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>> control room? we're going to start the meeting. thank you. good afternoon and welcome to the mayor's disability council this friday, january 18th, 2019 in room 400.

san francisco here at city hall. city hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and other devices, wheelchair access is provided at the grove van ness and mcallister street via ramp. wheelchair access at the carlton entrance. our meeting is open and captioned and sign language interpreted. our agendas are available in large print and braille. please ask staff for any additional assistance you may need. to prevent electronic interference with the room sound system and to respect everyone's ability to focus on the presentation, please silence all mobile phones and pdas. your cooperation is appreciated. we welcome the public's participation. there will be opportunity for

public comment at the beginning and the end of the meeting as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three months -- well, that's a long time for you to speak -- excuse me, three minutes. and following the meeting, if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speakers card at the desk located in the front of the room. then please approach the microphone during public comment or you can participate on our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632, where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. the mayor's disability council is generally held on the third friday of the month. the next will be friday, march 15, 2019, from 1 to 4, in this room 400.

please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or to request accommodations at 1-415-554-6789, or by e-mail, mod@sfgov.org. as a reminder to all our guests today, to speak slowly into the microphone, to assist our captioners and interpreters. we thank you for joining us on this friday. now we will proceed to the agenda. and we did the welcome and introduction. staff will do roll call. thank you. >> co-chair denise senhaux? >> present. co-chair jim blacksten? present. council member tatiana kostanian? absent. council member alex madrid.

>> present. council member sally coghlan mcdonald? >> present. council member orkid sassouni? present. council member helen smolinski? >> present. council member kate williams? >> present. item 1. item 2, action item. reading and approval of the agenda. item 3, public comment. items not on today's agenda, but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting, as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes and the council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you

provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card available in the front of the room. approach the microphone during public comment or call our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632, where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. item 4. information item. co-chair report. item 5. information item. report from mayor's disability council. please note that the reports can be found in the what's new section of the website. item 6, behavioral health services for people who are homeless. information on behavioral health services, drug and alcohol treatment resources. the referral process to receive treatment and then transitional supportive housing. presentation by craig murdock,

director, sf health network, and edwin batongbacal, director, adult and older adult systems of care. public comment is welcome. break, the dowel 0 will take a 15-minute break. item 7, information item. city agencies, deaf advocates and represent testifies from community-based organizations come together to give input on the san francisco police department's department general record. a brief overview of best practices for officers. presentation by captain troy dangerfield, san francisco police department. public comment is welcome. item 8. information item. san francisco disability community cultural center survey. the study of san francisco is building the first municipally funded disability community

cultural center and long more institute is working to plan for it. we'll shear about the project and explain opportunities. presentation by catherine kudlick, director and emily beitiks, associate director. san francisco state university. public comment is welcome. item 9. public comment. items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. each speaker is limited to three minutes. please approach the microphone for give your comment card to the mod staff. item 10. information item. correspondence. item 11, discussion item. council member comments and announcements. item 12, adjournment. >> thank you, heather. i'm going to ask for motion for approving of today's agenda. >> i move that the minutes be

approved. >> thank you, co-chair blacksten. all in favor? okay. go ahead and approve the minutes. sei so we're going to move onto agenda number 3, public comment, items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. i believe we have a speaker card. >> actually, two. the first speaker is eileen. >> good afternoon, thank you for this opportunity to bring to your attention a problem my family is facing with the city planning department. my husband and i have three children, 12, 5 and 3. one with profound multiple disabilities and the other on the autism spectrum.

my husband has grown up in san francisco for the past 40 years. we chose to raise our family in san francisco. in 2014, we purchased our house from a builder and seller who made major renovations to our house. we ensured that all aspects of the home were sound, thorough inspections were done and we were diligent in that renovations were approximator submitted. in -- permitted. in 2017, we received that the facade of the home was changed in violation of the code and we as owners were to remediate the problem. this undertaking would be a massive financial cost, over $50,000, as well as a major disruption, would wreak havoc on our children's lives and deny us reasonable accommodations. we engaged with a historic

preservation architect and we live on a block that has no historic significance, neither does our home. upon the further investigation, we learned that the city was aware prior to our purchase and during the construction phase that the builder was planning to replace windows and in violation of historic preservation code because a neighbor filed a complaint against the builder. despite the city knowing about that complaint, the city didn't act on enforcement at that time and when it came down to inspections and permits to be passed, everything was approved. only in 2017 when the city began old complaints, did they pursue enforcement. we have tried to work with the city planning department to help them understand we had no intention of -- historic preservation code. that our home does not have historical significance and they allowed the construction to go

