ISLAND COUNTY BOARD OF
HEALTH
MINUTES OF MEETING -
AUGUST 9, 1999
The
Island County Board of Health convened in Regular Session at 11:15
a.m., on August 9, 1999, in the
Island County Courthouse Annex, Coupeville, Wa., with Board of Health Members present: Mike Shelton, Chairman; Wm. L.
McDowell, Member; and William F. Thorn, Member. Also present were:
Marshall Bronson, CHAB; Roger Case,
M.D., Health Officer; Tim
McDonald, Health Services Director;
Keith Higman, Environmental Health
Director; Carrie McLachlan,
Public Health Coordinator; Jackie Henderson, Coordinator, Developmental
Disabilities; Mike Etzell, Developmental Disabilities
Mr.
Bronson reported from the last CHAB
meeting where discussion focused on Whidbey General’s development of a
patient centered program to deal with
more patient activities, more interaction between the patient and the Doctor as far as making decisions, and allowing more scientifically-supported activities within the hospital.
At the end of the meeting
there was a unanimity in support of the idea to improve the hospital through such things as art in the rooms,
music, changing the type of gowns, etc. Next week’s CHAB meeting will focus on the subject of early brain development.
Supporting
People with Developmental Disabilities:
Yesterday
- Today - Tomorrow
Jackie
Henderson and Mike Etzell, provided the following hand-outs used in today’s presentation:
§
Services and Supports in Island County
§
Island County Developmental Disabilities
Advisory Board
§
Background
§
People with Developmental Disabilities
§
Quotation from The Gift of Hospitality, by Mary O’Connell, 1988
§
Quotation from speech by Eleanor Roosevelt to the United Nations in 1958
§
The
Retarding Environment by Thomas Hopkins, Capitol People First,
Sacramento, Ca., from
a Presentation to the U. S. Civil Rights Commission, Quality of Life Conference 4/30/88
§
The
Declaration of Interdependence, Norman Kunc, 1995
§
A thank you note r to Carrie Robinson, Member, Island County Developmental Disabilities
Advisory Board and a person with DD, from a student in Western Washington University Evening Class
§
Announcement for October 2nd Workshop:
Working Together Successfully; Collaborative Negotiations Skills
§
Combination of 3 charts [laminated place-mat
size copy] “Working Together
Successfully”
Ms.
Henderson provided some history about services for people with DD, Island County, State-wide and Nationally. Developmental disabilities is defined as
people with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism or other
neurological conditions similar to mental retardation. Some identified causes of DD are related to alcohol consumed during
pregnancy, chromosomal anomalies, damage to central nervous system, genetics,
birth trauma, injuries and environmental factors. Approximately 1.8% of the population have a developmental
disability, representing some 90,000 in Washington State. The figures in Island County are:
Under Age 3 45
3-18
165
Over 18 125
Total 355.
Some
of the services offered to developmental disabled citizens in Island County include: early childhood services; employment services; community access
services; and person to person
services.
Additionally, residential services are offered in Island
County that are contracted for directly
by the State with agencies for about 35 people. Philosophy is that knowledge is power, and
the Island County DD program spends much of the millage money for
training and education, for example, last year jointly sponsoring a workshop on autism for both parents and teachers.
A
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation grant went to the State, and in turn awarded to
two counties about two years’ ago,
Island County and Spokane County,
to find ways that individuals with DD and their families could have more
say in how the money on their behalf
was actually spent. Island County
applied to the Division of Developmental Disabilities once the Foundation grant
ran out to continue on with the program and received $54,000, and notified of funding approval for the next
two years.
The
DD program provides information and referral services, and work with the
schools. Both Mrs.
Henderson
and Mr. Etzell sit on a number of State-wide committees, and spend a lot
of time supporting individuals with DD and their families. On any given day State-wide, there are 7,000
to 9,000 people waiting for services
and there is always a concern there is never enough money to go around to
provide needed services. Another
concern has been that “systems” tend to
take over lives when in fact a system cannot meet everyone’s needs, and finding through the years that although
well intended there has been a disservice to people by creating a dependency on
those systems.
Mike
Etzell told the Board that since their last presentation February this year, he and Mrs. Henderson
gave
a presentation late June in Ellensberg
at a State-wide conference,
leading a panel discussion, including an individual with DD, a parent of an 18
year old person with DD, representatives from Island Employment, Service
Alternatives, a Case Manager, and the Regional Manager from the Division of
DD. It was “standing room only” and the
presentation went very well. Later this
month the County will be receiving a
notice about giving a presentation at a national conference December in
Chicago around the same types of issues.
This Spring, he taught diversity
training for law enforcement students and has been asked to return to do further
training after students have had some
ride-along experience.
This
Fall, DD staff have been asked by
teachers at the Oak Harbor High School
to create and present a unit on
self-advocacy and speaking up for
yourself to students who experience disabilities. Folks with developmental disabilities who have come forward with
a desire to give back to the community will be given assistance to do so, through such things as peer
mentoring for others with disabilities,
working closely with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization to make
sure about including adults as well as children with disabilities as either big
brothers and big sisters or little
brothers and little sisters. A third negotiations
workshop will be held on October 2nd
““Working Together Successfully” .
Work is being done on designing a
workshop for high school kids, disabled and non-disabled, which will
probably
take place this Fall.
Julie
Shackleton, parent of a 4-year old with autism and mental retardation and who
works at Toddler
Learning
Center, participated in the February mediation
workshop, and attested to great benefits from what she learned in dealing with insurance
and the things needed for her child.
Mrs.
Henderson was pleased with Island County’s history having gone from the belief that people with developmental disabilities needed
to be institutionalized and segregated to now believing people with disabilities belong in the communities, schools, churches, work places, and neighborhoods. It has taken years to really learn and act on the fact that people
with developmental disabilities want and need the same things we all need and want.
There
were two things of importance Mrs.
Henderson stressed:
1.
The need to consider doing contracting perhaps a little differently in Island County, keeping
in mind what it is people want and need.
2.
The need to stay vigilant because there are those
who still believe people with disabilities need to be somewhere else.
Mr.
McDonald told the Board that Mrs. Henderson for the last twenty years used her quiet leadership using outcome as the way to focus
the programs and he thought Island County very fortunate to have her working here in this position.
Meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m.
The next regular meeting is
scheduled for
September 13, 1999, beginning at 11:15 a.m.
BOARD
OF HEALTH
ISLAND COUNTY, WASHINGTON
Mike
Shelton, Chairman
Wm.
L. McDowell, Member
William
F. Thorn, Member