Meeting December 3, 2009

The meeting started by welcoming Andrew De'Franza and Lindsey Staveley from Turtle Creek/Turtle Woods. Andrew and Lindsey informed the group about the supportive housing model at Turtle Creek/Turtle Woods. Resident's have the option of an on site care manager from Senior Care, Inc. to conduct an assessment of their needs to remain living independently. If care is needed, Associated Home Care is available as an option. There is also a 24-hour attendant, available to all residents, if needed. The goal of having on site care is to promote and ensure if residents want to, they have the opportunity readily available to age in place.

Thank you Andrew and Lindsay for your informative presentation and for welcoming the group to Turtle Creek/Turtle Woods- the coffee was a nice addition!


The group then discussed the upcoming group: Clutter Bugs. The first meeting, possibly first two meetings, will focus on gathering information from attendees and allow those that attend the chance to brainstorm and let us know what they need from a group.


The 1st brainstorming meeting of Clutter Bugs will be held on January 19th at 10 a.m. at the Senior Center. Please let Laurie know if you would like a flyer e-mailed or mailed to you. A second date, if needed, has been set for February 8th at 3 p.m.

The next Beverly Hoarding Task Force Meeting will be held on Thursday, February 11th at 9 a.m. at the Beverly Council on Aging

So far agenda items for that meeting include: Discussion of information gained from Clutter Bug meeting (s), we are inviting a speaker from the Cape Anne Time Bank to join us, items to add to our financial resources list, and time for roundtable discussion.



THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE TASK FORCE!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS and HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Clutter Bugs

Are you a clutter bug? Do you know someone who is?

The first clutter bug support group will be held

Tuesday, January 19th

10 a.m. at the Beverly Senior Center

(more info to follow)

October 8, 2009

Meeting held at the Beverly Senior Center, 90 Colon Street, Beverly

Regionalizing was discussed:

• next steps visiting Western MA meeting to see how they operate, their by-laws and structure. The proposed mission of the North Shore Hoarding Task Force: to provide education, awareness and resources on the issue of hoarding and to assist North Shore communities addressing this growing concern. A time frame was discussed- as Spring 2010.

Reviewed the goals of the task force:

1)to help agencies understand each others roles and limitations (access/confidentiality) and to develop procedures which allow better coordination between providers 2) to develop "at-a-glance" reference tool for first responders 3)to offer training to a cross section of the community-clients, families and professionals- about recognizing symptoms and implementing effective intervention strategies 4) to explore resources available in our community and produce/distribute list of providers. We Celebrated our Success ! 1) We continue to learn about available resources and each agencies role, inviting speakers to our meetings and updating each other on changes at our agencies 2) We do have a reference tool for 1st responders- distributed to police, fire and ambulance during the summer of 2008 3) We have, when asked given presentations and respond to calls each week from within and beyond Beverly (calls received from CA, D.C. .. and even London!) 4) We do have a resource list that is available and will be updated yearly

Goals for 2010:

Continue to meet, every other month- try to meet at different member locations in and around Beverly.

Offer a support group for individuals who hoard, monthly at the Senior Center - each member will be asked to help facilitate.

Develop a funding guide/hand-out, the members will think creatively to help people access funds, find help and available resources in these tough times.

Continue to invite interesting speakers to our meetings to attract more interest. Invite key people to our meetings, housing and Rep. Mary Grant.

Work towards a conference and regionalization of a North Shore Hoarding Task Force

Add PDF's to our blog- the resource list and other helpful hand-outs

Meeting: July 9, 2009

Attendees: Teri, Anne, Debbie, Cheryl, Susan, Dawn



Guest, Stephanie Schorow, working on article focusing on hoarding as public concern. Attending task force meetings in various communities.



Discussions around resource list distribution, finalizing brochure and task force expansion to regional group.

Outlined mission statement - to be finalized

Meeting June 11, 2009

Attendees: Dawn, Diane, Anne, Naomi, Debbie, Teri, Kathy, Cheryl, Michelle, Susan, Miriam



Debbie brought the first 200 copies of the resource directory - many thanks for the efforts to get this out into your communities. Please stop by to pick up more if you'll be attending an event that you think would be a good opportunity to distribute. I'll also blast many groups on email to get it out on a greener circulation route. Send updates my way & we will aim to keep the info. current.



