MONROE - Volunteers helped save Green County Human Services about $76,000 in taxpayer dollars, according to the agency's annual report.
Economic support and mental health services take up a large chunk of GCHS staff time and budget, according to the annual report presented to the Green County Board of Supervisors earlier this month. GCHS director Greg Holcomb said the numbers in the annual report do not show significant changes from previous years.
Mental health and economic support cost GCHS the most to operate because most patients are impoverished and not on Medicaid or ineligible for it, and because of changes that the Affordable Care Act brought for economic support. Holcomb said the county allocated enough funding for four additional positions to help deal with the influx of patients expected to seek care via the ACA. But, Holcomb said, the county never saw the increase of patients anticipated and instead only filled one of the four positions.
The report shows that programs under mental health accounted for about 32 percent of the GCHS budget, with economic support coming in just below 15 percent of the total budget. The total expense budget for GCHS in 2013 was about $9.2 million with reimbursement from state and federal programs such as Medicaid coming in at about $6.5 million, and reserve funds plus a local tax levy of about $2.7 million bringing cost to GCHS at about zero, Holcomb said. The Mental Health Unit cost GCHS about $1.1 million in 2013 and economic support was entirely reimbursed by state and federal agencies, except for about $219,000 levied for Green County Housing, a temporary housing assistance program.
A large chunk of the Green County population eligible for support - as many as 6,664 people or 22 percent of the total population of 29,145 people eligible - is served by economic support.
According to the annual report, the mental health unit, which offers psychiatric counseling and emergency help for those with mental illness, performed 70 emergency detentions in 2013 for patients experiencing mental health crisis that required law enforcement involvement and transport to Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.
"We try and divert somebody as much as possible to keep them in the community," Holcomb said of emergency detentions. "It's no fun to get locked up in the back of a cop car and carted up to Oshkosh."
Records for 2013 were not available beyond emergency detentions, but the average number of contacts from 2007-2011 was 432 people per year. Staff also averaged about 446 after-hours contact with persons who came in for mental health reasons from 2007-2011. Holcomb said the mental health program has been taking on more and more serious cases and a waiting list has been necessary.
"Gone are the days when we used to just do marriage counseling," Holcomb said. "Drug abuse has become a major component; anymore people come in with an identified mental health issue or a drug-related problem."
The report also indicates:
n On average, Green County has about two to three suicide attempts per week. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Wisconsin has the highest suicide rate in the Midwest at 13.9 per 100,000 people, compared to Iowa at 12.2, Minnesota at 11.4, Michigan at 12.8 and Illinois at 9.2. The annual report indicates a number of problems can characterize a subject who is suicidal, including untreated mental illness, alcoholism and other issues. Recently, opiate abuse has increasingly been an issue.
n The Aging and Disability Resource Center, which offers meals, rides and social activity for seniors over 60, had a total of 2,538 contacts in 2013, an increase of 569 contacts from 2012's 1,969. Most of the patients served were low-income, which accounted for 93 percent of the total contacts. Meals delivered to seniors by ADRC increased by 16 percent to 241 total, compared to 203 in 2012.
Escort trips for seniors also grew from 2012, increasing 30 percent, for a total of 1,788 in 2013 compared to 1365 in 2012; however, volunteers increased by 13.5 percent for a total of 126 volunteers in 2013, from 103 in 2012. Of those volunteers, 108 delivered meals and 14 volunteers provided escort. Those volunteers contributed about 7,088 hours of service and saved taxpayers more than $76,000 in the process.
n The Children Youth and Families unit, which combines foster care and investigating child neglect and abuse cases, saw a slight drop in the number of cases of child neglect or abuse investigated at 255 in 2013. Numbers from 2012 numbers were not reported. The report shows investigations into abuse and neglect has remained relatively consistent over the past five years. CYF workers accomplished their goal of preventing the need for children to be taken from a home and prevented eight children from being removed, the report says. The largest portion of cases investigated in 2013 involved neglect at 42 percent. Abuse cases, at 30 percent, were the next highest. Of the 255 cases investigated, 91 percent of the claims were found to be unsubstantiated, though Holcomb said many of the cases were referred to other resources such as respite care or parenting classes.
"I don't want it to look like we don't do anything," Holcomb said. "'Unsubstantiated' just means it didn't rise to state standards, though we still investigate all reports of neglect or abuse."