on and signed off on permits. we request the dismissal of the matter, but our request has fall fallen on deaf ears. we believe that the city is barred by the doctrine of latches and is stopple and that the statute of limitations has run. we believe this is unfair to hold us responsible. why did the city sign off on permits had they know? we have the utmost respect for our codes, however the windows we have cause no safety concern to us or others and there should be a balance of interests. [bell ringing] we kindly ask the

mayor's disability council to confer with the planning department and help to facilitate a resolution that provides us with equitable justice. thank you. >> thank you. >> is this a -- alita fisher from the advisory committee for special ed. >> good afternoon, members of the council. i'm the chair of the san francisco unified school district community advisory committee for special education. we're a local plan mandated organization that helps families hold the district accountable to providing services to students with individual education plans and 504 plans. the work we do, i believe, is

very similar to the work you do here on a much greater level. so i'm here to introduce myself. and hopefully be working with you in the near future. i think there is a lot of opportunity for collaboration between our organizations. the students with disabilities will hopefully soon be tax-paying citizens who are fully employed and participating in our great city. and so i have two things here that i'd love to share with you. short-term. on february 2, sfusd and the cac are co-planning a college and career fair aimed at students who have iep504 plans. it's not only a transition fair, but 75% of students with disabilities in sfusd are

supported in general ed settings, not special day classes and are preparing to go onto college. and very often with our families and our students with disabilities we assume low expectations, so i think this is an opportunity to highlight we should have higher expectations for our families. we encourage and invite all of you. i'll leave flyers. we would love to see you february 2 at city college and for you to spread the word among the various communities. also, the cac meets monthly at support for family. the fourth thursday of every month. our upcoming meeting january 24, is timely with one of today's presentations here. we're talking about mental health services within the school district and i think it's fantastic that is what is on your agenda today. gep, collaboration. that's fantastic. my name is alita fisher.

i look forward to working with you in the future. if there is anything i can do as an advocate, as a parent, i look forward to working with you. i only brought five copies of the flyers, but i'd be willing to spread additional information. just say the word. >> any other public comment at this time? >> no other cards. >> co-chair senhaux: i'll close public comment and move on to information item number 4. which is the co-chair report. so the mayor's disability council schedule has changed and we're going to have a monthly meeting every other month. the month we're not meeting, we're going to be doing outreach for public meetings. we're going to go out to agencies, community-based

organizations, depends where we're needed and as our schedule permits, because we have our own individual contacts. so one of the meetings that i was able to attend that i'd like to give information on, was the community alliance of disability advocates. i've only had the opportunity to meet twice. so i want to give you a little description about who they are and what they do. so the acronym is a group of represent testifies from disability advocacy organizations who provide a cross disability perspective, raise awareness and coordinate advocacy efforts. they address issues that affect us all, for example, civil rights, housing, transportation and policy making. so right now one of the goals is to expand their membership with the new partners. to include representation from key sectors. to bring a greater understanding

and community support. so, they usually send out, they have a distribution list of their monthly meetings. so the second thing that i was able to attend was the mayoral forum a week or so ago. it was the second of several sponsored by the dignity fund. basically, the dignity fund was instrumental in proposition i, of subsidizing existing funding and increasing support for seniors and adults with disabilities, including veterans, those aging with h.i.v. and other chronic conditions, and caregivers. it established a new foundation of funding in the department of aging and adult services starting with their basic fund

streaming of $38 million. their legislation also speaks to increases which are about $6 million in the first year, $3 million in any of the additional years from two thru 10. and basically they're funding priorities focused on caregiver support, innovative community service centers, support for housing, retention, legal services, and financial planning, nutrition, wellness and support for veterans. so they were sponsoring where the mayor took 45 minutes. i'm sure that is in the director's report, a lot more detail because i'm going from memory. she talked about the key issues affecting disability such as housing, employment. she talked about affordable accessible housing with regards to proposition c and other bands that are in place for -- bonds that are in place for

restoration of low-income housing with regards to multifamily dwellings. she talked about the commitment that started with mayor lee, the 5,000 units of building affordable accessible housing and the challenges of the city going through the per met and process program and working out a system to make that process go faster so we can get more affordable housing. she touched on a lot of issues. she did mention the council, there were positions open, people wanted to know within the community how to keep connected with their city government. that's when she mentioned the positions and, you know, who we are and a little bit about what we do. and she encouraged people to join committees and be a part so they can stay connected and know what is going on with their communities. i'm trying to keep this short. i'm sure the director will go into more detail if i left

