June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Adult and family service outreach offices popular in Cass County
One adult services and one family services worker now staff each of these outreach offices rather than working from the main office in Walker, they explained. It enables people who want to apply for financial assistance to go to an office closer to their home.
Those working in Backus have taken applications from between 21 and 29 people seeking benefits for adults and between 29 and 41 families seeking benefits per month since July, they reported.
Those working at Cass Lake since July have taken applications for adult financial assistance from between 32 and 73 per month and for family services from between 61 and 85 per month.
On a client survey, all but one person rated the services they received highly at Backus and Cass Lake. That person failed to leave a contact number, so whatever the problem was, it could not be resolved, Reed and Smythe explained.
Lori Muller, team leader for services for long-term care that includes assistance for the developmentally disabled and elderly or disabled persons, reported Cass is in the process of switching to MnCHOICES, a new state questionnaire designed to more accurately assess needs people really have for these services.
She said all new clients this year are now on the new system. When existing clients need to renew their application in the future, they will be switched to the MnCHOICES system, Muller said.
The questionnaire takes three hours to complete, so some elderly people chose to take two sessions to respond to questions, she said. It takes the worker 10 hours to process the entire application, including the interview time.
People can engage a wide range of services through this application, ranging from homemaking or home health aide services through semi-independent living to full nursing care, Muller explained. Clients can choose the services they think they need and are not required to take any service they do not want, she said.
MnCHOICES provides greater consistency in how eligibility is determined for publicly funded long-term services and supports throughout the state, Muller said, explaining the goal for processing all types of long-term care through one application.
Thirty-five people attended a University of Minnesota Mental Health First Aid Certification class in Walker in September. They included representatives from family centers, law enforcement, first response groups, social work and nursing.
Cass County Health, Human and Veterans Services spent 75.48 percent of the 2014 budget through October this year or 83.33 percent of the year. In the same time period, 84 percent of the out of home placement budget was spent.
October was the peak month for out of home child placements in the last two years with 88 children placed outside their own homes. There was a significant jump in the use of foster homes.
Jode Freyholtz-London of Nimrod who operates Wellness in the Woods appeared before the board to describe services she offers.
"We specialize in advocacy and education with and for persons with a mental lived experience and hold each community member in unconditionally high regard by providing wellness and strength based services in rural Minnesota," she said.
Her goal is to educate people about mental illnesses and to prevent suicides. It is a consumer-run non-profit that operates on a $35,000 budget.
She has distributed 2,000 booklets to let people know mental health resources available to support them in this area, she said.
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