The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, December 3, 2007 @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Robert Rosemier called the meeting to order.  Members present were Jeff Metzger, Sr., Rich Osborne, Pat LaVigne and Paul Stoddard.  Ms. Fullerton was absent.  Ms. Ziv Sabin, Executive Director of Elder Care Services was also present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Mr. Metzger, Sr., and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from November 2007.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

          Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Mr. Osborne, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

ZIV SABIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OR ELDER CARE SERVICES – SELF ABUSE BY ELDERLY REPORT

                Ms. Ziv Sabin, Executive Director, of Elder Care Services, reviewed her report on Self Abuse by Elderly for the committee (on file in the County Board Office and Elder Care Services Office).  Allie Levinsky, who is her Self-Neglect Case Coordinator, who produced the report.   She pointed out that their projected goal for the current year was to handle 40 cases.  Currently, after two months of being actively involved in Self-Abuse investigation, they have handled 20 cases.  Ms. Sabin, Ms. Levinsky, and their Elder Abuse Case Coordinator, are all trained to investigate both types of abuse.

          Ms. Sabin updated the committee on Illinois Care RX Program.  November 15^th kicked off the annual 45-day open window for anyone who is on Medicare Part D or who not on it Medicare D just yet, can at this time adjust their policy, that is change to a new policy, get a policy if they never have had one before, etc.  This includes not only seniors who are on Medicare, but for those who are disabled on Medicare and not yet 65 years of age, she continued. 

During this time, Elder Care has walk-in Wednesdays every single week.  They have call-in appointments too and there are couple of them that are Medicare Part D certified who help these clients when they visit the Elder Care office.  In November they started outreach sites throughout DeKalb County where one of the staff persons will travel to one of these sites to help serve the elderly in those areas.  Her goal is to try and get staff to these outreach sites in these temporary offices on a monthly basis.

          Mr. Metzger suggested that the last director at Fox Valley Older Adults was trained and certified in Medicare Part D and that it may be a good idea to train other people. 

          Ms. Sabin agreed with him and thanked him for the suggestion.  She did not believe that additional funding would be required as was the case last year to provide Medicare Part D advisement.

          Ms. Sabin then informed the committee that there are a few people that are trained and certified as an Elder Abuse Investigator.  If you call their offices after hours and they want to report elder abuse they can do that 24 hours 7 days a week, said Ms. Sabin.    There are certain offices that are mandated to report these cases, which are family, police, religious, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and Christian Scientists to name a few.  Those are only two very large groups that are not mandated reporters that are professionals and those are attorneys and bankers.  Currently they are really starting to call and report cases though they are not mandated to, she said.

          There are priorities that they assign to each case.  Priority One is life threatening injuries or sexual abuse and within 24-hours they need to respond.  Priority Two is passive neglect, which involves seniors left at home without medication and food, which they need to respond within 72-hours.  Priority Three is financial, verbal abuse and they have 7-days to respond.  They do not take that total length of time usually at their office.  The supervisor prioritizes the cases once they receive them in their office.  Once they start the interview process they have 30 days to process the case.  It is also being investigated by the police during the 30 days.  Her office receives any documentation that they need, photos that are needed, etc. 

The goal by the police department is to take it to the State’s Attorney’s office.  Her office goals are to assist the elder abuse victim, assist the abuser, and will prosecute those cases if needed, and they have case time. They can leave the case open once they can substantiate that there is abuse for as long as 15 months so that they remain involved in the case.

They do monitor the cases once a month via phone calls, face to face meetings, etc.

They currently have 20 cases and a case manager can handle this.  This is average for the state level in case level.  The state does not want you to go over 25 cases a case manager to handle, explained Ms. Sabin.

After a brief discussion the committee thanked Ms. Sabin for her very informative report that is attached to these minutes.

          Before adjourning, Chairman Rosemier informed the committee that Ms. Mary Ramp of DeKalb County Community Services Department would be visiting with the committee at their January 2008 meeting to discuss housing issues and the homeless issue.

ADJOURNMENT        

          Moved by Ms. LaVigne, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                Respectfully submitted by,

                                                ____________________________________

                                                 Chairman Robert Rosemier

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary