December 17, 1999
By Lynne Watson, Writer's Workshop

Part IV of IV

"I think it's important that we want to be integrating individuals back into the community."

LW: How long have you been Executive Director and what's your background?

MH: I've held this position since 1982. I've actually been associated with CASCAP since 1976, because I used to run the ECHO Program, which is now part of CASCAP. It's the elderly program, assisted living. I happened to be on the Board of CASCAP. The former Executive Director, Jack Hamilton, left. At the time, CASCAP was very small; their budget was around $450,000 and we had 22 staff and about 30 residents.

LW: What's your budget today?

MH: It's $6 million and there are over 130 staff members. As I said, we are, in a sense, responsible for almost 2,000 individuals in some shape or form. It's grown. The nice this is that the Board of Directors still wants us to be focused in the communities of Cambridge and Somerville. That's very tough in the managed health care environment where the tendency has been "bigger is better".

I think it's been much more difficult to manage and try to stay locally focused, but I do think staying local has kept us attentive to everyone and everything in the communities. We're concerned not only about our residents, but also about how we fit as an agency and as a neighbor. I think it's important that we want to be integrating individuals back into the community. The focus isn't on the individual, but on the agency to act as a good neighbor, to be part of that community.

LW: What percentage of your nearly 2,000 clients are mentally ill?

MH: Probably around 10%. Again, of the 2,000, we may only have an active caseload of 150 at one time. We basically are working on a lot of the elderly buildings in Cambridge. We are getting into case management trips to helping people with Social Security problems. The biggest part of our money comes from the Department of Mental Health, but we really do have diverse services.

LW: Is there anything we've left out that you would like to add about CASCAP?

MH: My tenure here has gone by very fast. I think there are days when you kind of put up your hands and say, "maybe I should be out doing something different" because at times, it can be quite frustrating. Then, it never seems to fail, that day or a day later, one of the residents will come in to see me, or call up and either say "there is a problem and I need your help to deal with it" or say "there's no problem, just thanks for doing what you do". I think that's what keeps me here.

LW: Thank you.

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