Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015, 06-017, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes William P. Kenoi C. Kimo Alameda, Ph.D. Mayor Executive on Aging HAWAI‘I COUNTY 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 Email: hcoa@hawaiiantel.net  West Hawai‘i Civic Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi 96740 Phone (808) 323-4390 Fax (808) 323-4398  Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes June 17, 2015, 10:00 AM The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at 10:07 a.m. at the Aging and Disability Resource Center at 1055 Kino‘ole Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i. The meeting was chaired by Laura Tobosa, Secretary. MEMBERS PRESENT: Gena Avilla, Janice Mancini, Sam Nagasawa, James Souza and Laura Tobosa. ABSENT: Pauline Aughe, Paige DeLima. OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS: Teri Spinola-Campbell, HR; Jesse Floyd, Program Specialist for the State DD Council; Dr. Kimo Alameda, Aging; Sandy Arriola, Aging; Mary Love, Interpreter; Lynise Tarring, Karin Riedel, Paul Pascua, Alicia Greene, USDA; Vicki Brazier, Denni Gaeth, Kauila Haumea, Gail Yoshishige. CALL TO ORDER Laura Tobosa called the meeting to order at 10:07 a.m. Introductions were made. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE MARCH 18, 2015, MEETING L. Tobosa S. Nagasawa called for approval of the minutes for March 18. made a G. AvillaJ. Souza motion to approve. It was seconded by . abstained because he didn’t read the minutes. The minutes were approved by the other four members. Motion passed . STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Agenda Items) No statements from the public. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Discussion Regarding Darryl Oliveira’s Video to Council Regarding the Lava Flow Dr. Alameda inquired about the video. Sam explained that at the last meeting, Jesse wanted to meet with Civil Defense to have an emergency preparedness plan in place for people with disabilities. At that time, J Yoshimoto informed the committee that D. Oliveira presented his report to the Council at the February 3, 2015, meeting so we could listen to that before inviting Mr. Oliveira to do a presentation. Sam stated that it was only related to the lava flow out in Puna. It did not go into any emergency preparedness or go into what they can do to make things smoother. Dr. Alameda stated that he is working with Darryl Oliveira and made him aware and cognizant that people with disabilities, people in wheelchairs, people who cannot see, difficulty in hearing, and even for our aging people who have dementia are basically the vulnerable populations who may need assistance in how we put them into the plan. So, D. Oliveira is very aware of it. K. Riedel explained about the different locations of the shelters, and some needing medical supplies like oxygen, refrigerator for medications etc. Most of the shelters were at the schools and those allow pets and are for people with disabilities. And that is a struggle to Civil Defense because they would need to know where to distribute all the equipment like oxygen, etc., and deal with HEPA laws. All of this would need to be planned ahead of time. S. Nagasawa According to , at one of the meeting with Civil Defense, Darryl Oliveira planned to meet with DOE and other agencies to get input on a better planned response so there would be no duplication of services. There are things out there to help people and what Civil Defense is trying to do is get input from everybody and then make a plan that’s workable that can be utilized for any emergency. Dr. Alameda stated that another thing that came out of the Civil Defense meeting was that they need to develop one universal form that each department should have when an emergency arises, stating exactly what everybody needs so we don’t keep going back and have them share the same story over and over. So Kimo was happy to have that as an outcome of their meeting. One of the things discussed was having a buddy system. A buddy system is good only if they have a good friend or relative in the neighborhood they trust. And that should be organized within each subdivision, their board of directors, the neighborhood association. A lot of people don’t have plans in place for emergency preparedness. This cannot be done a couple of days ahead of the emergency; you need to be prepared and have all your things ready. G. Avilla feels that the buddy system is a really good idea. Her only concern was implementing it. People in apartment complexes keep to themselves. The resident managers do not help with evacuations in times of emergency. It would be the responsibility of the individual. Sam inquired about the reason why resident managers would not step up and help. Gena said it was a liability issue. According to Karin, it would be an almost impossible task to do for one person. Denni Gaeth with Full Life, stated that direct service workers are not required by law to take care of clients during times of emergency or disasters. J. Souza was very happy this issue was being brought up. He understands that the community needs to be warned and notified, but that it is particularly