December 17, 2024 Community Advisory Committee Minutes

Otero County Department of Human Services

13 W 3rd Street
La Junta, Colorado 81050
719-383-3168
Fax 719-383-3150

Otero County Department of Human Services CMA Community Advisory Committee Minutes

Date: December 17, 2024
Time: 11:00 a.m.

Attendees:

Present:

• Ruben Rael – Family member
• Kayla Kaminsky - Member with Intellectual and/or developmental disability
• Mary Jo Aragon – Member with Intellectual and/or developmental disability
• Vicky Masar – Family Member
• Donna Rohde – Staff Member

Absent:

• David Monett – Member with other disability

Members introduced themselves and reviewed the agenda.

Staff Member and Committee members reviewed the purpose of the Community Advisory Committee.

Members reviewed the Confidentiality policies and signed the Confidentiality Agreements.

Members reviewed the complaint trend. The complaint was regarding effective communication between the CMA and a client. The members reviewed the CMA’s response which was to call the client leaving a message regarding what time and day they could expect a call back. The intent is to allow the client to be prepared to visit with the CMA. CAC members present appreciated this response and offered additional guidance indicating that the CMA should let the client know the expectations regarding communication and that the case manager should carefully document the attempts in the event that there is an issue that arises in the future.

The Committee members reviewed the Exception Policy. The members discussed the client who utilized the exception process at the change of CMA, desiring to stay with their current CMA rather than to transfer to the new one and the potential client who is going through the exception process currently to change from this CMA to another one.

Committee members reviewed the transparency requirement for the CMA. Donna navigated the group through the website to determine whether the documents were easily accessible for the public to find. Committee members indicated that the website was intuitive and appreciated seeing where the CAC documents would be stored.

Committee members discussed the need for additional interaction for individuals participating in day programs at Inspiration Field. This will be added as an additional agenda item for the next meeting to brainstorm ideas of services that exist or that may be developed to assist.

The group set meeting dates for 2025. The meetings will be held at 11:00 a.m. on March 19, June 18, September 17 and December 17.

Meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m.