Railbelt Mental Health & Addictions

Nenana Wellness Coalition Meeting Minutes

September 27, 2005

 

Attendees:  Bonnie and Blaine Reed, Paul Verhagen, Rosemary Allen, Bruce Boschert, Kat McElroy, Miles Martin, Norma George, Tim Reed, Karen Lord, Roy Smart

 

 

LOCATION: Nenana Senior’s Center. Meal provided free of charge by members.of the Nenana Wellness Coalition

 

Meeting was called to order at 12:32 P.M.

WELCOME (By this week’s chairperson). Rosemary Allen volunteered to chair the meeting and led by reading the Mission Statement:

            The Nenana Wellness Coalition is an alliance of representatives from various organizations, government agencies, community groups and individuals that meets weekly to discuss, evaluate, coordinate, consolidate and help implement plans for improving the wellness and quality of life in Nenana, Alaska.

 

PRAYER: was led by Mr. Roy Smart.

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIENCE: was led by Chairperson Allen.

 

PRESENTATION OF AGENDA AND CALL FOR MODIFICATIONS: Paul Verhagen asked that one item be added to the agenda, to speak about the upcoming judicial visit.

 

APPROVAL OF LAST WEEK’S MINUTES: the minutes last week were written by Miles and forwarded to Kat. She posted them via e-mail. She reminds everyone to let her know if they want to be added to (or deleted from) the WIN minutes e-mail list. Minutes can be accessed on the Railbelt web site as well, www.railbelt.com for anyone interested in reviewing our activities to date.

 

GUESTS: no guests present this date.

 

SPEAKERS/TOPICS

FAS Summit – Kat McElroy.  Kat announced that she has printed off applications to the FAS Summit which will be held at the Egan Center in Anchorage November 1^st thru the 3^rd. The applications say that there will be a limited number of scholarships available. These scholarships will be allocated by lottery and cover travel expenses, lodging, registration and meals. Kat encourages anyone who is interested in attending to get an application and fill it out. She noted that the Summit is described as being for “educators, para-educators, parents, foster parents and care-givers dealing with FAS/FAE.”

 

Paul mentioned that the court system has one Mental Health court, in Anchorage, which is running on a trial basis, and that the court system won’t expand mental health courts unless people are talking about it, advocating for the demand. He urged people from Nenana to make an effort to attend the FAS Summit to gain information and network with others who are learning to deal with these issues, to strategize how to advocate for our families and communities.

 

Rosemary stated that everything she has learned about FASD indicates that there are ways to deal with FASD, to help assure that people who are experiencing an FASD can succeed. She mentioned the need to put an “external brain” into place in the lives of people who have brain damage due to maternal alcohol use, to help with the lack of cause-and-effect thinking. Another strategy is breaking down information and instructions into small bits, one thing at a time.

 

Miles questioned if Auntie’s Place might not end up as a setting for FASD adults, a kind of adult assisted living to keep 24/7 structure. He suggested this would be far more cost-effective in the long run than incarceration and repeated treatment episodes.

 

Roy stated that when he was working at Presbyterian Hospitality House, a unit was opened for precisely this purpose, to provide intensive structured environment for up to five teen-agers. He said the residents were generally court-ordered, highly troubled, sometimes with FAS/FAE, sometimes with other issues.

 

Tim suggested that she thought Norma would be a good candidate for an application to the FAS Summit.

 

Norma stated that she had a family member who is likely affected by an FASD. She said that she had talked to a probation officer who said that she has been dealing with this issue with the youths in her supervision for 30 years. The probation officer had said to Norma, I knew it right away;” (in regards to the FAS/E) “the way they do things is so impulsive.” Norma said when she was first hearing these things, “I was just crying.” She would like to invite that probation officer down to speak to the students at school.

 

Miles said she might be a good speaker for WIN, too.

 

Roy said he thinks we should have another FASD training like the one we had last year as he had learned so much. “New information all the time.”

 

Public Health Information/How Do We Promote Wlelness? – Rosemary Allen suggested that we take the next two topics out of order as they all fit together. She said that we had just completed our annual Universal Precautions training at Railbelt, taught by the public health nurse from Fairbanks, who had asked us to brainstorm with her in regards to how can she get more public health information out into our communities. Rosemary used birth control as an example. Because many people have very strong personal beliefs about sexuality, there is a hesitation to broach subjects such as family planning, birth control and prevention of STD’s. The public nurse also mentioned the issue of domestic violence. How can she get more community involvement in regards to prevention? The public health nurse mentioned that dorm parents are bringing NSLC students up to the clinic one at a time to deal with these issues. It would be better if she could provide informational services to all of the students on a regular basis, in age-appropriate units. Rosemary stated that she thinks that the fear is that “prevention information” condones “bad behavior.” Information can help us stay safe, no matter what your beliefs.”

 

Paul asked Karen, “So what is going on? How can we get good information out to the students?”

 

Karen suggested we set up Health Fairs, “Like we used to have.” She said we could invite people from all over, if we planned it ahead of time.

 

Roy stated that he is implementing Wellness Nights at the Student Living Center. He said they will be mandatory for all the students and that he wants to cover a wide range of topics. He intends to use videos and speakers, to explore a wide variety of Wellness issues. They have been doing Talking Circles already.

 

Rosemary stated that we could invite various entities to our next Wellness dinner, to have them put our packets with age-appropriate information.

 

Paul stated that he knows there are lots of people like his family who home-school and urged us to make a special effort to get those families also involved.

 

Karen suggested something like the Muffins For Moms and Donuts for Dads which ws successful last year in getting many parents into the schools. She said it would be good to get small gift certificates and other incentives to get people to attend.

 

Paul said it would be good if an activity like that could be extended into the evening hours as well sp that parents ho work during the days would be able to also participate.

 

Tim said we should contact Margaret in Fairbanks to find out who we should ask to help us set up a Health Fair, as she (Margaret) had dome this for the Senior Center previously.

 

Paul said that there are many different religions represented amongst our community members, some of whom feel that even talking about such issues is wrong. He prompted us to try to get these people also involved.

 

Karen interjected that we would need to use the Civic Center rather than the school, if we have religious groups represented. She agreed this would be good.

 

Rosemary suggested perhaps we could get Donald Charlie to speak about Wellness issues at the Sobriety Potlatch in October. Paul told Norma, “I think you should speak at the potlatch about FASD issues. You are well respected in this community.” Norma told a story about when she was young just before her father died, how he tried to explain to her the importance of taking care of oneself, of having respect for yourself. She says she didn’t understand at the time the importance of what he was telling her. “Things are changing.” She said. “People didn’t used to know. Now we are learning, about drinking, about smoking, about health. Used to be you’d see pregnant women, walking home from the store, with a six-pack in either hand. No one knew.”

 

It was agreed we should keep bringing this issue to the agenda.

 

Town Meeting To Discuss Borough Options - Paul Verhagen reported that he called Dan Boekhorst to find out if anyone from Nenana has asked him to come speak to the issue of formation of a borough. Dan reported that he had one inquiry way back in July but nothing since. Paul stated he feels it would be important to bring this issue forward in a public forum. “If you are in favor of a borough or against the idea, it is still important to have information,” Paul said. Paul mentioned that Delta Junction has a web-site that details the public process they have had in regards to this issue. Delta has the Pogo mining operation in their district and so they are also facing possible annexation from Fairbanks as Pogo makes it a very attractive move for expanding the borough tax base.

 

Tim said that originally this Spring we had talked about having two meetings, one for Boekhorst to speak and a second to bring John Coghill down who has some other ideas about borough formation and unincorporated areas. Mr. Coghill has a different perspective on the issue. Is this still our intent?

 

Paul agreed. He said that Boekhorst has no desire to go head-to-head against a state legislator. He reiterated that Boekhorst has no opinion on the issue; his function is to provide information about the complicated process, the state mandates and the legislative process. Discussion ensued regarding timing.

 

During this discussion, it came to light that our Wellness dinner which is slated for November 11^th would be in conflict with the Ice Cream Classic. It was decided to change the dinner to Thursday, November 10^th to avoid that conflict.

