great, and I'm just kind of matching it to the presentation we just heard from Andreanne about the things that came up from the listening sessions. And in the point about accessibility, there was this mention of accessibility in terms of affordability. And I'm thinking, should that be part of the access point here? So when it says that promotes equitable access, should it also be equitable and affordable access?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And culturally appropriate? Would that be something that needs to be included in this statement? I like adding the affordable piece, but I'm wondering about the cultural.
[Osborne]: I'm more like more is better at this stage. So the more expansive we could state what our vision is, the more we are working to sort of solve the problem. So I'm leaning towards more rather than less.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: If I come on, I like the affordable because there's one thing about offering resources. But if, you know, a good chunk of the community cannot access and afford it, then we kind of missed it there. And, you know, in my first thoughts like this insurance, you know, if you don't have insurance, and you now have the affordability. So I like the affordability piece.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: I think to Marion, to your question about the culturally resonant or culturally humble services, I guess, as I think about it, it should be its own point, maybe. I think we've spoken to it in the value statement, so maybe we can all as a group think about, does there need to also be something in the vision, or is it just appropriate to have it just be in the values? And if we choose to add it in the vision, I think I would put it as its own thing instead of lumping it with access because it's not a point specific to access right it's kind of encompasses the whole experience of service access and delivery.
[Funaiole]: I am this penny I agree. I think the next bullet, to me, really does speak to that the fosters stigma free culture allowing for healthy life choices that foster happiness and self worth among its community members, I felt based on the presentation that we heard that that is what we heard in terms of. of really highlighting positivity and establishing and not focusing on the illness or the negative aspects of mental health, but to really promote the wellness overall. So I would argue that I think that bullet answers that. I have a process question. Am I holding off in editing this until we have a vote that we want that added and changed?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: No, I think we'll edit it and then take a vote on the whole statement. So I would edit and then we'll vote on the whole, we haven't voted on accepting the statement as is.
[Unidentified]: So add affordable to that third bullet.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I have a question about the first bullet. I feel as though there might be a word missing because I keep reading it over and I'm not really getting the meaning or the full meaning. Were all sectors of method life considered behavioral health to create a healthy community? I'm wondering if after behavioral health, the word necessary should be there to create a healthy community or am I just not getting the meaning of that statement? It feels like there's something missing for it to make sense to me.
[Unidentified]: This is funny, I agree, Maria, the word necessary would fit nicely in there. Any other comments on that? Does that make sense to people? Well, sectors of Medford Life consider behavioral health necessary to create a healthy community.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: or important in creating a healthy community either way.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Or essential to create something, you know, a little punchy maybe.
[Unidentified]: To creating.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: That make sense? All right, so we're not gonna, no one feels the need to add culturally aware, culturally humble services here. We'll go on to the value statement and see if that takes it up there. I understand what you're saying, Patty, about the actual meaning of that bullet that really addresses what we wanna do, but I just didn't know if we need to really state, right? But we are saying equitable as well, so. So do I have a motion to vote on the vision statement as is presented?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Motion to create the vision statement as is. This is Maria.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Maria, do we have a second? Does that mean people still aren't comfortable or?
[Osborne]: Neil seconds.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: I wasn't sure that I could do that when I was a member of the subcommittee. I would have.
[Funaiole]: All right. We got the second go ahead, do a roll call. Okay, Marianne. Yes. Chief Buckley.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: And I'll be funny. Yes. Neil Osborne.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Pam Kelly.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Stacey Shulman. Yes. Rich Raymond.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Ian Wong.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Maria, you already, you, wait a minute. Oh, I'm sorry, Neil is the seconder, Maria is the initiator. Anshika Hassan Verma.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Anshika, yes.
[Funaiole]: Thank you. Patricia Brady. Yes.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, that's all. Okay. Motion passes. We have a vision statement. Okay, let's move on. How many value statements we have? There we go. I got a lot. All right, so I will let you all read them. I'm not going to read them all to you, unless you want to. You want to read one by one? Value statement.
