##VIDEO ID:LplhIDWYyTo## good evening everyone welcome to the October 8th Commission on disabilities meeting if we could please make sure I'm not muted everyone can hear me okay if we could please stop by saying the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh if co-chair perno if you could do a roll call of the members that'd be greatly appreciated absolutely so Ralph too present and paulan perno is present Jason Baron Jason just got to unmute Jason there you go Jason present Mario germanis present and Marie fiori present and Ellie Varget pres hi Ellie hi okay we are all in attendance nice thank you that that's good and we're all on time which is which which is greatly appreciated this way if we had any technical glitches we would have been able to uh to get them taken care of um item number one is I had sent out the uh meeting agenda for tonight and the meeting notes thanks to uh Vice chair Pano uh seeing that there was an error uh what was sent out Friday to all you members um I had resent it out to everyone um I believe last night um so if anyone had a chance to please take a look at the meeting notes from last night from last month uh if there was any issues or anything please let me know um beforehand and if not if we could have someone make a motion to approve and then to second that a motion to approve second it thank you thank you okay um then we will just uh I have um item number two we're going to come back to uh we're going to go right to item number three uh we have Richard Chia who's Community engagement and clinical manager at Community Music Center of Boston is our monthly guest speaker so Rachel uh welcome and thank you for joining us and she's going to give us a little bit of a presentation um I know you've you've had some Communications with Amar fellow cood member um so again I wanted to thank you for this and uh I know you have a presentation and if you have any issues with sharing the screen please let me know um but if you want to introduce yourself and then you can you can go from there yeah absolutely thank you first so so so much for having me it's an absolute Joy my name is Rachel cha um I'm Community engagement clinical manager at the community Music Center of Boston we are located in the South End um as in terms of I can give a very short introduction from my background um I am a Music therapist I'm originally from Texas but I went to do my undergraduate at Berkeley College of Music in Boston uh learned to love the Red Sox in the city which I think is the most important thing about me um I've been at Community music deser for for a little about around two years I'm starting off my my second year here um but my background is in music therapy um I was a music therapist for a long time in Texas I worked with individuals um in private uh sessions as well as uh groups um I worked in mental health um working with active duty military members uh around substance use or mental health um and I work spend a lot of time working with um adults teens and children with disabilities um especially folks who identify as Autistic or who have an ASD diagnosis um I did my master of Social Work and masters of Public Health and I also focused on advocacy around uh disability um so it's it's really wonderful to be here and please at any time stop me with any questions I promise to not take up too much time I understand I'm sure um you know I know the sun is starting to go down because it's Boston after July 1 which means the Sun is has been down um but I can share just a little bit about um Community Music Center of Boston um like I said we are not super close but not too far away from from y'all and Riv um we are over a hundred years old and our mission is around equity and access to music and arts education um we offer both things that are at our Community Music School which is located in the South End and then we also have a lot of Community Based programming um we generally serve on an average about 2,000 students and that includes all the way up from the itty Bitties all the way to adult Learners um folks in in geriatric or uh Advanced age uh facilities um and we are one of the largest outside providers of of Boston Public Schools uh Arts programming um I also will apologize I have a toddler bedtime is starting if you hear yelling everything's fine she's crazy in a wonderful way um we offer programming for a lot of different things um we have a lot of different kind of programs happening um we offer a youth employment program where high schoolers up to um uh College age folks can get trained on different skills um we offer um different lessons and group education um we offer music therapy music production and songwriting um and we also have a really we're very lucky to have a very significant financial aid program um so I think I I especially want to flag that because our mission is around accessibility um and sustainability especially around like Financial accessibility so much times um folks especially I know that if you are paying for things like daycare or like a personal care attendant on top of that adding things like physical therapy on top of that music can feel like a very very not frivolous but like additional thing um and our mission is really really around making sure that there's a sustainable accessible place for folks to engage with music um because we know how important it is um this is kind of vaguely important numbers honestly I will leave them here um we have been around um the south end and um for about a hundred years um we are really lucky if you see news about us we are also expanding we just bought a building in new Bean Square so we will be there as well um but now I know the important thing that everyone wants to talk about to hear a little bit about is music therapy um I can give a really quick introduction on music therapy but I wanted to see if anyone knows what that is or has done music therapy before no okay all right members any members if you have you can talk well I just wanted to say Rachel I'm finding you very fascinating um I'm a registered nurse by profession but I have a degree in counseling rehab and I went to a manual and a couple of my friends that were there were music therap be Majors uh one played the cello which I thought interesting combination because I never thought of