 

Ultimately, it was decided that if we want to do a town hall type informational meeting on the issue of borough formation, Wednesday, December 7^th would be the best date. Miles said he thought we should make an effort to get this on the agenda for the City Council meeting. Paul suggested approaching Endil Moore or Jack Coghill. Miles said he would talk to Jack about this.

 

Lastly, Paul brought forth an architectural rendering of a proposed new multi-purpose building for fire department, court-house, public safety, the city offices, etc. He said maybe the Tribal Administration would be interested, as they had been looking at relocating to make more room for the clinic there. He showed some video footage of a new building in the Denali Park area and talked about the sort of revitalization process Skagway has created. He said that Jack Coghill has photos of the old Nenana main street and that they had been discussing the project.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Karen Lord announced that her grant has been approved as of Thursday, October 22, and so she is moving forward with various prevention activities at the school.

She said that Taylor Duggar is going to State for Cross-Country Skiing. Hurray Taylor! She has begun Interior Youth Basketball and will betaking the first IYB team to Fairbanks this night.

The Driver’s Ed class will be starting in mid-October with a total of 25 students. Thy will teach half the students this semester and the other half in the spring semester.

She reminds us that October is National Fire Safety month. She intends to get a group of students to visit homes and check fire alarms and batteries. If families or homes don’t have alarms, they will try to provide them.

Our fire chief, Gene Jensen, will be a guest speaker and will visit all of the elementary school classrooms to promote fire safety awareness,.

 

ADJOURNMENT—2PM

 

 

Nenana Wellness Coalition

Minutes for Sept 20^th 2005

Minutes taken by Miles – presented to Kat.

Meeting started 12: 30 Pm

Present  were 10 people –Paul Verhagen,   Blain and Bonnie Reed, Rob from the school, Miles Martin, Karen Lord, Tim Barker, Laura Vance, Kat, and Norma

 

Mission statement was read By Paul

Prayer by Bonnie Reed

The Pledge was recited

 

Food was provided by Mental health prepared by Kat- and was much appreciated by all.

 

Laura filled in till Kat arrived from Mental Health and reviewed the Sobriety day events put on last week. The dance went well and closed down about 1am. Karen Lord stayed till closing. Big Brother and Sister organization said they were pleased and will be back. Lt Governor was present and gave a speech at the dinner and said he felt good about Nenana and what  we are doing. The participation of the boarding school children was especially impressive. About 75 People were at the dance in Paul’s estimation – who tried counting at the door. There seemed to be good relations with the bar across the street which we agree is important.

            Karen Lord pointed out she had to talk to some children who hung out by the train tracks wanting to put pennies on the track while the train was coming. It was not a problem after she talked to them but this initiated a brief discussion on the train. Norma related how it was in the old days when the train stopped here. Karen thought the train bypass project is not so great for Nenana as Nenana has such history here being bypassed, like the starting of the serum run the Iditarod is based on. In the 50’s it was a big event to see the train come and stop.

 

New topic Miles – A London based film company has contacted Miles with interest in doing a Discovery film about Nenana homesteading. Miles is to try to locate a specific situation they seek. A family ideally not in the state yet who plans to move here and homestead (or more just move out in the wilds) Other options might be of interest like someone here who is moving out or someone out the road with no power or city water. Anyone who might know of a family in this situation should contact Miles

 

New topic Paul gives an update on the court system. The State court system wants to upgrade the Nenana facilities. A presiding Judge and administrator are expected to come to Nenana to look over our situation. There is an interest in a tour of the school and a chance for the judge to talk to the children in a classroom as an outreach program. This would be Oct 6^th or 7^th but does not know which day as Healy will be visited as well. Paul needs to know if dates will be in conflict. Maybe there is also an interest in a tour of the living center. We might think of a social event like the native dancers?

Karen points out this time in Oct is high school qualifier exams and applies to the region and might effect Healy as well. Paul points out how good it is to know this and why we get together to talk .