[Unidentified]: I think you covered it all.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Anybody have any feelings about anything missing or anything that doesn't make sense to them or want to add anything?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I do have one thing that I'm not sure if it's questionable where it says the commission sees behavioral health challenges as preventable and treatable. Preventable, I'm not sure if that just doesn't feel comfortable to me dealing with behavioral health challenges in my home. So I don't know if that word wants to be changed, needs to be changed. I'll defer to all the experts here. I'm the lived experience person.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: That's why you're here. Yeah, it kind of hit me a little bit funny when I first read it as well. Can anybody on the subcommittee speak to the thoughts on that? Where that came from or their feelings about that?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you, Maria. I think that's a very good point. Just speaking from My perspective in our conversation, my sense was that I think what we're trying to convey is that there's something we can do to mitigate the occurrence and the intensity of mental health challenges that people experience. But I think Maria has a very good point that given that some things are just genetic and we can't totally prevent that. So maybe we need to change the language to signify that we can have an impact on the intensity or the duration or how the illness occurs, not totally be absent.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, I agree. You said it quite nicely. I think the point we're trying to say is, you know, having housing, having education, having a lot of these things, you know, the opportunity for a job. could mitigate those issues. You know, because you're right, some of it is genetic and some of it isn't, but we're looking at some of the, maybe the social pieces that we need to address and making it, I think that's why we have the commission here, right? Because every part of a person's life is represented here in some ways. And that's the way I think, you know, maybe mitigate is a better term that we can approach it. So it's not always just a clinical answer.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So behavioral health challenges can be mitigated and prevent treatable. So. And always.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: Patricia, can you say that again? I would say, I would say mitigated and treated Regardless, I'm trying to think what I'm trying to say is that we always want to offer treatment, regardless of circumstance. And treatment plans all treatment options. Making with the goal of making treatment options available.
[Funaiole]: Is this, did I capture what you said?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: The word seize doesn't make sense. The commission sees behavioral, that doesn't make sense. Right. The commission believes.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Maybe the commission believes that behavioral health challenges can be mitigated and treated with appropriate services and supports.
[Schulman]: I like that. I would change the word believes to understands. I don't personally as someone who's in science, I don't like the term belief when it comes to making a statement. And I would change making treatment options available because it sounds like we are providers in that sentence. I would I think can be mitigated with appropriate supports. is what we're talking about is like the treatment is available. Like we understand treatment works, right? Like that's the purpose of the statement.
[Funaiole]: Yeah. I think that that's true, Stacey. I also think that the purpose of the statement was also to say that we know that prevention is, it does help. It does mitigate the issue too. So I'm a little bit like, I think the way that it was worded wasn't correct, but I also wouldn't wanna just take away the idea that prevention has viable impact on a community and can help the individuals and their families as well. So I don't know how we get at that, but I feel like also all the other statements really get at the idea of prevention. So I could definitely live with like completely changing the sentence and it'd still be there, but I wanted to call that out to the rest of the group as well.
[Schulman]: I think Maria's point was really valid. And I'm wondering if we could then focus the prevention to community-based outcomes as opposed to individual-based outcomes. Yes, that's great.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: I think another idea could also be if we if we like the previous language, we could just replace preventable demutable because it signifies the changes possible and it doesn't rest on a binary definition.
[Funaiole]: I would propose to the group that, because we're at this point wordsmithing, should we hold this value statement to a vote later and go back to a subcommittee and rework this?
[Unidentified]: Is it only this one statement that people are concerned with?
[Osborne]: I think we're almost there. Maybe just a little bit more time on this.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Yeah, I think, I think we're, I think we're there. This is the only statement that we're, so I think the word treated as, as challenge commission understands behavioral challenges can be mitigated. What did we say with appropriate services and community supports or does that make sense?
[Funaiole]: Does that work for everyone? Doesn't work for Google. They're saying they don't like that.
[Osborne]: I see another statement where the word believes in is included. The commission believes that every member maybe understands.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: The next bullet has beliefs in it as well. So we want to change that beliefs to understand as well as the next bullet as well. Yes.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: I guess I think I generally agree with the point that Stacey brought up about belief, but I think here we're talking about a value that we hold. So to me, the belief feels right in that sentence, but I'm flexible. I guess this was just kind of my feeling that we're all saying that this is a value that we all uphold as the commission member.
