Committee finalizes confidential intake process, clarifies referral pathway to Council on Aging

The committee reviewed and adjusted its confidential intake form on March 11, clarifying how referrals from existing partners will be handled and how the committee will treat direct walk-ins.

Members said referrals that come through Council on Aging (COA) staff or other established partners will be treated as already vetted, and the committee will generally approve assistance requests that fall within program limits without repeating COA's assessment work. For individuals who come directly to the committee or are referred by organizations outside those partners, the committee agreed the intake form should be completed to gather necessary information while respecting confidentiality.

Committee members emphasized the intake form is intended to reduce duplicated effort and to capture only the information needed to determine eligibility for financial assistance; they urged staff not to adopt a caseworker role beyond collection and referral. The committee also discussed operational limits: when referrals are frequent or complex, they noted the town's social-service staff workload (Bonnie and Nicole at COA) could become constrained and that staff support will need to be escalated to town management if volume grows.

The committee confirmed the intake form will include fields for "referred by" and "referred to" to document both origin and destination of referrals; members also requested that CNLP/CMLP be included as a potential referral source. Staff will forward verified referrals to Bonnie and Nicole for follow-up and supportive services after initial intake screening by the committee.