a cello being used as a a tool to be therapeutic I guess um and then a couple piano people so I've had an introduction to it but I'm finding this extremely fascinating and I was going to say I'd love to come and visit your facility oh yeah and I I got to say I am around most of time so in case you ever find yourself in Boston we're pretty like the closest stuff we within very very short walking distance maybe five blocks to the South End Back Bay station um and let me know if you're ever around I would love to give you a tour show you our space um but I can tell you a little bit about music therapy music therapy is and this is the very official definition an evidence-based discipline that uses music and music activities to address non-musical goals um that basically says that we are using music to address things and goals that are not musical um that could be things like communic um whether it is verbal or non-speaking um it could be finer gross motor skills self-expression improving mental health and coping skills um or supporting like Independent Living activities activities of daily living and skills around that um in the same way that a occupational therapist might use a um a you know one of those stretchy bands to to work on your gross murder skills um a music therapist might pull out of ukulele um and work on dexterity of your fine motor skills or your fingers um using ukulele um often times music therapy is is a really kind of a fun way to engage in these things um music therapists um generally I think I think like like you mentioned Paul we get to learn a lot of different instruments um I can say that I started playing piano very very very young I would say when I was a music therapist I did not play piano that much because it was actually just it's hard to bring a piano around everywhere would usually do a guitar I would do a lot of singing um you get to learn a lot of different kinds of music um you get to learn a lot of different kinds of things and a lot of it is like kind of creative problem solving um you know what are some ways that if if this person's goal is around um self-expression what are some ways I can provide them opportunities in music um to to express themselves or to advocate for themselves or prac to self-determination um I think one of the ones I want to specifically talk about is prosocial behav Avi um that's one that especially we I can I can reference um our work in rev um we currently work at the mate Institute which is which is in rier one of your the locations I think another one is in Randolph um but that's one of the goals that what we work a lot on um is making sure folks um can practice appropriate and healthy pro-social behaviors stuff like turn-taking stuff like conflict resolution or advocating for themselves or sharing um or just engaging in being around other people um all of these are really important things and we get to do that through through music which is a really incredible experience um here's a photo on the on the right corner if you can see it that is at one of our other awesome locations price Center in Newton and this is our music therapist AJ on the left we did a karaoke day with them which was a ton of fun um but music therapy has been shown to be effective we are an evidence-based field um it has been effective in addressing things like mental health concerns whether depression or anxiety General mental health needs self-regulation um things like pain management um I know that we are we around Boston which has a we're very very lucky to have a lot of really fantastic hospitals in the area um I know there is a music therapists at Massachusetts General um at uh Spalding for for neuro rehab and support um at Boston Children's um you know bringing women's a lot of different hospitals have them because they've been seen to be effective in um support supporting calmness um in supporting coping skills and strategies to to be able to relax even in really challenging and difficult situations um it's been effective to show um supporting developmental Milestones um one of the largest populations that we work at um in in terms of individual lessons um and sessions is working with itty Bitties um working with young kids who might have gotten recently their families might have recently gotten a diagnosis of something like autism um or a sensory processing disorder or a developmental delay um and we work to support those Milestones um and they can also be effective to support gross murder skills and movement um I think everyone I wonder if everyone here is a big fan of dancing to music I know I am but it's a really great way to to get your heartbeat up to get some healthy Motion in um and with things you can use um whether it is Reaching Across uh your body with a drumstick that's actually a thing called bilateral skills um or um you know kicking can be a really really great way to practice um lower extremity strength um so all of these different kind of opportunities to engage and use music as the thing that connects you and the therapist um as well as cognitive skills I'm so sorry I keep forgetting about my last poor bullet points um so what does a music therapy session look like great question because I'm think a lot of people kind of go like I'm going to walk into a room and a music therapist is going to say like listen to this song and tell me how you feel about that um and that could be it that could be it it it might that might feel like a little too touchy feely for some and that's okay um but um sessions can include things like active music making um which would just be the opportunity to make music together um on the left side of the screen there's a photo of of two folks one of our participants was playing guitar the other person was was singing along and dancing um and there was the opportunity to make music but within that if you can look at it you can see she's using her hands so uh she's using fine motor skills they're looking at each other they're practicing great Pro social behaviors um all of those kind of things it could be things like adapted lessons um sometimes um music therapists the person's goal is really around I really want to learn the ukulele I want to learn how to do this thing by myself I want to be proud of something accomplished I want to be proud of a thing