[Osborne]: Well, if Stacey likes beliefs, I'm with her. I was buying into her concept about understanding it, but if she's okay with the beliefs, I'm okay with it.
[Schulman]: I think that it's different when it's a value statement, as opposed to like a scientific response. I had harsh advisors who would say, you believe in Santa, you understand science. So I never forget that.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: My goodness, you did have harsh. Okay, so are we good with that then?
[Unidentified]: Everyone comfortable?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: I think in the next bullet point, where we again talk about belief, that probably could stand to be changed in the behavioral health is more likely to be achieved. And I think more concerningly, I'm noticing that we've described behavioral health as something that can be achieved, and we should probably reword that into something different. So it's not this fixed thing that we're aspiring towards.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_08]: Maybe saying something like the commission recognizes that behavioral health is more likely to be supported when barriers to access to resources are removed. Or is better supported, whatever. Can you restate the whole thing again for me?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Let's get rid of that there is community support and go back to barriers.
[Unidentified]: And to resources. Thoughts? I like that better. Thanks. Are we there?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, are we ready to make a motion to approve our value statements as put forward?
[Osborne]: I move the motion.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Neil. Can I have a second, please?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Pam Kelly, I'll second.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Pam.
[Funaiole]: Penny, can we do a roll? Mary Ann O'Connor? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Penelope Fanioli, yes. Stacey Shulman? Yes. Rich Raymond?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Ian Wong?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Maria Dorsey? Yes. Yes. Patricia Brady.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yes. Carries. Thank you. Okay. All right. How are we doing for time? Where are we at?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: We're over time. Can I ask a quick question about the value mission statement? So what do we do with this now?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: We will present this in our report that will be made at the end of the fiscal year as what we have accomplished so far with water come. And we are building a website for the behavioral commission so it'll be stated there as well. something that we probably should include with our agendas going forward, at least a mission and vision statement, I think would be good to have.
[Unidentified]: Any other ideas? Is that about okay, David?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Yeah, so the next thing I want to talk about is something else we want to accomplish, right, is our goals and objectives. And first of all, I guess we want to... Let's look at the goals and objectives, Penny, and then we'll see. We really do need to talk about our meeting agendas. I mean, our meeting schedule, I guess. But in thinking about the goals and objectives, One of the ideas that I'm going to throw out there, and that'll go right hand in hand with the meeting schedule. So we had a subcommittee that just did our vision, mission, and value statement, and I think they did an amazing job, and I want to thank them again for that work. And one of the ideas around really meeting these goals and these objectives To do that kind of work rather than trying to do it in the large group and in the meetings here, it seems a little bit overwhelming, I think, to approach it that way. So I'm going to suggest that the actual work is done by subcommittees. And that, again, then brought back to the group for discussion. I also think that we're all extremely busy already. And we do have, through Penny's grant that she's gonna share with us shortly, we do have some funding that would allow us to subcontract and have someone really do boots on the ground with the oversight of the subcommittee. So that the subcommittee wouldn't actually have to be out interviewing people like this objective to that's pretty lofty and that's a lot of work. And that's a lot of meetings and a lot of talking to different people in different groups and different departments and. Trying to figure out all the the the programming and implants that are out there so. My suggestion would be, or I guess I put out there that. PB, Lupita D Montoya. PB, Lupita D Montoya. PB, Lupita D Montoya. PB, Lupita D Montoya. I'd like to get people's feedback on a subcommittee attack on accomplishing this work. And then potentially with the use of subcontractors with some of the funding that we do currently have to really take on the work.
[Unidentified]: Again, on the oversight of a subcommittee and direction of a subcommittee. Does that make sense? What I'm saying? Did that make sense at all? Anybody?
[Osborne]: Yes, I'll jump in. Yes, it does, Mary Ann. And also, can we begin to build out sort of our group of people who might help us so that you don't have to be on the commission to be part of the subcommittee that helps do the work?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: That's, yeah, interesting. Yes.