anything out, but i wanted to mention that. that's the end of my director reporter. thank you. now we're going to move on. to the director's report. and i'd like to thank the director, please proceed with the director's report. >> i took credit for it two seconds ago. >> it's a collective community report, so no problem. nicole bohn, the director of the mayor's office on disability. it's good to see all the council members and everyone in the audience. we haven't met in person since october, so i have quite a bit to update you on. and so i will do that. the first thing i'd like to talk about is specifically around

housing. the mayor's office of housing and community, is in the process, their five-year process of looking again at their three strategic plans around housing priorities. they have a consolidated plan, analysis of impediments to fair housing choice. and right now there is a live survey open to the approximate you been that is asking for -- public that is asking for feedback on what you need and what you would like to see in terms of housing development. there are questions and opportunities for people with disabilities to engage with the survey, so i highly, highly recommend that you all take the survey. it is on the mayor's office of housing and community development website. it is also posted under the what's new section of the mod

website, at sfgov.org/sfmdc/whats-new. cana in addition to the survey opportunity beginning now through february, there are going to be public forums and listening sessions for members of the public to attend by district and that list of public forums to comment on housing needs and priorities is also lested on our website. so again, i highly encourage everyone to look for that. we'll be sending the information i just presented through the mayor's office on disability distribution list. so if you're not already signed up for that, please go to our home page and click on subscribe to our news feed and you'll be getting all of this great information and opportunities to participate there as well. so again, highly encouraged. i encourage the council to consider housing as a primary topic for a near-term mayor's

disability council meeting. the next thing i want to announce is the housing around the state level. affordable housing listening tours are happening. there is one that just so happens to be going on right now, or momentarily, cocurrently with this meeting. they're hosted through the state treasurer office. so we'll find out information about this as well. but if members of the public would like to comment or ask specific questions of the state treasurer for now, you can e-mail the state treasurer's office as exec1 at treasurer.ca.gov. so more will be coming forward

on that. as you can see, the housing conversation is prominent local here and state level. the results of the coordination working group that met last week, specifically, i want to draw everyone's attention to the work that we're beginning to do in response to the mayor's executive directive, regarding air quality. as you may recall our november meeting was postponed because of poor air quality in recognition and consideration of people with disabilities who are affected by air quality. so the working group is currently looking at response specific to disability and lessons learned around the event. so if you're interested in being engaged in that conversation,

please contact the mayor's office on disability and we'll make that connection with you. next i'd like to announce that since the last time we met in public meeting, the amendment to the waste reduction ordinance, or the plastic straw ordinance, i'm happy to report that the amendment that more specifically outlines requirements and guidance around plastic straw provision for people with disabilities was unanimously approved by the board of supervisors at their october 27, 2018 meeting. and that implementtation efforts are under way and everything will be officially under way as of july 1 this year. we're looking forward to that and the mayor's disability council continues to engage on

that effort. my next announcement is to announce that the san francisco tech council, who i believe was on our previous meeting as one of our presenters in october, unanimously approved their strategic plan direction to focus now on the intersection between technology and employment. those efforts are just beginning. so again, if you're interested and would like more information on how to engage with the san francisco tech council as they proceed in this very exciting and much needed direction, please let us know at the mayor's disability council. speaking of technology, the emerging technology open working group, where this council also received a presentation in october, has released their draft report of recommendations that will be presented to the board of supervisors shortly.

if you'd like to look at the details of that report, including how accessibility is addressed around emerging technology recommendations, please go to emergingtech, one word, at sf gov.org/documents. and i'm just going to announce again. i think there was an excellent job recapping what happened at the dignity fund forum. so i will announce now if you'd like to go back and watch the forum again, or if you weren't able to tune into the live stream the first time, the web link to access that content to listen to the q&a with the moderators and mayor breed is

sfgovtv/mayor breed. the next meeting of the task force implementation group is friday, february 1 at 1650 mission, the department of aging and adult services. this is open to the public and we encourage participation of council members and people with disabilities generally in this group as well. finally today, i have some staffing announcements to make on behalf of mayor's office on disability. first, beginning the week after next on january 20, i'm happy to announce we'll have two additional senior building inspectors joining the mod team on three-year appointments,

specifically to focus on accessible housing and accessible housing review initiatives, so we're very pleased and we'll welcome our new folks to upcoming mayor's disability council meeting. and finally, i need to announce that our program analyst for access and supporter of the mayor's disability council, donna atkins will be departing mod for an opportunity with the human services agency leading their training and coordination efforts around emergency preparedness and disaster response. although we're very sad that ms. atkins will be leaving mod, we are very happy for her and know

that the experience that she brought to the mayor's office on disability will only augment and enhance what she will be doing next. and that she will always be including and thinking about the needs of people with disabilities as part of her ongoing work. that concludes my report for today. again, if you'd like additional information, please feel free to contact mod directly at mod at sf gov.org. >> we're going to move onto the agenda, the first presentation. information item number 6. behavioral health services for people who are homeless. i'd like to welcome the presenters, greg murdock and edwin batongbacal.