 

New Topic Paul Community calendar. Various calendars being used need to be coordinated. There is a school calendar  and the one on line the Wellness group through  Mental health uses and the Native Council has one and we should have something universal so we all know what everyone else has planned. Discussion among all of us followed. We might use the web calendar- or maybe have Diane with the news handle it. There was discussion on the ability to do ‘overlay’ to make the calendar more readable. Karen was looking at the school calendar and thought the community might like to see events the kids do just for entertainment like the Halloween celebration. Rob was asked about the school open house but no firm date is set yet only know it should be in Oct. The walk in freezer at the school is still being worked on holding up the open house. Bonnie says she does the senior news and wants to print more of what is going on. Paul suggested we explore the program presented to us last week where we can get a elder who is being retrained for work at a non profit. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce could apply and use this person to keep a calendar. Or the library (that handles dissemination of information)

 

Reports

Rob gave a school update. There was a student council celebration of the signing of the constitution which was combined with a 9/11 presentation. What was different about this is the student council made decisions on how it would go and not the teachers. Grades 1-2 did the preamble in sign language.

School boiler work should be done by the end of Sept. At the Living center the office is still moving and this is expected to make room for 5-6 more students. There are now 79 students there- but over 80 expected which will exceed expectations. Tim pointed out that 15-20 more kids adds a lot to the logistics. This makes 45 juniors and 35 seniors for example, and the new cafeteria is already full.

 

New report Karen National Fire Safety week in Oct and Gene will come to the classes. This will be  Red Ribbon week. Tim will have fire drills. Karen’s grant allows 3 Nenana teams to go to Fairbanks. Two boy’s teams and a girls team. The first event for the girls is Sept 27^th in Tanana. The boys go to Lathrop in Fairbanks.

 

New Report Norma- Norma tells us of a field trip she went on with an elder- Ida from Ester. They picked  wild sweet potatoes and talked about survival skills. This is great to do with kids.

 

New Report Bonnie The Bahai community has a celebration of World Peace at 7:00 Sept 21.

 

Paul reads 2 reports having to do with the hurricane disaster. One was called ‘Inside the Trenches’ and was written  by a reporter who had been in Baghdad and said this looked similar. It was positive in that there were many planes taking off and landing – more then could be coordinated all filled with volunteers who set up help stations in wings at the  airport. The next report was written by a reporter named Robert who wrote about that 4 days it took to respond. He called it ‘An Unnatural Disaster’ and pointed out that the prisons were opened and the streets were filled with convicts as well as ‘street people’ who had no homes . The majority of those who could leave had already left. First arrivals to help faced criminals and the homeless who had nothing to loose and were for the most part ‘hostile’ but did not represent the rest of society but the welfare state.

            We discussed how this relates to Nenana. How we need to be prepared for disaster. Paul mentioned the 72 hour emergency kits discussed a year ago, followed by a personal story of how the Mormon church stockpiles and has warehouses filled with food and supplies. These supplies and food were made available during the hurricane disaster. Tim from the school pointed out how stockpiling is kept in mind at the school and noted how the school is high ground if there is a flood and could house the majority of our population in an emergency. . Likewise there is always extra food for such emergencies being stored. (enough to feed the entire community for 4 days)   We decided it is good to go over this so we have ideas and have things in place if any disaster hits. We mentioned problems in other remote villages where the community cannot pay the fuel bills and such. This becomes an economic disaster. The IRS seized grant money destined for one village for example. Nenana wants to be sure we are never in that position. The discussion was an open one  to pass the time till the meeting ended

Kat announced that she has just received information about the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Summit which will be held at the Egan Center in Anchorage this year, November 1-3. There are scholarships available for teachers, para-educations, parents and care-givers dealing with FASD which includes transporation, housing, meals and registration fees for the Summit. Anyone interested in attending may contact her at Railbelt.

Meeting ends at 2:00pm.

Wellness In Nenana WIN Coalition Meeting Minutes 09/13/05

 

There were 12 in attendance including Blaine & Bonnie Reed, Kat McElroy,  Miles Martin,  Paul Verhagen,, Norma George, Traci Wiggins, Karen Lord, David Poppe, Theresa Shields and Lisa Richards of TCC/Home care services.