[Schulman]: Mary Ann, I think it's a good idea to have create subcommittees to break this out because especially objective two looks like it's pretty complicated. I'm a little confused on objective number two. I think it's great to collect a repository of what everyone's doing, but I don't know if we have the oversight to ensure. or, you know, what these programs are actually doing. Perhaps it could be to develop where the gaps are or to like promote where the gaps are. Does that make sense?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. Yeah, I think that's the ultimate.
[Schulman]: Yeah.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: objective of the objective.
[Schulman]: It would be helpful to clarify the objective more so that when we're going and asking people, you know, what are you offering to the community, they understand what we're looking for and that we're not coming in to try to redevelop their programming, because certainly that's not what we're going to be doing, right? We're looking for what are they offering? How do we promote it to others? And where are those gap areas that we can align?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, because I think the challenge we'll have here because the first draft of the goals and objectives is literally taken from the ordinance where the ordinance says the commission will A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So again, how do we adapt them to be realistic without missing the spirit of the original ordinance?
[Funaiole]: Well, I think the other thing that is really critical is, yes, we want to have the gaps and we want to have the resources that's how we're going to get to a strategic plan for this commission, but we also need to know what's already in place and, and like you're saying like what's working, because Otherwise we could start just offering, oh we should do this what we are doing that we should do this so we are doing that but if it's mapped out for this commission to look at the whole totality of what's going on in the city and, and the challenges is finding like, you know, the key, you know, do you do you focus on target population and then look at the, all the things that are happening throughout the city. for that target population? Or do you look at an objective? And then you go, you know, so this is all that's happening. And it's just sort of that, that addressing that one gap, and then mapping out what's currently happening and then going, okay, this is what we definitely need to add to this plan to this recipe to make sure that we get to a product that we can evaluate to see if change is happening for the better. So that's, That's the challenge here is like the approach, what way are we entering in so that this commission has a full breadth of knowledge of all the different departments in the city of Medford, and what their, their resources are currently, and then following from that, what are the gaps.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, I thought, like, I see it's asset mapping is what we want to do right to identify those gaps. So I think that's basically what that objective is. And what you're saying both JC and Penny. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Pat. Yeah. Yes, sorry. Okay. Did you want to. Did you have a comment. No. I guess we vote that we agree on the goals and objectives as stated, and that we're going to move forward with subcommittees with outside assistance to accomplish the work. Is that too big of one motion? Should that be two motions? Is that good? Make sense? Motion to move forward with that.
[Unidentified]: Someone want to make a motion around that? Was that too big of a bite for one motion?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I don't know. If you want to put it out there, Neil, what do you want? You make good motions, Neil. I know you do.
[Osborne]: I'm going to have to see the goals again. Can Penny put them back up on the screen? How about a motion that says that we will work to achieving these goals in our first year? Which gives us some wiggle room to say at least if we are moving towards these goals, then we are doing the work of the commission.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Neil has a motion on the floor that we work towards achieving the goals as stated, achieving these goals and objectives as stated for year one.
[Osborne]: There we go. Perfect.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'll second that I like that Neil that it's open ended.
[Funaiole]: second. Penny, would you like to call the roll? That was Maria, right? Yes. Okay, thank you. Marianne O'Connor? Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. Penelope Funigalli? Yes. Pam Kelly? Yes. Stacey Shulman? Yes. He may, I can't see if anybody's still there or not. Ian Wong.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Anshika Hansen Verma. Yes. Patricia Brady. Yes. And I just want to double check. I know the superintendent was coming at the end. She's not there. Rich Raymond, are you there? No. Okay.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: All right, that's it. Okay, motion passes. Can I ask just one, doesn't have to do goals and objectives, but can we define, cause I'm not quite sure how we're defining year one. You know, if we're defining it from the first day we started or we define it from the fiscal year.
[Funaiole]: I understand the year to be on a July to July cycle. So we would be in year one heading towards July.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: So we have till June 2023?
[Funaiole]: No. No, we would have it until July 2022.
[Osborne]: I'd like to amend my motion to make it to next year, June 2023, which is a more realistic goal.
[Unidentified]: Amendment on this law.
[Funaiole]: I'll second that. Okay, so do we do a roll call again.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yes, please.