difficult with the deaf community. Parents can take care of their deaf child, but adults, senior citizens don’t hear the sirens. They have phones and if it vibrates with an emergency text that is 2 a way to help. But then it’s still not enough. There are too many people with different disabilities in various places making it hard to do. J. Floyd stated that when events happen, follow-up is always a challenge. It is important to allow the community to provide input about what was done well, what can be improved, what services and supports were lacking, and also allow the agencies involved in the emergency the opportunity to share with the community the events, the things that they did and seek input. In the future, it also allows for better training, not only the emergency responders but also the citizens that live in a certain area that has the emergency. Events are opportunities to grow as a community and to leverage your resources. Dr. Alameda summarized it by saying there is a small pocket of people that nobody is covering, not the churches, not the community, not the neighbors or buddy system. It seems like not all family and friends are going to come to the aid of somebody with a disability. They have their own to take care of. That’s the one group that we need to worry about. Update from Gena Avilla Regarding Kona Representation. G. Avilla In Kona, meets with the National Federation for the Blind. The group was very excited and interested in the committee, but transportation is definitely a problem for all of them. They are not able to travel to Hilo to represent. S. Nagasawa informed Kimo that everyone is from the Hilo side, but the committee does represent Kona too. According to Laura, in the past, the committee did meet in Kona every couple of months. The locations were rotated. Hilo would go to Kona with a van or with whatever vehicle that was available. The Kona representative moved to Waikoloa and later resigned. Basically, the problems were transportation, housing and accessibility, same as the Hilo side. A few names were suggested as new members – Joshua Pratt and Larry Scandon. NEW BUSINESS Introduction of Executive on Aging, C. Kimo Alameda, Ph.D. Dr. Alameda introduced himself and gave a brief history. He started with the Office of Aging on April 1. He came from Adult Mental Health. He is a psychologist. Before that he was at Children’s Mental Health. He worked alongside with Development Disabilities. For a while he was a school counselor, then a special education teacher. Then he worked with the State Adult Mental Health and for the last five years in the Office of Health Equity. He has been always a fighter for people on the margins. He’s just happy to be in this position advocating for people with disabilities, and people who are older adults, our kupuna. He has seven children of his own, all from the same wife. They are all two years apart, the first went off to college and the last entered kindergarten. 3 His short time goal is to make sure that the staff is in compliance with giving everybody the “AHA” experience because the customer matters. “A” stands for Aloha everybody. “H” stands for Help them. Make sure they leave like they got their problem solved. And the other “A” stands for A Hui Ho, which in Hawaiian means come back. So we give everybody the AHA experience and we make them feel comfortable and make them feel like they belong. Kimo doesn’t want anybody to feel disrespected in this agency. The second thing is to build bridges. These hallways connect us, they don’t separate us. The offices in the building need to work together as one. We are all here for the same reasons. And then we need to have each other’s back. In government, we cannot have all the answers, but at least he’ll be willing to talk about it. He’ll put it on the table and brainstorm. Budget is slim, but that shouldn’t stop us from caring. It shouldn’t stop us from solving problems. His long term goals are that the office has an Area Agency Plan that we’re developing and now we’re an ADRC, since our Federal government has tried to merge the disabilities with aging. So we just have to honor the D in the ADRC. It is basically goals that have been developed from the Feds, but we have to figure out how to implement it. So, we’ll keep you informed on that. J. Floyd stated that one of the things that he looked at the ADRC as being is it’s an organization that gathers information from a lot of sources. It’s an information gathering and disbursement organization. He feels the ADRC has been tasked with developing and/or collaborating with agencies to provide services. Wesley Tanigawa According to Kimo, a big prize for the ADRC is who came from ARC and is a developmental disabilities kind of advocate. Kimo is in Mental Health and we have Aging. So we’re trying to put all these different entities into one place. The funding stream is Older Americans Act. So right now we’re Information and Assistance. We can give information, we can give assistance, we can help with applications. I think we can be the hub. We’re not perfect yet, but I think we can get to that. When somebody has a question with disabilities, at least Wes has that knowledge. If they ask about mental