Anne will take a look at the brochure & I'll try to get an e- file out so that she can play with it a bit more.

Meeting May 14, 2009

Attendees: Brian, Dawn, Michelle, Pat, Debbie and Teri.

Updates:

• The resource list has been given to Debbie who has generously arranged for the initial batch to be photocopied. Hopefully at our next meeting, we'll be moving toward getting this important resource distributed into our communities, as this seems to be the greatest expressed need - who to call for assistance. If anyone has updates to the resource list, please send them to me via email or give me a call. This is a fluid document and the more current we can keep the information, the more helpful it will be to clients and providers.


• The (very rough draft) of the brochure was distributed for review and I'll plan to bring that to next month's meeting as well as shoot an email out to our list - we are looking for feedback by the first week in July so that we can finalize that too.


• A starter kit for beginning a local support group was requested from Clutterer's Anonymous.

The group discussed the expansion of the Task Force to include other communities on the North Shore and will look to begin hosting the meetings at various agencies/organizations to "cast a wider net." Please email or call with suggestions of other agencies that might like to be included in updates on our efforts/meetings. Also, if you know of a task force operating in your community, please forward the contact information to me for the group's chairperson(s). We'd really like this to be a coordinated effort and don't want to inadvertently overlook anyone.

The task force is working on planning our next conference and is looking for your thoughts on funding, venues to host, structure of the day, etc. Again, feel free to email these suggestions to me.

Next meeting:

Thursday, June 11, 2009 at Beverly Senior Center, 90 Colon Street, Beverly, MA

Meeting March 12, 2009

Attendees: Susan K, Leslie, Cheryl, Laurie and Teri.



Reviewed and updated the resource list which will be finalized in the next couple of weeks by our NSCC student intern.





Cheryl discussed that trainings on hoarding sensitivity will take place in April and May for selected, contracted homecare agencies' supportive aides. This is through the Lifetime Association - a coalition of 6 ASAPs and will be presented by Merrimack Valley Elder Services.







The group had a good discussion about two training tracks:



1) direct service homecare providers and



2) clinicians



As part of further planning, it would be helpful to determine what the desired outcomes of training (i.e. trained facilitators for support groups, homemakers who are sensitive in effecting progress with hoarders) might be.







Laurie passed around information from Pink Sneakers Productions. They are looking for clients who are willing to share their story for a documentary series on hoarding for TLC Network. The group is now offering $500 in compensation. contact casting@pinksneakers.net for more information.







Teri spoke about Debbie MacGregor, Director of Community Awareness and Prevention Team for the Essex County District Attorney's office. We all agreed that Debbie's role is an important one and that it would be a good idea to partner with her and that the resources she could bring to the table would be very valuable. Debbie will plan to attend our next task force meeting, but some ideas discussed were: expanding/regionalizing the task force to include other North Shore communities; hosting a workshop to help raise awareness and educate first responders, direct service providers and other professionals about compulsive hoarding; copying and distribution of the resource list and/or brochure.







The group briefly discussed the idea of a fundraiser event - possibly a screening of the documentary film, "My Mother's Garden." http://www.mymothersgardenmovie.com/pages/trailer.html and hosting a support group for individuals who hoard and also family members.

Laurie will be presenting at the MassHousing/Lynn annual breakfast on how our task force works on Friday, April 3, 2009.

Committees will be a discussion at the next group meeting.





The next meeting will be held at the Beverly Council on Aging on May 14th at 9:00 a.m.

Meeting February 12th

The meeting on February 12th welcomed some new members from PACE of the North Shore and the Tenant Preservation Program. We discussed the workshop and making it an even bigger event - which means spending some more time brainstorming and planning before we set an official date/time. An exciting idea that was brought up was to invite an entertainer to start out the program - we all agreed that you need to keep your sense of humor while working with families, especially your own.

Additional goals were set to work on revising the hoarding resourse list, hosting a support group for "treasure collecters" who want to declutter and the possibility of developing a web-site.

The group has been invited to present at the MassHousing Regional Meeting/Lowell on April 3, 2009. Teri will attend and encourages other members to check their schedules and join her.

The next meeting will be held on March 12th at 9 a.m. at Senior Care, Inc.

Workshop Postponed

The workshop scheduled for Jan. 13th has been postponed to the Spring. We will discuss a new date at our February 12th meeting held at Senior Care, Inc.