[Funaiole]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Excuse me, could we first please read out the statement again of the motion I have we will work to achieve these goals and objectives, as stated in year one goals and objectives so
[Osborne]: What, how do we add that Neil, how do you work towards achieving these goals and objectives. Through the end of June, 2020. Sorry. Okay.
[Funaiole]: Thank you. Okay. All right. So a roll call again, Marianne O'Connor. Yes, keep Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: And I'll be funny I amended it. I seconded it. And Kelly. She may have stepped away stays showman. Yes, rich Raymond. In one.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Antica Hansen drama. Yes. Yes. Okay.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Ian for bringing that up. Okay, and along those lines so going forward with the work in subcommittees. I'd like to propose that our meetings are moved to well I've got to talk to all to decide but. to quarterly meetings, so that would give time to get some work done within the subcommittees, and we will be putting a call out for assistance with subcommittees. As far as I can see, there's at least two of them going forward, the collection of information and then the data gathering, so a data subcommittee as well. Do people feel quarterly is more achievable for folks? I know we're having a difficulty with some attendance and I know everyone's super busy. So does quarterly feel, and I think quarterly was in the original ordinance as well. I'm not making that up, I don't think.
[Funaiole]: It was at least quarterly in the ordinance. It was at least quarterly, thank you, Penny.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So do people feel comfortable with quarterly?
[Osborne]: Mary Ann, my only hesitation is that us as a group hasn't worked close enough together to know that we can work well in our absence. So quarterly seems scary to me, unless someone can really manage the work in between meetings.
[Funaiole]: I, yeah, I agree with Neil. I mean, I think even, yeah, more if, even if it's bi-monthly, it would make more sense than quarterly, personally.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Bi-monthly feels better.
[Osborne]: Still scary, but better.
[Funaiole]: Is there a process that we could maybe see if, if we could like both either one or the other like if people do want to commit to monthly. I don't know. Is there anyone who doesn't want to commit to a monthly meeting.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: When I signed accepted the appointment I thought we were meeting monthly but I'm also realistic that I said, you know, sit on other boards where you take different months off, perhaps over the summer or around the holidays. You know, we're all professionals. I think that if we've made a commitment to do the work, that our time is better spent in subcommittees. So, conservatively, I would say start every other month and then reevaluate.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I guess my thought process was we have to give the subcommittee some time to get the work done too, right? can come back and report on some progress. All right, bimonthly, that's every other month, right? So that would be May. This is March. Next meeting would be in May. First week in May.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: That works for me.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: As far as the time, I know a lot of the city departments you know, the earlier the better, but some of the thought too for community members is evening meetings are better. I'm gonna throw that out there as well, especially if they're on Zoom, people can get enough time to get home and do a Zoom meeting. Okay, thoughts?
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Evening. Yeah, if I can add one point about that, you know, me personally, I'm flexible, but I'm a director, so I can kind of, you know, call my time any way I'd like to. But one thing that we propose, which is start on our meetings, is that we're getting community input, you know, at the first five, 10 minutes of each meeting. And I know for a lot of community members, it's not easy to suddenly take a break, depending on what their job allows to, jump onto a zoom call, and so I think I'm between two spots one what works good for my schedule and all that, but again. If we're going to ask for Community input or invite Community members is it easier for them to participate in the evening.
[Schulman]: Just for me, personally, I don't have an easy schedule. It's hard no matter what time of day, but I'm also starting my doctoral program. So nights are going to be very complicated for me. I'll do my best if that's what you all want to shift to, but during the day is the best for me.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: What I'm supposed to do every other month, daytime, evening, and tomorrow is that way? Or will we offer both?
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: I don't know. I'm open to doing daytime. I will say this is prime time for me. Workwise, I would even be open to doing a morning appointment, kind of start the day before I get into a rhythm with seeing clients. But let's, I mean, I'm happy to, if I make a commitment to doing it, I'll make sure my schedule's available.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right, so we'll put it out there for the first week in May. I guess we'll stick to... What? What do people want? I'm very conflicted, so I don't know. We'll stick to this hour for now and then keep seeing how we go forward. And if we can move maybe the following, like a suggestion of the following month being an evening and... I don't know, people. That sound okay? Is that, we'll keep it to this time for now?