sorry if i didn't announce your name correctly. thank you, gentlemen, for being here. >> that's quite all right. good afternoon, council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. you'll have to excuse me a little bit, my voice is a bit under the weather, but i'm here and happy to be able to speak with you regarding the department of the public health and more specifically our behavioral health services division. my name is craig murdock. i'm with the behavioral health services, director of access and the access center which is a clean -- clinical practice that assists individuals trying to gain entry into our system of care. i'm joined today by edwin batongbacal, he is the director of adult and older adult services and joined by michael rojas, he is with the competency and social justice. i'm going to speak to the larger

picture and then edwin and michael can speak to the specifics pertaining to our day-to-day operations when providing wellness and recovery to people in san francisco. the department of public health is a very big department. the three of us work for one division, behavioral health services. we operate and fund a system of care in san francisco that consists of various modalities of treatment. everything from prevention to inpatient hospitalization. it's a broad, competent system of care. it's a system of care we're very proud of. it's a system of care that serves roughly 25,000 people every year. 25,000 residents of the city and county of san francisco. there is three basic we could identify as portals of entry

into the system of care. one is from the hospitals. so individuals who are inpatient, individuals who are presenting at psychiatric emergency services, can gain entry into our system of care to be treated for whatever they're presenting, be it mental illness, moderate to severe mental illness or substance use disorder. we also believe that any door is the right door, so any consumer or anyone seeking care can present at any venue within behavioral health services and can be pointed in and provided with guidance on how to access the most appropriate type of service that would meet their needs. we also have a large presence with the criminal justice system and the forensic system in san francisco. we have many prevention, diversion and alternatives to incarceration programs and we work closely with the criminal justice partners to see that we have a very robust presence with

the criminal justice system so those individuals presenting there with the behavioral health concern are treated in the public health care system as opposed to the criminal justice system. because there is often times barriers to accessing care, or because people don't know necessarily what is required to access care, one of the initiatives that the department of public health entered into several years ago was the creation of the behavioral health access center. the clinical practice i mentioned that is located on howard street. we have a system as i mentioned that is broad and comprehensive. part of it is operated by the city through community-based clinics, some of which you may have heard of, like mission mental health, but we have a large broker system, where we contract with providers in the community.

community based organizations, 95% are nonprofit organizations to provide the care that we don't through our city-operated civil service programs. so as i mentioned, all of these programs, various modalities, they all have eligibility criteria and they all have suitability criteria. an individual may meet eligibility, but not suitability. and that individual also needs to be assessed. we need to know what would be the most appropriate level of care for the individual when they're presenting for services. so through the creation of the behavioral health access center we're trying to create a onestop stop for individuals, where they can come in person on a drop-in basis and be assessed from a whole person care perspective. so not only are we going to

assess them for behavioral services, but respond to their primary care medical concerns. we're seeing a lot of people presenting with chronic medical conditions, from chronic long-term medical conditions like hepatitis-c or diabetes to wound care issues for drug users. we want to be able to provide them with the medication they need. we want to provide them with the health screening, the physicals, the tb test. reduce the barriers to accessing care. getting everything lined up and done so the engagement to care is seamless. that's what we're trying to accomplish at that program. i would like to give edwin an opportunity to speak to some of the details about our population and about our system of care. and then i'm also available to answer any questions that you may have at the end of their comments.

thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm glad to be here. for my time, i think what i'll do is answer the questions that donna had sent over to us that you might be interested in the answers about. there was a question about whether the alcohol and drug treatment resources for people who are homeless, specific to substance use disorder services, a great proportion of our clients, actually 50%, who are of the 7-8,000 individuals who access our substance use disorder services are homeless. this really speaks about the devastating impact of severe substance abuse on the lives of those afflicted. and as craig mentioned, our

substance use disorder services are a system of care, running the gamut from prevention to outpatient services, which are mainly most group services to outpatient and for longer times during the week. we also have residential treatment programs that run from 3-6 months. and we have social and medical detoxification programs as well as medication assessed treatment. -- assisted treatment. we have methadone programs and provide other medication-assisted treatment. our substance use disorder services are provided by contracted community-based organizations who have to be licensed programs, but in addition, they are also now in the process of becoming

certified as drug medi-cal reimbursed providers. and some of the names of the providers might be familiar to you. they include cal trite 360. bart, which is a methadone program. baker places, which runs medi-cal detox -- medical detox program. fort help. westside community services. bayview hunters point. community awareness and treatment services. friendship house. mission council. latino commission. senior center. mount st. joseph. just a note here for mental health services on the other side, a full quarter, 25% of the 25,000 clients who see annually, who access mental health services are also homeless. so we're definitely in the midst

of helping people that are homeless. and our mental health services are similarly a system of care comprised of a range of services. across all of our services, the 25,000 or so clients that we serve, 1/5 or 20%, are homeless. this speaks to the devastating impact of mental illness and substance use on our population. there are 300 behavioral health problems. one-third is drug. you can see, the homeless individuals are in every one of our services. but we do have special programs -- homeless-based for example -- that are based in shelters. we have behavioral health services that are based out of

drop-in centers. we also do street outreach. and we have management programs that specifically dedicated to the homeless. and most importantly our programs, all of our programs work collaboratively with all of the city homeless outreach initiatives, for example, the department of housing and supportive housing, homelessness and supportive housing, that runs the homeless outreach team. and we're very much involved in departmental initiatives, such as hsoc. -- it's a county initiative. and we're there. what is the referral process to get into a treatment facility? for residential treatment, most

people are referred from the hospital, stepdowns from emergency, and acute care, but people can also be referred from their community behavioral health providers. the beds eventually have to be authorized, the use of the beds have to be authorized by central authorization bodies, such as access programs. but clients can actually present themselves to any of the treatment facilities and subsequent authorization will be obtained by the providers from behavioral health. in terms of the questions about physical accessibility and service, i will let michael answer that. but i'll leave it for now, because i'm going too long and you might have better questions.

>> hello, my name is michael. thank you for having me here. i work with the office of social justice equity and multicultural education which is a subunit of behavioral health services. i work with dr. tony rucker who is the ada coordinator for san francisco department of public health. so to address the question regarding service animals, the city has a more stringent policy on this matter than even the federal regulations. so at the federal level, of course, all health facilities are required to accommodate service animals, but here in the city, we actually extend that out to support animals as well. so in that sense, no clinic, no site that is contracted with the behavioral health services, or none of our own dph facilities

can prohibit anyone from bringing in their service or support animal, except under a couple of conditions. and those are namely in cases where the animal is disruptive to service provision, or if they pose a threat to both clinic staff and also other clientele. and so another part of that policy is that the owner of the support or service animal is in fact required to adhere by certain responsibilities, so they're supposed to keep the animal, you know, within close proximity to themselves and then also to make sure it's well behaved and what not. and so the city does -- it is very good about trying to

accommodate these support and service animals, except in rare extreme cases where the animal poses a threat or disruption. another question was posed to me by donna regarding behavioral health services and the physical -- or the physical accessibility of our sites. and so for the city's internal sites, the sites that are directly dph facilities, those i can say we are compliant with the main protocols adherent to ada statutes. things like ramps and elevators. so our dph internal sites do in fact meet those standards. now i cannot say the same for our contracted providers. a lot of these nonprofit

organizations, you know, they're tenants in buildings that vary in terms of age and the extent to which they have physical designs that can accommodate the ada population. so one of the things that we're trying to do in order to improve the situation for the system as a whole, is of course, we do work a lot with mod. we run a lot of our policies and a lot of our documents through them to get their input, because you know, they have a greater wealth of knowledge on these laws and regulations than we do. and so, for instance, in the next coming fiscal year, we're going to issue a new document. so every year, my office, we send out -- or we require all of our providers both internal and

our contract providers, we require them to fill out these ada accommodation checklists. we've been using a certain list for the past three or so years, but you know, because we've been receiving a lot of notices regarding ada issues at different sites, especially for our contract providers, we made the decision to revamp that particular form. we pulled a document from the federal level. or actually from california state. department of public health. and we've kind of revamped it, made edits. we actually ran it through the mayor's office on disability to get their input as well. so for the next fiscal year we should be rolling that form out and using that updated form with

more detailed information. it should provide us with a better picture where the gaps are in the system and hopefully, as a whole, behavioral health services can work with the contracted providers to improve access for those who need it. i'll leave it up to the panel for any questions you might have more me or edwin or craig. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. i'm going to open up for council member questions. you're going to hear this word, transparency a lot, because of the visual impairment, the council members are great in com dating me. so if i see your name on the council, i will call your name out in order, if i don't, do the wave and i'll see. we're going to open questions up to council member alex madrid.

