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Nancy Coston said she thinks that the racial workers in the school tend to focus <br />mare on in-school problems. She expects, based an the feedback she has received <br />from mast of the schools, they think this is the kind of model they would want to see, <br />regardless of whether or not the person is employed by DSS. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that there would be 7 social workers employed by <br />DSS and four employed by OCS. <br />5. Public Assistance Workload <br />Gwen Price said in the packet there is information about the public assistance <br />workload and as they alluded to earlier that continues to increase. There are some <br />charts to show the increases over time. The Medicaid workload has increased 42°~ and <br />our food stamp workload has increased 88°~ aver the past four years. This is very taxing <br />and demanding for staff, particularly in light of constant changes in policy and <br />procedures. Our Wark First caseload has remained pretty consistent somewhere <br />between 350 to 380 cases. One factor with Medicaid is that on the chart it identifies the <br />cases that are actually assigned to a caseworker that is providing predetermination <br />functions and the changes. There are also individuals that receive Medicaid because <br />they receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI). People who receive SSI are <br />automatically eligible for Medicaid. DSS does not have to maintain those cases but they <br />do impact the number of Medicaid eligible people in our County. The number, 4685, is <br />not the total number of cases in our County when we include the ones on State Data <br />Exchange (SDX), people who receive Work First, and people who receive special <br />assistance who also get Medicaid. When those are included, the number of cases we <br />are looking at is 6299. <br />Nancy Coston said that this has been hard for Gwen to manage over the last few <br />years and this is tough on the staff and it is a statewide trend. <br />John Link asked about eligibility for Medicaid. He gave an example of a person <br />who had been working far a certain fast food group for four years and doing the same <br />thing and making minimum wage -would he be eligible for food stamps and Medicaid. <br />Nancy Coston said that the person who is working in that situation far $7.00 an <br />hour is not eligible for Medicaid unless they have children or are disabled. Medicaid is <br />only for families with children and disabled and elderly people. This person may be able <br />to get food stamps if his income is below the food stamp level, which is $7.OOlhour. <br />Chair Carey asked about language barriers with social workers in the schools <br />and Yvette Smith said that they have some interpreters in the school and at DSS. <br />Commissioner Jacobs would like for DSS to work with Clerk's office and put out a <br />press release about this. <br />The meeting adjourned at 7:27 p.m. <br />Moses Carey, Jr. <br />Chair <br />Donna S. Baker, CMC <br />Clerk to the Board <br />