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Home My WebLink AboutJanuary 31, 2020William H. Farr Acting Executive on Aging Harry Kim Mayor County of Hawaii OFFICE OF AGING Aging and Disability Resource Center, 1055 Kino’ole Street, Suite 101, Hilo, Hawai’i 96720-3872 Phone (808) 961-8600  Fax (808) 961-8603 West Hawai’i Community Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i 96740 Phone (808) 323-4390 ⬥ Fax (808) 323-4398 Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer. An Area Agency on Aging MINUTES COMMITTEE ON AGING MEETING Friday, January 31, 2020 - 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM 1055 Kinoole Street, ADRC Training Room Hilo, HI 96720 1. CALL TO ORDER: Meizhu Lui, Chair called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. 2. PRESENT: Committee Members: Meizhu Lui, Chair; Judy Bell, Frankie Stapleton, George Ito, Steve Ono, Rowena Tiqui, Leonor Corpuz, Chalintorn Burian, Patrick Toal, Elwood “Woody” Kita HCOA Staff: William “Horace” Farr, Jolean Yamada, Meredith Catalini, Cherine Pai, Luana Ancheta-Kauwe Legal Counsel: Malia Hall County Staff: Shelly Ogata, PABEA; and Chasity Quihano, Council Aide Members Excused: Lito Asuncion, Earl Tanaka, Ruth Raza, Marcia Sequing Ex-Officios Excused: Alisa Hanselman, County Housing; Eric Honda, State DOH; Laron Kageyama, State DOH-APS Committee on Aging Minutes of January 31, 2020 Page 2 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 18, 2019 MEETING: Motion to approve by Rowena Tiqui and seconded by George Ito. Unanimously approved. 4. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR: Meizhu Lui Meizhu mentioned that since Teana Kahoohanohano, Committee Sec- retary, resigned, and the Committee needs a new Secretary. Meizhu noted that we are fortunate to have Horace as our interim Executive on Aging; no one knows more than he does about our Island’s kupuna of how we deliver services, and how the office oper- ates. With new members Horace will get everyone on our Committee up to speed on the Office of Aging’s methods of work. Each island is unique, and the Office of Aging and this Committee have had to advo- cate for many years that we be allowed to operate in ways that have been developed specifically to meet the needs of our kupuna on our island, and that a one-size-fits-all model for all islands does not work! Meizhu mentioned that Patrick Toal of the Alzheimer’s Association can report on the resources on the island, and what hopes and plans for the future. In particular Meizhu asked Patrick to speak about the a new position at the Executive Office on Aging that is like an Alz- heimer’s Program Director at the state level. Meizhu mentioned the legislative priorities that the Kupuna Caucus has regarding 2020 Legislative Session. Meizhu commented that since this year the election season we should know what are our rights are and Deputy Corporation Counsel Malia Hall will explain what the Committee can and cannot do. CORPORATION COUNSEL: Malia Hall Malia mentioned that now that we are approaching a new election season, and we are reminded that we are not allowed to campaign for any candidate in our official capacity as members of the Hawaii County Committee on Aging. We can work for anyone as individual citizens of course. We also cannot invite candidates to come to speak at our meetings, even if we invite each of them, because County policy prohibits using County resources for political campaigning. Meizhu noted that we can and should go to candidates’ and ask them ques- tions about their stance on issues affecting kupuna. Malia encour- aged us to get all our friends and neighbors to register to vote. 5. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: None 6. EXECUTIVE REPORT: Horace Farr and staff a. Updates: Three HCOA open positions are posted and will be filled. The staff has been very busy writing the yearly Performance Report 2019. There are 2 reports, one for the County and State, and one for the federal government. In the reports, the Office must identify “variances” from the budget - where they have over and under- spent. The variances can show where there is greater or lesser need than expected, and can help create a better budget for the following year; however, the variances must be explained to the au- thorities. Horace also noted that there have been a lot of scams being run on the island, and kupuna are often the target: they are easily scared when a caller says they are from a government agency, or that the police are being notified if the person doesn’t cough up some money right away! He also said that it is important that an accurate census be taken, and asked that we encourage people to answer the census surveys. One problem that was solved was the lack of home care and chore providers in West Ha- waii with the closure of Seniors Helping Seniors. Care Resource Hawaii will fill the gap. b. Meizhu had asked Horace to explain how Hawaii County Office on Aging delivers services, and how that differs from other islands. Horace said that he will give us more and more information and in- sight over the course of several meetings. For today, he noted that unlike other islands, due to Hawaii Island’s size and the differing conditions across the island, 1) we deliver services by geographical zones. The compensation rates for service providers differs by “zone,” the farther the distance the higher the rate. 2) We also uniquely use a “Vendor Pool.” This is not the same as a “vendor list.” Each vendor does not have a contract with a specific guaran- tee that they will receive x number of clients or x number of dol- lars. This gives the Office the flexibility to move dollars around to where they are most needed, which can change from year to year. 8. ALHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION: Patrick Toal The Association hosts several day-long caregiver boot camps, to help caregivers give better care to their loved one with Alzheimer’s and to take better care of themselves as well. They also are partnering with AARP on caregiver training, and run monthly caregiver support groups in 5 communities. Basically, Patrick goes wherever there are people or organizations who want information; his schedule traveling all over the island is hectic to put it mildly! A new initiative involves teaching front-line workers at stores like Walmart how to best interact with customers with memory issues. Patrick convinced Wordsworth, the mouse poet, created by children’s author Frances Kakugawa, to become the Alzheimer’s mascot in Ha- waii! Kakugawa has written about her own experiences as a caregiver, and gives support to other caregivers through her books and writing. Wordsworth’s job is to go to schools and libraries - he even marched in the Merrie Monarch parade last year and will be back this year by popular demand - to teach kids about memory loss and how to live well with those who have some form of dementia: Alzheimer’s is defi- nitely something that affects every person in a family including the very young. Kakugawa and Wordworth will be at Basically Books on April 18. Kudos to Patrick Toal for his great work! 9. LEGISLATIVE ISSUES: Shelly Ogata, PABEA Shelly gave the Committee the list of the 2020 Kupuna Caucus legis- lative priorities, which includes funding for the Healthy Aging Part- nership program and the Kupuna Caregivers program, harsher penal- ties for the abuse of elders over 60, several bills relating to dementia, and reviving the study of long-term care options. Chalintorn men- tioned AARP’s interest in making prescription drugs and hearing aides more affordable. 10. AGENCY AND DISTRICT NEWS AND UPDATES Frankie told us that Rep. Buenaventura would be having a town hall meeting on teleheatlh on Feb. 15. 11. ANNOUNCEMENTS None 12. NEXT MEETING: Pending meeting dates for the Year 2020 are as follows: March 27, 2020 – Friday May 1, 2020 – Friday (Outstanding Older Americans Month) July 31, 2020 – Friday October 30, 2020 – Friday December 4, 2020 - Friday 13. ADJOURNMENT: Motion to adjourn the meeting by Judy Bell; seconded by Rowena Tiqui. Meizhu Lui adjourned the meeting at 11:43 a.m. Submitted by: Meizhu Lui, Committee Chair Recorded by: Luana Ancheta-Kauwe, HCOA