>> council member madrid: a question that came to mind, one is when you mentioned about accessibility. just wondering how come you guys just start -- accessibility should be done a long time. the second thing, when someone

is let's say, has a mobility device and needs to go to a shelter or assisted living facility, when the facility are not accessible, what then? what is your -- with that situation? >> i'll let michael address the question. you mentioned shelters. the department of public health doesn't operate the shelters. it's operated by the department of housing and support services. we work closely with them and we do have programming that is

embedded in the shelters, but the dph does not manage or operate any shelter. >> with regards to the shortcomings from our department, you know, some of it has to do with the position that i report to, hasn't really been filled for the past two or so years, so there hasn't been a really strong leadership effort. i mean, the director of behavioral health services is very passionate about these issues, but in terms of my unit that focuses on ada issues and what not, you know, we're definitely kind of behind the ball in addressing it. and at this point, we're actually -- me particularly the coordinator tony rucker, because we're getting a lot of different notices and some complaints

throughout our system, especially from our contracted providers, you know, we're really trying to take this up to not just the behavioral health level, but to really push it up to the whole dph department-wide level. we're talking about roland and higher ups, trying to get a more robust staffing that can address these issues. because right now, it's more or less, me and dr. rucker, kind of taking these things on case by case. and so there are a lot of efforts to try and integrate work with zuckerberg. work with laguna honda, because we know that handle people with ada issues, but in the past there hasn't been strong coordination. so through lobbying at the highest levels of dph, we're trying to really build a

workforce that is purely dedicated for these particular matters. and so i mean, at this point, that's where we stand, but yeah, there is a lot of work to be done. >> council member madrid: thank you. >> co-chair senhaux: council member helen smolinski. >> council member smolinski: thank you, this is for director murdock. you mentioned suitability versus eligibility. i wondered if you could give an example of that. >> absolutely. so for example to be eligible for services in san francisco county you need to be a resident of san francisco or a medi-cal beneficiary in san francisco. so that is an example of eligibility. a suitability may be that you assess as an smi, seriously mentally ill, so there is only specific types of programming that are responsive -- that would be responsive to that kind

of issue. so the person would be suitable for that specific type of programming, or treatment modality. does that make sense. >> council member smolinski: it does, thank you for that. >> that's an example out of many. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you, council member. council member orkid sassouni? >> council member sassouni: hi. yes, i have a question about accessibility regarding providing asl interpreters. there are number of deaf individuals who are homeless and have a mental illness disability and potentially substance abuse of either alcohol or drugs. and they don't receive services because typically places are not willing to provide interpreting. and it's actually takes them years to get services and they often, we find that individuals pass way before that actually happens, because people are

unwilling to provide interpreting services. i think there are a lot of cultural conflicts as well in providing services, so how can you address that? >> that is a very good question and i think the system has largely been deficient when it comes to the individuals who use asl. we have the ability to get interpreters for those hard-of-hearing or deaf. i'm happy to announce we're piloting our video interpretation service which will assist us in -- video interpretation service, for individuals who are asl users, so that a clinician will be able to work with them in a face-to-face, one on one setting. that is something we're piloting right now and expect to be able to roll out to the rest of the system of care in due time.

>> then also in the specific case of sites that are directly dph, it's important of course on our end, we should educate our providers that they are obligated to inform clients who need sign language support, that those services are available to them. at no cost to the consumer, to the client. and also, you know, from the client's perspective, if the provider is saying that they can't offer you service because they don't have an asl interpreter or what not, i think it's important for the client to actually let the provider know that you, the provider, are obligated to provide this service to us. and so you know, it's kind of a

two-way street. we on the administrative side, we should certainly be educating our providers that they're obligated to provide the service. and also on the client's end, i think it's important to always make sure that you advocate for yourself, just in the sense of letting the provider know that it's not an option of whether or not we provide you service. it's your right -- or my right as the consumer, as the person who needs the asl interpretation to have it. so on both sides, it's just about speaking up and making sure that everyone knows what is in fact available to them. >> yes, we abide by the standard that the availability throughout all of our system, but i wanted to make mention, that we also