 

We ate lunch.  The meeting was called to order about 12:30 by Paul Verhagen who volunteered to be chairperson. The mission statement was read aloud

 

Prayer was led by Tim Horn

 

We said the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Paul called for modifications to the agenda. One modification noted, an update on Merrily Verhagen’s outreach to hurricane Katrina victims. No minutes were presented for approval.

 

Mike Anderson made a brief report on preparations for the community WIN dinner this Friday. The food has been ordered, menu planned: beef stroghenoff, spaghetti, scalloped potatoes, green salad, rice salad, and salmon. He has volunteers for cooking and other preparation are in place and he anticipates no problems. He was unable to stay for the meeting but wanted to give us that update. He also noted that he would be helping the Nenana school band have a Pig Roast for a fund raiser to help defray expenses for their proposed trip to Hawaii. The pig roast will be at the end of September.

 

Paul made mention of the Wellness Thought for this week Look For The Good which was about positive thinking. He stated that he liked the reading particularly well be cause he sees that as part of what our coalition has been doing, looking for the good in our community. “We can have a negative or a positive presentation of any issue and positive is better,” he stated. Miles stated that he wants to focus on the things we have accomplished rather than things that have not been accomplished. Traci noted that anyone who wants can get the Wellness Thought for the Day by logging on to the Hazleden Publication web site.

 

Traci Wiggins made a report on the Dancing in the Streets Recovery month celebration. She said that Karen Lord and Tim Horn have been working on parade organizational activities with the kids at school. Tim commented that she had made a sign “I’m a dog-gone alcohol and drug-free mom.” She hopes youth will bring their pts to the parade. Karen noted that they have acquired canvas for the grade school kids to make banners for the parade. If we are going to send flyers home with school children, they should go out Thursday. Staging area will be in the empty lot next to Rhonda Coghill’s house at 3:15 PM. Parade is scheduled to begin at 4. Interior Youth Basketball teams are helping with the floats. Karen announced that “Elvis” will be riding in a corvette. Tom Titus is bringing his Bikers for Recovery. This will be their last official ride of the season. Nenana Student Living  Center is working on a float. KIAM is also planning a float. Traci noted that Laura Vance will be picking up the Lt. Governor and sheparding him on his tour of the NSLC and Nenana. He is scheduled to speak briefly, three to five minutes at the dinner about recovery and community involvement. It was undetermined if he would be in the parade.  Anyone needing to speak directly with Laura while the Lt. Governor is with her can reach her at her cell phone: 347-8093.  Karen said that Big Brothers/Big Sisters will be here, have volunteered to help out, and will have information about school-based mentoring programs.

Discussion ensued regarding smoking. Traci said we will make a designated smoking area outside. There will be No Smoking inside the old Corner Bar/Auntie’s Place for this event. Tim suggested we get chairs from the tribal hall. She said that we need to make sure the chairs are returned immediately after use as it is a problem when they have events there and the chairs are MIA. Amy Whitmore will be in charge of cleaning up the civic center after dinner. We will have a Wellness Wall, as usual, and tables set-up for anyone wanting to display literature. Traci will talk to Scott at Gold Pan Pizza and Marilyn Coghill at the store to see about using their dumpsters for clean-up. She noted that we have “wellness necklaces” (Mardi Gras beads) to throw instead of candy for the parade to minimize trash and as a healthy alternative to candies as well as blow-up balls and  assorted other trinkets. We have proclamations from the governor, from the mayor and from the NNC chief declaring September to be Recovery Month. These will be blown up and posted on the walls at Corner Bar. The band says they will play until as late as there are people dancing. 

Traci and Paul will tour the Corner Bar at 4:30 to see what needs to be done to make that venue ready.

 

Update on hurricane housing. Merrily Verhagen has explored what’s happening in and around Alaska to provide relief for those families affected by the hurricane. She found that up to eight families had already arrived in the Fairbanks area. An unknown number have also landed in Anchorage. It is her understanding that all of these are people who had previous Alaska connections. She has registered information about Nenana with a relief organization per discussion with Nenana residents who have come forward offering shelter and other accommodations.

