ADRC of Northwest Michigan—Steering Committee Meeting

Friday, February 13, 2015

Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Judy Parliament, Kathy Kimmel, Jim Moore, Denise Plakmeyer, Georgia Durga, Meredith Hawes, Carrie McCombs, April Missias, Renee Louvierre-Mitchell, Bob Schlueter, Heidi Gustine, Connie Hintsala

Collaboration and networking – roundtable “What’s on your mind this week about how we are providing services to seniors and the disabled?”

  • How do we solve problems together rather than individually, need a different kind of thinking.
  • Opportunity to streamline systems with the Governor’s order for DHS-DCH merger.
  • Many seniors without support systems – how to bring community together to assist people?
  • This year is the 50th anniversary of the Older American’s Act and the 40th anniversary of the COA.
  • This year is the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many uncertainties exist right now.
  • Many efforts are tied together. There is a growing need for accurate information. Information about efforts to fund road repairs is needed – funding road repair could impact how other services are funded.
  • Frustrated with lack of collaboration within community. It is difficult to communicate with others.
  • It has been challenging to get agencies to work together and be on the same page.
  • Happy to know the ADRC is here as a resource to give out.
  • MIPPA grant includes 140 more enrollments. Building partnerships to support enrollment.
  • How to keep fire and safety as a priority, particularly for those who could be most at risk.

General Updates

  • Reviewed ADRC dashboard. Call volume is increasing. Working to increase usage of Partner area of the website.
  • Person Centered Thinking (PCT) training will be offered face-to-face in the spring (dates are TBD). PCT training is available online. There is ADRC funding to assist with tuition.
  • The state ADRC Advisory Committee will hold a planning session in March using the Collective Impact Model as a framework for discussion.
  • Denise will be meeting with the Resource Database workgroup in Lansing to refine service definitions.
  • The ADRC will be offering an education session about services offered by the Department of Human Services with emphasis on APS on 3/11 at 10am at the GT Metro Fire Station 11 off of Veterans Drive. There will also be a webinar option so that organizations from other counties can easily participate. Look for more information to come.
  • The ADRC is a project of the NMC Communications class this term. There are two students assigned to us that will be working on a video for the website, design of an advertisement, redesign of an ADRC flyer, development of a Facebook page, and recommendations for easy improvements to the website. The Marketing and Outreach workgroup has met with the students.
  • Consensus approval of the Partnership application for Northwest Michigan Health Services.

Work Plan -- Input Session

  • The remainder of the meeting was spent reviewing the proposed work plan. Discussion and changes include:

Goal: Internal communication system for ADRC Partners to share information regarding services

  1. It was discovered during discussion that the email alert function of the Partner area is not working. This needs to be resolved with the vendor.
  2. Steering Committee members commit to posting in the Partner area once a week to build content and engagement in the forum.

Goal: Marketing and outreach plan that includes further development of the website

  1. Work with Partner agencies to intentionally define how to introduce the ADRC in existing presentations and forums within each community. Solidify elevator speech.
  2. Work through value proposition in the customer segments – family/individual, others we would like to tap into, think through the eyes of customer groups.

Goal: Shared referral system that has multiple points of entry, coordinated information sharing and provides warm transfers among Partner agencies

  1. Develop education about confidentiality – what can or cannot be shared.
  2. Explore free email encryption options.

Goal: Evaluate the effectiveness and the value of the ADRC

  1. Add customer advisory group or other mechanism to engage consumers in development – how to make sure we’re on point. Add customer feedback mechanism to the website.

Next meeting is 3/13 at 9:30am in the AAANM Conference Room.