Minutes - 20040131 - Laserfiche WebLink

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committees appointed far the two new senior centers. Regarding the Southern Orange center, there is a request that one of the at-large members be a representative from UNC Hospital. The other request is to move to do a Central Orange committee so that they do not feel left behind. They did a study of the County aging, and the study is complete. This study will be made public soon. Another goal is to do something about mental health. They would like to have mental health services available in the senior centers. Another big issue for the year is to look at the guardianship program in Orange County. As people have aged and become frailer, they will need mare help. This is a statewide program. She said that this would be an increasing concern. She said that they would need to deal with mental health, guardianship, dementia education, telephone reassurance, and Friend to Friend. Next year, they would like to develop a formalized evaluation to look at whether the people in the County are being served well. Another issue is that there are a lot of people that may have wealth that may need guardianship and they need to be adequately protected. Commissioner Carey asked if there was space adjacent to the Central Orange Center and Florence Soltys said that it might be coming available. Chair Jacobs asked if it was in the budget request. Department on Aging Director Jerry Passmore said that they would like for that to be part of the budget request. Jill Passmore spoke about the Orange County Long Term Care Facility Roundtable. The Master Aging Plan recommends the development of the roundtable. The first meeting was in May 2003. Orange County is on the cutting edge in that this is the first roundtable of its kind in the State and in the nation, as far as they know. There were 75 people in attendance. They divided into three working subcommittees -Advocacy; Staffing, Recruitment, and Retention; and Legislative and Advocacy Work. All committees have met to review the Master Aging Plan objectives and to set a working plan for 2004-2005. The next full membership meeting of the roundtable will be March 31 S`. They request the County Commissioners' presence at this. It will be at the Southern Human Services Center from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. One of the major problems that has come up in all subcommittees has been training and that staff members do not know how to deal with difficult behaviors in facilities. Many are associated with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Fifty percent of the population 85 years and older has Alzheimer's. Another emerging issue is the young mentally ill population mixed in with the older adults. Other concerns are the lack of enforcement of existing regulations of Senate Bill 10 -Transfer Discharge Rights for Adult Care Home Residents and Special Care Unit Disclosure Act. There is a major issue with national criminal background checks because a lot of employees come from other states. Chair Jacobs asked Jill Passmore if the Legislative subcommittee could get some legislative issues to the Board to bring to the legislative breakfast. Jill Passmore said that they could do that. Kate Barrett spoke about dementia and distributed a handout. The Dementia Initiative goes from early diagnosis to long-term care. She pointed out the dementia checklist for physicians that they developed. She asked for the County Commissioners' support to provide positive reinforcement to facilities that send their staff to two days of intensive training at the Central Orange Senior Center. They also want permission to put on the website what facilities have sent staff and haw many staff members were sent. Solid Waste Advisory Board: Jan Sassaman, Chair of the SWAB, said that they meet monthly and they have good participation. He gave a PowerPoint presentation as follows: Major Accomplishments: Continued evaluation of alternative financing mechanisms for future waste management needs and options.