 

Miles asked if there is any housing available for Ray Fox who is being treated outpatient at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for 2^nd & 3^rd degree burns to his hands and face sustained in the propane explosion that also caused Jerry Riley and another man to be medi-vac’ed to the burn center in Seattle. Ray has no running water in his present cabin and will need to headquarter for the duration of his recuperation somewhere that has running water. Discussion ensued. The Safe House was mentioned, as one possibility. The Native Council would need to be asked for permission. Tina at the store will be spearheading this so suggestions should be forwarded to her. It was noted, Jerry Riley is reported to be up and walking about and already talking about coming home at the burn center.

 

Norma mentioned that she has a friend who took a 3-day Red Cross training in Fairbanks and will be flying out to Louisiana for three weeks help with disaster relief. She urges anyone who has the time and interest to do this.

 

Karen reported that the new Head Start program has begun at Nenana School. She said that it is four days a week, Mon.- Thurs., 11 A.M. till 2:30 P.M. She also noted that her grant has applied for a no-cost extension to run funds out into next year but have not been notified if it has been approved yet. She said that she will be sponsoring Interior Youth Basketball, IBY. She said there will be two boys teams and one girls team. Nenana Native Council is providing use of their 15 passenger van and they will be splitting the costs of fuel for the events. Lastly she stated that Community Schools will again be hosting open gym nights starting October 1^st to include men’s night, elementary school night, high school night, etc.

 

Miles reported that the Welcome To Nenana Dinner hosted by the Chamber of Commerce went well last week. He said that their next meeting with be Thursday, September 22^nd. He noted that they have two vacant board seats and said that it has been difficult to establish a quorum at meetings because of these empty seats. He encourages anyone interested to come to the meeting and see what the Chamber has been doing,

 

Paul reported that the Nenana Sports Association has hired Ken Eggleston as Executive Director. He will be following the recently completed feasibility study guidelines which set out a concise plan of action. They will be having more frequent meetings. Bear and Ken had a meeting with the Corps of Engineers yesterday to initiate the process for getting a wetlands permit. Paul explained that the Corps will take pint of all the agencies and entities that could be involved in this process to make sure that all their bases are covered. They had a meeting with the Fairbanks Racing Lions to introduce Ken to them.

 

Bonnie Reed announced that next Wednesday, 21^st September, at 7 P.M. there will be a meeting at the Baha’i Center here in Nenana to recognize he International Day of Peace.

 

Traci announced that October 17 & 18 Railbelt Mental Health & Addicitons will be having their second annual federal review. The site review person will be attending our WIN meeting that Tuesday and will be available to speak to anyone who wants to share information with her regarding RMHA’s integration of mental health and substance abuse treatment services.

 

Paul added that Tom Howard has left flyers for anyone interested in the Alaska SCSEP program, Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training (MASST). This program is specifically designed to subsidize job skills training for Seniors. It will pay full wages for up to 20 hours per week for training type positions for applicants 55 and up

 

WELLNESS THOUGHT

 

Look For the Good

.

.Life is an interpretive experience. What happens is less important than how we respond to our circumstances. An intense stimulus that some people report as pain others report as pleasure. It is we who decide what the interpretation will be.

Are you a “goodfinder”? a recent study of the country’s millionaires showed that the most common trait they all shared was the ability to discover good in any situation. This trait is also common in “triumphant survivors”—those individuals who overcome adversity and emerge strengthened and renewed.

A sincere spiritual seeker suffering from a chronic illness, “Why haven’t my prayers been answered?” One day, in deep meditation the reply came: “Look for the good in your situation and you will see that the answer has already been provided.” Suddenly this woman realized that her crisis provided a wonderful opportunity. She embarked on a program of nutrition, exercise, and yoga, which led to a dramatic improvement in the quality of her life.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Your state of mind is up to you. Choose now to look for the good.

 

From Listening To Your Inner Voice by Douglas Bloch

 

Meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM.