DSS Board Minutes 102014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES October 20, 2014 3 can assist with costs of post-secondary education. Claire Millar asked whether there is enough funding state-wide to continue to support the program. Nancy Coston replied that the grant has been on the chopping block for a while because not all counties run a program. She added that the grant does not currently pay the entire cost of the program. Ms. Hitt noted that Orange County’s adolescent pregnancy rate is low so it was not a target county for the grant. Earl McKee asked about the agency involvement in situations where a family may have been lacking parenting skills. Denise Shaffer replied that the only time the agency can truly mandate parenting services is through court. She added that social workers can be very persuasive in convincing parents to voluntarily attend parenting classes. Ms. Garavaglia asked whether there was a letter or other action the Board could take to support the program. She added that it is one of the agency programs she is most proud of. Ms. Hitt responded that a letter of support would be great. Ms. Garavaglia asked for notes she could use to write a letter of support. 3. Veterans’ Services Sharron Hinton introduced Betsy Corbett, the Veterans’ Services Coordinator. Ms. Corbett informed the Board that the annual Veterans’ Breakfast will be held on November 11th at 8:00am at the Central Orange Senior Center. There will be a dinner and musical starting at 4:00pm at the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill in honor of Veteran’s Day as well. Ms. Corbett commented that her job is to help veterans access services such as Veterans Administration benefits or public assistance benefits. Claire Millar asked about the age range of clients. Ms. Corbett responded that ages range from 20- 90 and that most are older. Ms. Corbett also mentioned she is starting a care package drive to send care packages to military members currently deployed. Earl McKee asked about whether there have been access issues to local VA Hospitals. Ms. Corbett responded that she has seen a few instances of this and has had to run interference on some occasions. Pat Garavaglia asked if many clients had PTSD. Ms. Corbett responded that many of the clients do have PTSD, both recent and older veterans. Ms. Hinton noted that this is one of the unfunded programs offered in Orange County. She thanked Commissioner McKee and the Board for funding this position. The Board thanked Ms. Corbett for her work. 4. Medicaid/ACA/NC FAST Update Lindsey Shewmaker updated the Board on the status of NC FAST. The number of overdue Medicaid applications has been reduced to about 60 from several thousand earlier in the year. Staff are doing a good job overall keeping up with applications in NC FAST in all program areas. The agency is now focusing on working through Medicaid reviews. During the initial implementation