Cass County Board: Despite COVID-19 challenges, Cass health and social services busy in 2021

   WALKER—Cass County Health, Human and Veterans Services continued to provide services without interruption while facing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cass County officials reported.

   Tammey Stacey and Jeri Seegmiller, Health, Human and Veterans Services, along with Jim Schneider, Director of Probation presented the information during the department’s annual report to Cass County commissioners Tuesday, April 5.

   Some of the highlights for the year reported were the collaborative vaccine events between Indian Health Services Cass Lake, Leech Lake Public Health and Cass County Public Health; a career day event held at Cass Lake Bena School; the hire of the new Veteran Services Officer Kristy Smart and the ground breaking ceremony for Bemidji’s new Veteran’s home.

Income maintenance

   Cass County processed payments for $123,007,939.09 in health service bills for people who qualified for state and federal medical assistance in 2021.

   Other services for qualified people and the average monthly 2021 benefits are:

   • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for low-income people, $244.

   • Minnesota Family Investment Program for low-income families and pregnant women, $411.

   • Diversionary Work Program for families looking for work, $126.

   • Child Care Assistance for families with low income, $3,560.

   • General Assistance for adults who have little or no income and can return to work, $156.

   • Emergency Assistance for low-income people in an emergency who need food, shelter, utilities, $207.

   • Group Residential Housing pays room and board for people age 65 or older and for disabled age 18 and older or those who are blind who live in authorized settings, $352.

   • Minnesota Supplemental Aid for adults who are eligible for federal Supplemental Security Income, $92.

Child Support

   The county is working to increase the current collections and reduce the arrears that are accumulating. Cass collected $2,482,890 and paid $2,426,693 to custodial parents for child support during 2021. The majority of child support was collected through income withholding, followed by direct cash or checks.  

Public Health - 

Children, Youth & Families

   During 2021  the Women, Infants and Children program continued to be serviced via phone calls due to COVID-19 and had an average of 424 participants. Participants were issued $287,980 worth of food assistance benefits between October of 2020 and September of 2021.

   The Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-Visiting (MECSH) nurses conducted 327 visits to 47 families. This is a free, voluntary program that provides Public Health Nurse home visits to families during pregnancy and up to the baby’s second birthday.

Public Health - Home Health, Long Term Care, Prevention

   As COVID-19 continued to bring challenges to home care services during 2021, home health was still able to conduct 699 skilled nurse visits, 358 home health aide visits, and 124 physical therapy visits for a total of 1,181 home visits.

   During 2021 Cass County received a grant in the amount of $607,276 for vaccine planning and implementation. With the grant the county was able to administer 5,383 vaccines to eligible residents.

   The “Take It To The Box” program continues to be effective in promoting the safe use, safe storage and safe disposal of unneeded over-the-counter medications, prescriptions and narcotic drugs. A total of 554.43 pounds of medication was disposed of during 2021.

Mental Health, Chemical Dependency

   Cass County had 159 adult and 42 children’s mental health intakes in 2021. A total of 51 commitments were initiated, with 19 having been discharged and 32 currently committed.  

Adult/Child Protection

   During the report, it was stated that there were 351 adult maltreatment reports, with the majority of those being self neglect. In 2021 there was a total of 387 child protective service intakes, with 58% of those being due to neglect.

Out-of-Home Placement

   During 2021 a total of 34 juveniles/children who were screened went into an out-of-home placement for over 30 days, while 11 were discharged and have not returned to placement. 20 of the juveniles/children were placed into relative foster care, which is the preferred method, while the others were placed in non-relative foster care, residential care or a residential group home. The majority of the children were placed outside their own home for neglect, followed by mental health issues, with a few for alcohol/drug abuse and behavior problems.

   The majority were age 15 and younger, with there being 19 girls and 15 boys being were screened. There was an equal number of white and Native American with none being black. 

   For the complete HHVS Annual report go to www.co.cass.mn.us.