[Funaiole]: Yeah. So I also, I don't know, like, I don't, I'm just learning the Roberts rules, so forgive me if I don't understand, but I would like to start by making a motion that subcommittees will commence prior to the next meeting of the commission. That would be my first, Yeah, whatever. That would be my first proposal. I don't know.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And he has a motion on the floor that we take a vote to ensure that subcommittee work will begin prior to our next meeting.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: Seconded.
[Osborne]: Is this the portion where we get discussion?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Discussion.
[Osborne]: Yeah. How do we establish chairs of the subcommittee and the members of the subcommittees?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, that was going to be the next topic. As far as, I think we need to just do that via email to people to see, lay out what the subcommittee's roles and responsibilities are going to look like, what the actual charge will be. And then ask people to assign themselves, choose one or the other or both if they'd like. and see what kind of response we get. I do think that these subcommittees shouldn't be just a couple of people, right? We need some good participation to get the work done. So I would hope that we'd have at least four or five people on each subcommittee.
[Osborne]: I think an important part of the process is that someone champions sort of the subcommittee so that there has to be a leader of each subcommittee so that they pull people together to get the work done. Some organizations allow the chair to assign the chair of subcommittees and that begins the process.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Exactly. I was going to go to the same place saying, you know, who's going to chair these and the responsibility of putting the groups together. And I'm assuming that the objectives that we put are the subcommittees.
[Unidentified]: That's my assumption.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: OK. Yeah. So you're right. I was thinking about that, too, who's not only who's going to be part of the subcommittee, but who's going to chair it and be responsible for its function?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Well, I'm going to assign Penny to be responsible since she's gonna have to spend her money to do this. So I'll figure it out. So Penny, at least for the first subcommittee. And then for the data subcommittee, again, anybody into data? I was hoping to maybe subcontract with an epi or something to help us with that work. I mean, I personally wouldn't mind sharing that myself. As the chair of the chair, signing myself is kind of weird, but.
[Osborne]: You may do that. I think that's all right.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: But I certainly wouldn't mind doing that. So if everyone is comfortable with that. Do we have to take a vote on those assignments, or I just did it? As the chair.
[Osborne]: I accept your leadership. I'm fine.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right, so do we have the. And then so we will be sending out emails looking for for membership and for people to jump on. Either of the two subcommittees. And then the most of the motion was that this work gets done started prior to maybe.
[Jack Buckley]: Procedural question. While some of us may have the right to have a, like myself, a designee where I want to come here, is it possible for me to have a designee on the subcommittees? Somebody from our behavioral support unit where, I mean.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: That would make sense. Yes. All right. It's just to follow up chief. I think Neil also had a proposal that we can have people. Non-commissioned people in the subcommittees too. So even if you think you can have a destiny, but you say, Oh, I know someone in the community who would be perfect for this. I think we're aligned for that too.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Okay. So it gives me a lot more options for that. That's perfect. Okay, good.
[Funaiole]: So is there an amendment to the motion that I made that the subcommittee meets before that the chairs for the two subcommittees are Mary Ann and myself? Is that correct? Am I doing this right?
[Osborne]: So I didn't see as an amendment. I thought it was just a process. Okay. Because we haven't voted yet.
[Funaiole]: Okay. So are we voting yet?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: The motion that the subcommittee work gets started prior to our next meeting in May. And that outside membership, what do I want to say? Time is, I'm dying, I'm fading here. It's almost time to go.
[Osborne]: Subcommittee members. Community members are encouraged to join the subcommittees. Non-commissioned members are encouraged to join the subcommittee.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: OK. Thank you.