Economic support and mental health services take up a large chunk of GCHS staff time and budget, according to the annual report presented to the Green County Board of Supervisors earlier this month. GCHS director Greg Holcomb said the numbers in the annual report do not show significant changes from previous years.
Mental health and economic support cost GCHS the most to operate because most patients are impoverished and not on Medicaid or ineligible for it, and because of changes that the Affordable Care Act brought for economic support. Holcomb said the county allocated enough funding for four additional positions to help deal with the influx of patients expected to seek care via the ACA. But, Holcomb said, the county never saw the increase of patients anticipated and instead only filled one of the four positions.
The report shows that programs under mental health accounted for about 32 percent of the GCHS budget, with economic support coming in just below 15 percent of the total budget. The total expense budget for GCHS in 2013 was about $9.2 million with reimbursement from state and federal programs such as Medicaid coming in at about $6.5 million, and reserve funds plus a local tax levy of about $2.7 million bringing cost to GCHS at about zero, Holcomb said. The Mental Health Unit cost GCHS about $1.1 million in 2013 and economic support was entirely reimbursed by state and federal agencies, except for about $219,000 levied for Green County Housing, a temporary housing assistance program.
A large chunk of the Green County population eligible for support - as many as 6,664 people or 22 percent of the total population of 29,145 people eligible - is served by economic support.
According to the annual report, the mental health unit, which offers psychiatric counseling and emergency help for those with mental illness, performed 70 emergency detentions in 2013 for patients experiencing mental health crisis that required law enforcement involvement and transport to Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.
"We try and divert somebody as much as possible to keep them in the community," Holcomb said of emergency detentions. "It's no fun to get locked up in the back of a cop car and carted up to Oshkosh."
Records for 2013 were not available beyond emergency detentions, but the average number of contacts from 2007-2011 was 432 people per year. Staff also averaged about 446 after-hours contact with persons who came in for mental health reasons from 2007-2011. Holcomb said the mental health program has been taking on more and more serious cases and a waiting list has been necessary.
"Gone are the days when we used to just do marriage counseling," Holcomb said. "Drug abuse has become a major component; anymore people come in with an identified mental health issue or a drug-related problem."
The report also indicates:
n On average, Green County has about two to three suicide attempts per week. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Wisconsin has the highest suicide rate in the Midwest at 13.9 per 100,000 people, compared to Iowa at 12.2, Minnesota at 11.4, Michigan at 12.8 and Illinois at 9.2. The annual report indicates a number of problems can characterize a subject who is suicidal, including untreated mental illness, alcoholism and other issues. Recently, opiate abuse has increasingly been an issue.
n The Aging and Disability Resource Center, which offers meals, rides and social activity for seniors over 60, had a total of 2,538 contacts in 2013, an increase of 569 contacts from 2012's 1,969. Most of the patients served were low-income, which accounted for 93 percent of the total contacts. Meals delivered to seniors by ADRC increased by 16 percent to 241 total, compared to 203 in 2012.
Escort trips for seniors also grew from 2012, increasing 30 percent, for a total of 1,788 in 2013 compared to 1365 in 2012; however, volunteers increased by 13.5 percent for a total of 126 volunteers in 2013, from 103 in 2012. Of those volunteers, 108 delivered meals and 14 volunteers provided escort. Those volunteers contributed about 7,088 hours of service and saved taxpayers more than $76,000 in the process.
n The Children Youth and Families unit, which combines foster care and investigating child neglect and abuse cases, saw a slight drop in the number of cases of child neglect or abuse investigated at 255 in 2013. Numbers from 2012 numbers were not reported. The report shows investigations into abuse and neglect has remained relatively consistent over the past five years. CYF workers accomplished their goal of preventing the need for children to be taken from a home and prevented eight children from being removed, the report says. The largest portion of cases investigated in 2013 involved neglect at 42 percent. Abuse cases, at 30 percent, were the next highest. Of the 255 cases investigated, 91 percent of the claims were found to be unsubstantiated, though Holcomb said many of the cases were referred to other resources such as respite care or parenting classes.
"I don't want it to look like we don't do anything," Holcomb said. "'Unsubstantiated' just means it didn't rise to state standards, though we still investigate all reports of neglect or abuse."