I've learned um but this person might have an additional support need um whether it is a loss of like controlled movement in their hand um maybe they need adapted sheet music maybe they need just a little extra time to process through how something would work um adapted lessons is a really great option for that um it could include sessions could include movement and music um this is a really great thing to to practice different kinds of of gross motor skills um or even just kind of like different coping strategies um sometimes is is really great to get some movement in if you if you need to do some regulation um good drum circle uh good oldfashioned drum circle the 70s never left us um improvise music the opportunity to do some self-expression um music meditation um that could be just the opportunity to to have someone to guide you through you know playing a song and and taking the opportunity to breathe in and breathe out along to the music that's a thing that can be really grounded um songwriting production um I think I've talked about self-expression um I remember um I can share my experience working in mental health um I worked with a lot of um when I worked in military mental health this was a really big thing um it is hard to say I'm having a hard day for a lot of folks it's it's hard for a lot of different reasons whether it's their personal feelings it could be a cultural barrier um but for a lot of people it's really really can be scary to say I'm having a hard day and I'm really struggling um but being able to create something to express yourself I think gives folks another Avenue to to practice self-expression but to also have this thing of like I had a negative time and look what I built out of it I was able to come out of this and create something that I'm proud of right I was able to process through um so music therapy um can share this really quick um if you can hear it please let me know can folks hear it or no I grew up in the sou in so so I can share this really really quickly this is the story of one of our clients who has been at cmcb for a little over um almost a decade at this point Amani is awesome uh amman's been coming she is autistic she's been diagnosed with autis inspector disorder um and is largely non-verbal or non-speaking um and this is is her story and her experience at cmcb and I will probably not do the whole thing but I just want to show a little bit um to talk about this I grew up in the South End so I've walked by here plenty of times um when I was growing up and so I knew about the Community Music Center just from living in the area and uh when I found out that they had music therapy because a lot of programs hard to get my daughter into because of her autism so since I found that they could serve her here and it would be one to one classes it was just it seemed like a perfect fit so I came in I applied um I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford her on my own so they helped me with financial aid and now she's been here for she's going to be 17 so she's been here for 12 years now during that time money is grown as a person and as a musician Armani uses music as a way to communicate a way to express your feelings a way to express her thoughts and a way to interact with her music therapist I feel there's unspoken conversation that oh like that oh that's cool oh you can do that too I can so so there's that kind of conversation there music therapy is all right and that is my colleague Chris so I do not feel bad about stopping him um can I answer any questions uh about Amani or about what music therapy looks like I know I just I threw a bunch of information so I wanted to take a brief pause um and say any questions I can answer yeah how long is the duration of like um for music therapy like how many sessions like do you yeah that's a great that's a great question so music therapy um I I'm pretty sure I talk about this in a second but talk I'll answer it now um is musical therapy can really really depend um what the process normally looks like is different for each person's needs sometimes a person is coming in to address like a short-term thing like I'm going through a really hard time right now I need a little extra support to get me through that hard time um sometimes like a person with for example aanii who we just saw um we're working on she's she's constantly developing new skills um and we are consistently interacting with her in terms of music therapy sessions they really range um we offer 30 45 or 60 Minutes 30 minutes is generally a great amount of time for folks who uh have a harder time um sitting still especially for our itty Bitties we have a bunch of like three or four year olds and the parents are like she can do an hour she can't do an hour um she is very very Wiggly that's okay we'll build up to an hour um but we like generally try to do it need by need um so I think the largely unsatisfying answer is it depends but it does depend um that's a great question any other questions I wish I had this when I was younger first heard of something like this besides using meditation of or other instruments to for Behavioral skills so this is really impressive and I will definitely show up to one of your Sooners because I interested in HP of services so thank you for everything of course um no thank you and I I know that this is a thing I will often talk to people and they'll say like I wish I had this when I was younger um and I think the thing I also really like about this is like when we talk about music I hear a lot of people go oh I'm I'm not a musician um well you don't have to be a musician or you don't have to be a self-proclaimed musician to have a really meaningful experience in music um and that's why I really love about music therapy Rachel one question I have that you may be covering it later on um deals with your your facility itself how I know you said where it's located how accessible is it that's a great question yes so I would say in terms of bus line um we are close to the nine and 10 um we're also close to the 43 is I can't remember the other one um we have um in one of our entrances um it is a walk down of I believe Seven Stairs um but we have two entrances and one is on the other side is on tront um which is even closer to to bus line and there is an elevator