health, I got that knowledge. So, I think we can be a hub at least for information and assistance. As far as transportation, maybe we can bring people to the table. Our targeted money is not targeted for transportation, but we have this building. We can bring people together. We can coordinate the meeting. Dr. Alameda stated that another important thing is the continuum of care. So on one end we have Elderly Activities and they’re responsible for the active seniors, seniors who can live independently. Right now they have 11,000 -15,000 seniors. But when they become frail, when they have one or two major life activities that they can’t do, then they come to us. They are a separate entity. And the reason they’re put under a separate entity is because money flows down to us, and if they were under us, we cannot give an award to an entity that is hired under us. So when a senior has a disability, and they come into our building, then they are our kuleana. We have about 1600 of them. And if they are too severe they go to long term care, the state hospital. So, it’s like a continuum of care. And our job, we try to be the hub, but our funding 4 stream is only for here. Our funding stream is not for the active seniors, and it’s not for the severely hospitalized. But it doesn’t mean that we cannot collaborate. L. Tarring stated that the things that the committee was discussing blends right in with why she is here today. She stated that she is disabled and is endlessly grateful to the program that has given her a chance to continue to live her life. See attached report. L Tarring praised the Coordinated Services for the Elderly and stated that Share-A-Ride program is a blessing. Taxi companies come and go, don’t always work on the weekends, but at least they are there. Kimo thanked Lynise for her comments and will relay the message to Roann and Tiffany. G. Avilla just wanted to inform Lynise about HCEOC, which also provides transportation. Discussion on Committee Goals and Objectives and Election of Officers It was decided to defer both items and wait for the rest of the committee. REPORT OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFICER AND ADA COORDINATOR, TERI SPINOLA-CAMPBELL See attached report. T. Spinola-Campbell received an update on Richardson’s. Parks Planning Division is still working out details with the State Historic Preservation Division on the design of the accessibility improvements. It’s taking longer than anticipated. Teri stated that there was an article in the Tribune-Herald about service animals. She received a call from Colin Stewart and shared some information with him on that. A lot of people were calling the paper complaining that they were seeing people with their animals everywhere. G. Avilla shared her story about an incident she had at Walmart involving her dog, Liana, being attacked by another dog while the owner just stood there doing nothing. She stated that getting a service animal requires extreme training. She had to train two weeks in Hilo and two weeks in Oregon. In Oregon, training was from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. They had to pass various routines and graduate before Liana came home with her. People with comfort dogs don’t have any training at all. T. Spinola-Campbell reported that next week she would be doing ADA training for the police recruit class. She always does an hour of service animals for them because the police are called to these disputes. Kimo thought it would be a good idea for Gena to share her experience with them. 5 REPORT FROM COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I RECREATION SPECIALIST, ALISA MITCHENER No report. (Alisa is busy with her summer programs.) ANNOUNCEMENTS J. Floyd announced that there will be a planning meeting on Friday for the 2015, East Hawai‘i Disability Legislative Forum which will be on August 20, 2015, at Aunty Sally’s. Alicia Greene introduced herself. She is the Disability Emphasis Program Manager for the USDA National Resource Conservation Service in Hilo. D. Gaeth stated that Kalakaua Street slants down and is uneven making it very dangerous for those in a wheelchair. Teri informed the committee that if there are things you see that needs attention, a request to the Department of Public Works could be made. If you have access to a computer, you can go on the Public Works site, download the form, make a request and the department should respond within a few days. K. Riedel inquired if anything was done toward enforcement of placard violations because the problems are still there. Teri said because it’s an enforcement issue, you could get the license plate number and call the police non-emergency number and report it. They will send a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle. Just keep on reporting it to the police. Teri stated that she and sometimes DCAB occasionally do have classes with the police NEXT MEETING Dr. Alameda just wanted to clarify that the minimum amount of meetings for the year is six and that we will try to meet every other month. The next meeting will be on July 15. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned 11:45. Respectfully submitted, Sandra Arriola Recorder/Transcriber 6