Commission appoints seniors behavioral health committee and funds consultant to drill into local needs

The commission formally appointed a Seniors Behavioral Health Committee and named Jim Lischer as chair.

Under the motion, committee members include John Knight, Alyssa McKenzie and Tom Ferguson with Raquel Harrison as an alternate or ad hoc adviser. The motion passed after the chair called for a vote; the transcript records approval without a roll-call tally.

Jim Lischer said the committee has already held an organizational meeting with the outside consultant who conducted a prior town well-being study. Lischer said the group will use $4,700 left over from the TeleMed program to contract the consultant to drill deeper into senior behavioral-health issues and to supplement that work with secondary resources, including a large AARP-linked dataset and statewide research. Lischer told commissioners the consultant will begin work the next week and the committee plans to meet in about a month to review initial findings. He said the committee aims to finish by mid-September and report at the September or October commission meeting.

Lischer reviewed historic town work on seniors, including a 2010 seniors study and past projects such as benches for walking spaces and an earlier telehealth program. He said the new effort will compare national and state trends with local data and yield recommendations for programs and services that address senior mental-health needs.

Commissioners thanked Lischer and noted seniors' volunteer contributions to town life as an important context for the work.