accessible there um additionally we encourage All Families if there is a a specific need that the person has um to access our building um whether it is a social story for folks who who need Le time and um preparation to to get into the space and feel comfortable in the space um or if it is a safety need um or a just accessibility need of hey you know can can we have an extra person around um just to just to help transfer just to help get in um we really try to to listen to that um everyone's needs are different we try to respect that um I think the hardest thing about where we are located is it's the south end so parking is super fun um and very very annoying to find um I always recommend public transportation for folks who feel comfortable with it um for folks who don't um I'm more than happy to our tront street entrance um we are between Warren and tront Street um and the tront street entrance has a a very very large elevator um that is accessible I think we have fit up to two or three wheelchairs in there at one time um but yeah great question thank you yeah absolutely um I can share a little bit more about music therapists um I would say we are pretty similar to actually social workers um in the fact that you do an educational pathway um then you do this full-time internship um that equals about 6 to n months where you're working full-time um then you become board certified and licensed this is really important um there is like a whole reason why it's important but largely is because we're required to maintain ethical um practices we're required to do continuing education credits um we're required to to keep that certification up um to make sure that we are consistently supporting folks um so at cmcb music therapy I think I mentioned we offer it both internally in terms of individual sessions and then we also have external work um group session we currently are based in a lot of different places um around Boston we have a lot of different community centers we range everywhere from Rivier down to Rosendale over to Newton um we really do try to serve the Greater Boston area for for groups um we try to be very person- centered um I give the answer it depends a lot which is again I know very unsatisfying but we really do try to tailor every experience um and adapt to the person's goals um we try to talk talk a lot especially if we have a young adult or someone who's coming with their parents um we try to make sure that we're not just talking to the parents about like what do you think is important for them to do um we really want to hear from the person what goals do you want to work towards what's important to you um we try to be as person- centered and and as as connected and aligned in their goals um as possible we offer adaptive music lessons as well um we have a music therapy team we're very very lucky in the fact that there there's several of us we can collaborate we can talk um we have the opportunity to to learn and build and grow with each other um and then we have the intake process um and the thing I try to make super clear is that the first session that you ever do at music with music therapy is free because that's our opportunity to get to know you and your opportunity to get to know us um there are a lot of times where it has absolutely happened where a kiddo has come in um and I know I'm saying kiddos a lot just because that's that's where a lot of our our clients are right now we have we've done a bunch of Assessments for between like 5 to 10 um so I have Let It Go stuck in my head consistently um but uh the intake process it's the first session is always free um because that's the opportunity for us to know what the Baseline is that's an opportunity for the client to get to see our space um for the client to get to meet the therapist to learn a little bit more about us um and and kind of start the process um and lastly and the thing I really want to make sure I I will say it a million times we have a financial aid program please ask us a million questions about that that is our job um our mission is around accessing music um and if you cannot access it sustainably um then then we have not done our job um so we are very lucky to have financial aid program that can cover anywhere up from like 5 or 10% up to like 90% of a session which means that the weekly costs could go down to like five or 10 dollars a week um we do not accept insurance but we often deal my job is to part of my job is to deal with case managers um they all they they they love me um no they don't they think I'm fine um but I always talk to case managers I'm always more than happy to to help problem solve when it comes to funding um and I I always encourage like if you have a question reach out to us because I know that everyone's life is is different and so situational and based in context so know your needs um and that way we can figure out how we can problem solve together um and I think those are all the things I don't want to take up too much your time because I know I'm already over time no no no no worries no worries what questions can I answer oh I I have one one specific question when when you when you mentioned that you do external group sessions yes um for for um different um different groups like such as uh maybe like uh um a municipality or um rec centers or or whatnot uh for like a children with autism or whatnot do you have any uh specifications that you need for an external group session is there you know you have have so many people or or I think the that's a great question um again I think I anyone who I I love having conversations with any program manager because at the very very least um a thing I can we we offer um for programs is we offer also like workshops or consultations um things that we've done before is for example like working with um organizations who serve adult disabilities or teens with disabilities and like supporting them and their families um like almost doing a kind of workshop on like here's a couple ways you can use music to support your day or like support your mood um in terms of group size I think it again unsatisfying answer it depends um but we we really do have groups that kind of range range everywhere I think it is easier to to definitely if we we kind of know the the um Logistics or the logistical needs of the program um then we're able to kind of make a better judgment on like okay how could we staff this how can we make programming things um I would say most of our programming is weekly or bi-weekly um is that is that a helpful answer I want reason why asking and of course I'll bring this back to the commission members this is something that I would like to bring on as a program that we could sponsor through the commission and disabilities uh for for children that are on the Spectrum or for young adults that are on the Spectrum um here and re um of course you know I want to talk a little bit more uh with commission members on that but that's something that I I think uh we'd be able to fund as a as a program uh here here in reier but I'm just trying to figure out uh logistically what would be needed for it um you know how that would be done uh of course we would have to set up a some type of a partnership and uh so that we'd be able to you know to do that and you know that's something that we talk offline yeah and and more than happy to said please feel free to um I know that Ralph has my information um and the slides I'm gonna I'm gonna pass this on to amarie that's GNA be spearheading it for me fantastic yeah know yet pass my pass my information on whoever I'm I'm always more than happy to have ignore my kid she's fine yeah because my my goals my goals for this commission for 2025 is to try and bring in some programming uh for for for children with disabilities for young adults with disabilities and for for for adults with disabilities to try and bring in some programming constant programming and things like this father them yeah absolutely and I would I would love to help out um and we I'd love to have further conversations about how we can support um we are we are really all over so happy to always happy to come up yeah you mention you go to the May the May the May yeah that's right here in Broadway I know where that yeah I think not PA it but is it called the May Institute yes changed it a couple of times but I believe it's called the May Institute Ono yes yeah we we are there um we are at other locations we are with B Cove Human Services Goodwill um we are with uh the price Center in Newton um Rogerson uh senior services and communities um we are we're a little bit all over um if you have a group we will make music um maybe should maybe should be our motto um we are we are absolutely around okay any other I'm gonna open it up to any other members for any questions uh thank you Rachel it's so nice to finally meet you I was really impressed with just a short phone call we had but even more so now thank you for the work you're doing and really through how much you love what you do and um the program is just amazing so thank you again for joining us especially with a toddler at bedtime that's that's app you know she's she's always wild so this is part for the course um no I have two yeah I have two I know how it goes um I think you answered most of the questions one of the big questions I had was Insurance based but you answered that but it's great to hear that financial aid is available um and accessible um I guess I think when we spoke oh over the conversation you mentioned that you're in a lot of different schools and Boston is that correct yes we are um I we are currently in um I'm counting up in my head over I think probably a dozen this year um both private Boston public schools and Collegiate um both Collegiate for Boston Public Schools as well as like their own Collegiate Network um uh but yes we are in a bunch of different bunch of different schools for all ages um going from early intervention so like K zero all the way up to uh high school that's great maybe we could kind of pass your information along to CPAC from R and I don't know if it's something they would ever be interested in but it's good to have as a resource for sure yeah absolutely we are we are really really happy to we always you know so our work can is is thrives when we're able to be connected like I'm sure you guys have the same feeling of um you know sometimes you'll talk to someone and then they'll say oh I I know about this resource that would be great and you're like oh my gosh that solved for a problem that I was going to try to fix by myself um so so please feel free to connect me to whoever I'm more than happy to be connected to um to anyone and everyone um yeah absolutely thanks again Rachel yeah of course any other questions I can answer do you ever do um like professional development in service is for teachers um worked in a a small learning group K2 for a number of years and we did a lot with music and interaction and movement therapy um but we we did it all on our own I had worked with kids in schools I was a school nurse for 10 years prior um but do you ever go in and do like a professional development for the school system so that the teachers can get kind of a sense of gee if the kids are having a really tough time whatever may be integrating some movement some music whatever to help them the absolutely we absolutely have we've done that for for both professionals and for also just like parent groups um who are interested in just having some new ideas instead of listening to I'm sure you know a lot of parents are like oh my gosh I've been listening to the same five songs I'm gonna lose my mind um and even if you're listening to F same five songs here are some different things you can do with them here are some new ideas you can try new things you can you can you know um all that kind of good stuff um but I think that that would be a really neat way to kind of introduce you and transition your programs into um you know if you get the teachers on board and you get the parents on board then you know the kids are sure to follow I hope my kids are way out of Elementary and high school so that's great news for me but I will tell you that um just knowing that we have had you know a good amount of success in the past with you know if the kids are having a really rough day just put on something with the the auditory and let them get up and move and it it seems to just kind of reground them so I was just thinking that maybe it might be a good way to get that information to the teachers to you know the schools and then also to the parents through CPAC so I think we've got a couple of channels that we could work with so but that was excellent excellent presentation I really you that's very kind um well thank you all so so so much for your time um I will unfortunately leave but please feel free to everyone has my email or we will be giv my email more than happy to set individual meetings to talk more um we're located in the South End so let me know if you ever want to come by and stop by and uh come and hang out um and I I hope to to see all you guys in person someday soon okay thank you thank you thank you again richel really great night thanks y'all have a good night okay um I'm going to go back to uh item number two on our agenda it was just updates and next stpes from our September 10th monthly meeting meeting we just had uh one thing on there was just any updates from Pauline and Marie regarding calendar the calendar for future monthly guest speakers uh I know Pauline you had some feelers out there I'm still waiting on two call backs so that's where I'm wondering if we should maybe span off on music therapy and get an art therapist in here we yeah we know thoughts we can research it for sure yeah that might be some channel to go to is you know all the different modalities I mean everyone is you know it's so this the um social emotional right now in the schools out of the schools whatever age group is just so you know at the Forefront of everything I think the more information we can get out there and get disseminated to parents to students to kids that are ending out their their elementary and middle and high school years and going into adult programs I think the more information we can get for them and and have access to I think we'll be doing the right thing yeah definitely okay all right um all right so I'll wait to hear from from uh both of you for for next month um and and and moving forward because I know you did say you had a couple out there that you're waiting waiting to to hear from um I know that we could probably get the uh the universal access group so maybe we may want to reach out to um that one first for the November to the November meeting um because they're going to be coming out they usually will be coming out with their um winter program for December so it may be good if we can get them here to come and speak at at at a November meeting um which which may work and it's uh it was uh Rachel from the from the universal access group I'll give her a buzz tomorrow all right thank you um so we did item three was the guest speaker item four uh was the Koda Commission of disabilities Alliance uh monthly meeting on Wednesday October 2nd um unfortunately had a scheduled conflict so I wasn't able to um attend that live but I did know and Advance some of the things on the agenda um and I did get the notes um there was a couple of uh announcements from uh the Disability Policy cortum um who does um organize our monthly Coda meeting um the first thing that they had is uh they made an announcement that on September 25th uh dis Disability Policy Consortium was in attendance when Governor Healey uh signed the ACT to improve quality and oversight and long-term care uh so that was finally signed by governor governor uh Healey and it it included the solely needed estate recovery form uh in it so that's what we we've been discussing that was a um a bill that was in there in the legislature so that Reform Act has been signed and it does include that a uh the estate recovery um reforming it uh also the three four I can hear you you want to talk on it okay um also um the Disability Policy Consortium uh the their board of directors uh selected their their new um their new um the new executive director it's going to be Harry Weisman because their former director Colin KCK is moving to um Washington DC to accept another uh great position uh he's a great advocate for people with disabilities so that is a very very good move and they announced that R who heads the monthly uh coder um meetings is going to continue on doing that but also is going to now be the advocacy director for Cota which was uh which is which is also a a a great announcement and lastly they made an announcement that they are going to be having their annual uh John winsky Memorial Awards uh on Tuesday uh October 15 for more if anybody wants any more information on that you could uh just visit the DPC uh website again DPC stands for the Disability Policy Consortium um and then there was a few discussions uh during their meeting the first one's uh few uh commission and disability members discussed their various relationships with different transit authorities uh that they have uh depending upon where they're located whether it would be MBTA or other uh Transit Authority um agencies that they're with um they also um a couple of other uh commission uh members uh mentioned and had discussions uh regarding the uh the ride uh and uh not only the ride about the flex program um and hopefully they'll get more details on that but they just had some discussions that uh it is it is it's a great service for folks I guess they have been making some improvements on it uh I'll defer to Jason on that because he knows more about if they've been doing good improvements or not um I'm sure he's very honest and forthcoming about that so I'd love it if he'd start going to those Coda meetings uh on the on the first Wednesday of the month because he'd be able to to let everybody know when they start discussing things about the ride and whatnot um but that's what I have on that so they there was discussions on that so Jason if you have any information about the flex and the ride if it's gotten any better if they're making improvements little by little or if it's stagnant or going in the wrong direction you just have to take your mute each you're still on mute uh it's gotten a little better in certain ways but it's still difficult because wait a minute I'm gonna write this down Jason said that they're getting a little bit better let's write this date down yeah a little better but it's still difficult especially and I know La would agree with me you don't know the vehicle that you're getting may or may not be able to accommodate the wheelchair so I I'll give you a couple of examples just to help so whether you're calling the ride or you're calling your own I called a lift one day this was to go to the doctor now this is that now when you're doing that that's that's part of the flex program correct yeah yeah it's you can do it through them or you can do it on your own On Demand with the $3 and I've done that uh you have to select standard of course if let's say you're going to do the fold do wheelchair okay so I did that the car that came the trunk kept opening because it was too small even though it said they could have accommodate the fold up wheelchair so that's a bit of an issue but that's a that's definitely on a lift thing and I think that's something that the ride needs to reach out separately and I just mean as a whole because that's an accessibility issue because that can happen to an Uber as well um because the vehicles can be very small uh when you pick standard now if you pick the wheelchair version which I've done it's great if they have a driver available now the problem may be you could sit there and say you'll see your driver details in one to six to seven minutes and it can keep going and at the end time out and you have no driver and this actually did happen to me I went with my power chair I was at the mall with uh juliia um and uh my friend showed up and and uh we were at the mall stuck because I couldn't get home literally couldn't get home I I had to call my other place they had a van accessible to come pick me up I waited for an hour because it was no driver to pick me up so that's where you get caught so you got to be careful and it's the same on the ride if you don't if you're not getting the van you may get stuck it depends on what they send you so there are improvements but there are still areas and that's not just a ride that's across the board because you could get a small little car that has happened to people um where uh even though you specify what you need yeah exactly you can specify all you want but if somebody doesn't pay attention and someone in the Dispatch Center isn't paying attention it gets missed the last the last meeting that I went to they were trying to change it that instead of going to a Dispatch Center it was going to be realtime communication so it sounds like they haven't corrected that yet yeah I mean there's always a dispatch than our watching it the problem is whether someone is looking at the details in it or not yeah because you could get somebody unless you get a manager that knows what they're doing and I've seen some that really know what they're doing but if they haven't driven on the road and don't have a knowledge of how the city operates then you've got a problem so I've seen where they've sent out um addresses that are incorrect uh even though you gave them the correct address yeah it's whatever was sent to lift or whatever it may uh and CU somebody in California on the lift side that it because it's through a or Uber it's through a uh some like aish like a con aish type and so if they're not catching it you know what I'm saying it yeah you know they're only going by GPS's right but the problem with that is you know your GPS could tell you to go going to the Charles River I think that's a bad idea but it on the software a human exactly exactly just like people miss you know I know people think the HOV lanes are useless but I personally find them helpful in most cases if you know you don't think about that 15 20 30 minutes that can make a huge difference you know um so it's some areas there that need some improvement I think uh my fair thing that I that they've started it's okay I think its whole process is flawed I try to apply for it and now I'm trying to get the information they want they don't accept the card from Asel so you have to get specific letter and it's just it's a project to do it's system that they're gonna be using part of it yeah it's where you can get a discount on that part yeah that out what like three weeks ago yeah they but they every time they roll something out yeah it's kind of like they didn't test it enough before they rolled it out well exactly I mean there were things that happened where I'm we're staying now they just started this process of for the dining room they wanted to take all the rollers Walkers and uh wheelchairs including my power chair mind you now that thing's huge Ralph as you can see here so big thing wanted to take that out of the dining room and have someone bring it to me to get in it but flaw in its plan of where that's all going to go and they're not thinking about the emergencies if something hits so just to show a small example a small place that's so it's people come up with these plans but they're not they're flawed because they're not it's not some disabled sitting on it so they have no idea what they're really looking at I'm not trying to say that everybody that is quote and I'm going to say quote normal it's got the site but also but maybe they don't have a disability on the other end of it if you don't or don't have someone with it you wouldn't understand that part of it even if it's medical related you know someone with diabetes is going to understand more than somebody that doesn't have that so it's it's just I don't know it's nothing's completely bad the the tea itself needs to be revamp but that that's a whole another discussion the slow zones have not gone away I'm going to mind you on that one too thanks Jason the last item that was discussed at the coder meeting is it was it was brought up that the MBTA is is hiring uh quote unquote what it's called secret shoppers and what the reason why they're doing that they're doing this as a way to test out disability access throughout all aspects of the MBT a um so they're trying to see um what the access is for people with disabilities so if anybody wants more information on that I'm assuming that you could visit the MBTA website and find out more on that but it's uh it's it's a it's a it's a job that they're hiring called secret shopper are we gonna get are we gonna get are we gonna get rid of some upper management so we can put some more real people in there because the response to that being know on the green line for example if you don't have somebody that knows how to operate because in order to get on the green line with a chair you need someone to operate that lift um you know they don't have enough employees so how are you going to accommodate uh Boon who's never been that's never been revamped either so you know great idea but again it's execution I don't know we'll have to see El did you want to say something uh yeah no all good um I was just Googling it and I don't see anything on the MBTA website really big surprise I see R tag and talking about some in internal access modeling program well they have yeah our tag talked about having um um having that but now I guess the the NBTA is hiring secret shoppers to test out disability access unless did they mention it and they still didn't put it on their website nope all I see is a post from boston.com from 2015 ah yeah WTF mate okay I'll follow I I'll follow up uh see if I can find any information if anybody does find any information please share it with me um the last thing that was mentioned is there's no November Coda meeting so I'm not going to be able to find out until probably December uh from anybody from there I know so I just want to let you know so there's no Coda November meeting um I'm gonna throw it out there too if anybody wants to attend those monthly coder meetings it's always the first Wednesday of the month from 12 to 1:30 and it's via Zoom you should do it join all of you yeah it's really good I just I've had some scheduling conflicts the past uh the past two months uh that I haven't been able to attend it live and unfortunately they don't record them because a few people from uh different commission disabilities don't want to be recorded uh and I really wish they did record those meetings but when you when people can't attend them so that we'd be able to to see exactly what was entailed in that meeting so I'm just putting out there so if anybody's interested in doing that from when especially when I can attend them be greatly appreciated um item number five uh is commission members late items are in information so I'll open up there to any commission members if they have anything that they'd like to discuss or share that uh did not get sense to me and I haven't got anything sent by anyone for months from the commission so uh like as I said this is all of our agenda so please feel free to let me know when you want something added to the agenda so does anyone have any uh anything to mention as late item or information anybody know coming up all I heard is someone from was it City Hall that uh whe chair repairs are supposed to be expedited so hopefully people with chairs that take six months that doesn't happen that often but not official I'm not I heard and I heard the opposite that it failed oh I'm I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that what you heard is different than what I heard H see see this is what we hear in the Great Vine so let's just cross our fingers that's I didn't want to bring it up but I'm hoping that it does pass um it's all stuck in red tape lovely y everything's always in red tape biocracy at its best yeah um no I'm going to put it out there this is just everybody that may have a family member or anybody that has gone through personally I've been through the ringer medically and one of the things I'm going to tell you if you go to a nursing home and hospitals will push you if you go make sure they continue to do skilled therapy if they don't then insurance and private insurance and Medicare will stop paying and then they'll tell you that if you have mass health you can you know get that custodia will be taken care of but that's not true you have to apply for that portion of it to be covered even if it's medically necessary so you could be stuck and I found out that the place that I'm at has done some underhanded things so you need to be careful and always ask and not just for the nurseing home the hospital included ask for an itemized Bill make sure you protect yourselves and make sure they're build in the right places because you won't be able to make it anyone else okay um item number six is resident concerns or issues um I did not um get any um calls or emails for any concerns or issues just the normal uh just the normal uh emails and and issues that we I normally get um but nothing that uh anyone wanted to have mentioned for the commission meeting um item number seven uh next steps is just going to be our usual next steps is um just following up for uh calendar items and guest speakers so we'll just carry that over and um I'm also gonna add to that for anarie to try and do some followup on regards to seeing about possibly um uh bringing um a program to rever with the Community Music Center of Boston with that you know what that would cost uh um you know we can if we find out information you know for bringing it as a you know bi-weekly or weekly program um that the commission can pay for for we possibly do it we can start it for um maybe children on the Spectrum um or young adults on the Spectrum whatever you feel or or even for both um and then we can go from there we see what that would entail if there's a individual cost that they would charge or um how they would want to set it up with a municipality sure I would love to okay thank you um item number eight is our um um monthly reminder if uh uh Pauline if you mind reading that and you notice changed up a little bit you're on you're she was practicing she was practicing me me me I was it's because I'm drinking water I'm as dry as a bone over here any hes reminder the commission on disabilities office number is 781 286 8267 residents can also call revia 311 directly and speak to their staff Monday through Friday they will answer most questions but if they cannot or if you want to talk to our department directly ask to be transferred to the disability office please leave a detailed message and someone will get back to you soon as always please let us know if you want something discussed or added to our monthly commit meeting agenda you can let us know if you would like to speak on any issue or concern the commission is here to help and assist all the disabled residents and families of rever thank you um our our next meeting via Zoom is going to be on Tuesday November 12th at 6: PM uh if I could ask for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn made by by Jason second and second by Mario okay thank you everyone and have a great Halloween and uh don't eat too much candy bye