[Funaiole]: So the motion was set by Penny and seconded by Patricia. Do you want to do the roll call? Yes, please. OK. Mary Ann O'Connor. Yes. Chief Buckley. Yes. Neil Osborne.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Pam Kelly. Yes. Stacey Shulman. Yes. Rich Raymond. Ian Wong.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Maria Dorsey. Yes. Anchika Hansen Verma. Yes. Okay, that's it. All right. And then the next motion would be to have the meeting in the first week of May. Is that correct? Or is that necessary?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I don't think we have to take a vote on that. I think we can just accept it. OK. So going forward, every other month, we'll do the first week of the month. How does that sound? Sounds like that's the way it's going to go. OK. And this is Wednesday. That's the first Wednesday of the month work.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: So we're calling it the first Wednesday at 1, right? It just to make sure because I always have to get straight right so it's the first Wednesday in May, that we're talking about, I guess it would be May 4.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: May 4 at one o'clock. I added. Did we want to see an example of the mapping kind of work that we're... Penny, do you have that? So people can understand kind of a quick look at what we're going to try to... We're doing an evaluation right here of the work being done in the Office of Prevention and Outreach. And this is the type of collection of information as to what we're doing. It's a week, because it was starting to get a little bit like, what are we doing? This, this is all that's happening there. And this is the type of, I think, along these lines anyways, the type of information gathering that we're going to try to do to identify you know to the map asset mapping and identify gaps in the community services so Penny did you want to.
[Funaiole]: Yeah, can I just, I just. So first of all I want to say that Mariana is on the call she is our. She's from Tufts evaluation research interdisciplinary evaluation and research group, she helped she pulled this together for us after talking to us multiple times but what's going on over here. It the Office of Prevention and Outreach up here in the top left corner where it says direct service and navigation says jail diversion, that activity is the police's activity they are doing that work we are supporting them on that work. Some of the names on here rises funding from the rise foundation they've given us wraparound support funding. to help individuals who are seeking recovery and or some level of supports in their substance use journey. And then we offer Narcan, we have treatment navigation, we have our overdose to action grant. So I have a lot more to say about all this and I don't really have time for me to go into detail. But the idea is that we're doing direct service and navigation. We have health promotion activities that we're working on. We have community culture and systems change, looking at equity and how are we embedding equity throughout all the work that we are doing. And then we have multiple places where we have collaboration, networking, coalition efforts. Some of those are regional, like the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition and the Medford Regional Situation Hub table. And then we have this commission here is another highlight of our interdepartmental and interagency work. setting plans and strategic direction for our community. So this is just a snapshot of what we're doing. Andreanne's presentation highlighted the Melrose-Wakefield Culturally Competent Connections to Care project that's under community culture and systems change. So I think that it's possibly as simple as this, right? What are you doing and where does it fall in and align with other And knowing that there would be another category likely for multiple departments that aren't included in the health department. And what we put here.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I thought that was a really good illustration of what we're trying to accomplish. And we did have, I think we were thinking we were going to talk about the treasurer, but I think we're running out of time at this point. And I don't want to keep people over. So we will have to talk about that at our next meeting.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Marion, can I have just one quick clarification on the next meeting? So Penny, are you sending out another Zoom link or are we still using the one we've been using?
[Funaiole]: Um, I would have usually just started to do zoom. Like we can use this as a regular link though.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: I can set that up. No, whatever's easier. Cause that's, I just want to make sure. Cause I always mess up on zoom link. So I, so you'll probably just set up a new invite for the main meeting.
[Funaiole]: Yeah. And what I'm doing is because it's what's supposed to vision for me is I send out a meeting invite, which should, if you're in Microsoft, it should just like live in your inbox. So, um, or in your calendar.
[bq-gVu-g8qk_SPEAKER_26]: I have to sign off guys. Okay, motion to adjourn. Thank you. Thank you have a motion to adjourn.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm Kelly I'll make a motion to adjourn.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: I'll second.
[Funaiole]: Well, me, Mary and O'Connor. Yes. Yes. Yes, Neil Osborne. Yes. I think PM made the motion, right? Stacey Shulman? Yes. Bruce Raymond? Maria Dorsey?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Funaiole]: Anshika Hansen-Verma? Yes. And Patty Brady just logged off, I think. Okay, we're good. Mariana's here. Mariana's here, yep.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. All right, thank you, everyone. We'll see you in May, or maybe hopefully sooner on the subcommittee. All right, take care. Thank you.
[MCM00001481_SPEAKER_13]: Bye everyone.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you.
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