Social Services Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Lawmakers Hear Updates On DHHR Reorganization

The three appointed secretaries of the new bureaus of the DHHR provided lawmakers with updates on restructuring within the department. Legislation passed in 2023 required the department to be reorganized and split into three agencies after concerns of inefficiencies in the system.

Members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability voiced concerns about the restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Resources on Tuesday.

The three appointed secretaries of the new bureaus of the DHHR provided lawmakers with updates on restructuring the department. Legislation passed in 2023 required the department to be split and reorganized after concerns of inefficiencies in the massive agency.

The new secretaries are Dr. Sherri Young, incoming secretary of the Department of Health, Dr. Cynthia Persily, incoming secretary of the Department of Human Services and Michael Caruso, incoming secretary of the Department of Health Facilities.

Young said and her fellow secretaries are identifying critical vacancies in their departments and consolidating some empty positions.

“We have met with our respective new departments, within our bureaus and offices so that we can better understand what needs they have as far as critical vacancies and what positions need to be filled, and how we could be more administratively responsible with the positions that haven’t been filled for quite some time,” she said.

Young also reported a decrease in vacancies in the Bureau for Social Services, the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, the Bureau for Medical Services and the Bureau for Behavioral Health.

However, the Department of Health Facilities, the Bureau for Public Health and the Bureau for Family Assistance increased in vacancies.

Caruso explained the problem in his presentation.

“Basically, we don’t pay our people enough on an hourly rate,” Caruso said. “All right, and neither does the rest of the systems. The fact is that most of our employees have just jumped to the contracted services.”

Caruso also reported that he brought in Baker Tilly US, LLP, an advisory, tax and assurance firm, to do a benchmark study on all facilities and perform a complete financial review.

“Those studies were completed last week, those studies will be integrated, and we will educate our leadership team as well as our CEOs over the next week and a half,” Caruso said.

Health Management Information Systems, or HMIS, are software used to manage and analyze healthcare data. Caruso said he is looking to improve the Department of Health Facilities’ HMIS.

“We are looking internally to improve that process and improve that program, as well as potentially looking at other outside vendors to cover our emergency or electronic medical records,” Caruso told lawmakers.

Persily reported a reduced vacancy rate in the Department of Human Services and accredited that to pay raises and access to behavioral health services for Child Protective Services workers.

“So the work that you did in the last session, to increase salaries, to provide regional salary differentials, it’s worked. We have reduced significantly the vacancies in that particular job classification,” Persily said. “I believe that in January last year, when you heard about this, the rate was about 30 percent. And our rate at the end of July was 17 percent.”

Lawmakers questioned the secretaries on their proposed structuring of the departments, voicing concerns about the level of bureaucracy operating in the agency.

Del. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, asked the secretaries to be proactive instead of reactive in their planning.

“My only concern is I don’t want to duplicate what we’ve been doing when we have this great opportunity to create something new,” Summers said.

Persily said she and the other secretaries will have a model in place by January 1, 2024, the deadline for the department to split, but advocated for flexibility.

“We are not going to be wedded to a model if it doesn’t work, and we will constantly be improving that model as we move along. And so any changes would be for efficiency, and for functionality,” Persily said. “But what I will say is that you will, you will see some consistencies across the three departments, you will see that we there are some things that each department needs.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Senate Passes Three Bills Related To Social Services

The Senate passed several bills Wednesday morning to address issues surrounding child protective and social services in the state.

The West Virginia Senate passed several bills Wednesday morning to address issues surrounding child protective and social services in the state.

Last week, Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, stood on the floor of the Senate to voice his support of the Foster Care Ombudsman bill, House Bill 3061, and express concern for the lack of child protective service workers in the Eastern Panhandle.

Just a week later, the Senate passed Senate Bill 273, aimed at better allocating child protective workers based upon county population and average caseload over the past three calendar years. Trump rose again to thank his colleagues for their work on the issue.

“I wanted to take a moment to thank the chairman of Finance and the Finance Committee, and the chairman of Health and the Health Committee for their work on this measure,” Trump said. “This is a bill that is designed to help solve some of the problems we’ve had with DHHR. I think it’s a good effort and I urge passage of the bill.”

Trump also presented Senate Bill 621 to the chamber, which would amend the state code to require sheriffs to serve abuse and neglect petitions and notices of a preliminary hearing, without compensation.

“The sheriff is the officer in the county government that has statutory authority to serve process and papers for the court,” Trump said. “That’s what this bill does, it just makes clear that the sheriff of each county will serve those petitions, without any additional compensation for serving the petitions and the orders.”

Last week, while discussing Senate Bill 621, the Senate Judiciary Committee was told that county sheriffs in Kanawha and Marion counties do not deliver petitions and orders in abuse and neglect cases, often leaving unarmed child protective service workers to deliver the court correspondence instead.

The bill would also require petitions to be delivered by certified mail in the case that they cannot be delivered in person by a sheriff.

Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, spoke in favor of both Senate Bill 621 and Senate Bill 630, which would create an offense of knowingly and willfully obstructing social service workers or home incarceration supervisors, causing their death. The bill drew comparisons to Senate Bill 490, titled the Patrol Officer Cassie Marie Johnson Memorial Act, which would create a felony offense of knowingly and willfully obstructing an officer and causing their death.

“It’s fairly pathetic that we just finished up Senate Bill 621,” Woelfel said. We had to pass legislation to make a couple of counties’ sheriff’s departments go serve these petitions for child neglect and abuse when the social workers are actually armed with a legal pad or laptop, going into these homes, so we just passed Senate Bill 621, which will make the sheriffs of those two counties go do that.”

Woelfel went on to discuss the murder of social worker Brenda Lee Yeager, who was killed in 2008 while out on a wellness check for an infant.

“Of course in that situation, those people went to prison for murder,” Woelfel said. “But even under the circumstances contemplated by Senate Bill 630, somebody could receive life in prison through the accidental death caused by their obstruction.”

All three bills passed the Senate unanimously, and now head to the House of Delegates for its consideration.

Catholic Charities Building in West Virginia Going Solar

A Catholic Charities social services building serving residents of West Virginia and Ohio is installing solar panels in response to Pope Francis’ call for caring for the environment.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston says in a news release that the Catholic Charities Neighborhood Center in Wheeling that after the panels are installed, the building will use one-fourth of the power currently being used.

Shepherdstown-based Solar Holler is leading the project.

Catholic Charities West Virginia program development director Elizabeth Paulhus says the project was a way to reduce the agency’s utility costs, which will in turn free up funding for key services.

In September, Pope Francis proposed that caring for the environment be added to the traditional seven works of mercy that Christians are called to perform.

Legislature Restores More Than $1 Million in Funding to Child & Family Programs

Updated on Wednesday: May 21, 2014 at 1:05 p.m.:

The State Senate has concurred with the amendment and from the House and has passed the bill. The bill now goes to Governor Tomblin and awaits his signature.

The Senate passed the bill 30-1. Sen. Herb Snyder was the lone vote against.

Original Post on Wednesday: May 21, 2014 at 12:24 p.m.:

An amendment unanimously approved by the West Virginia House of Delegates would fully restore more than $1 million in cuts to family and child service programs.

Those cuts came in March as part of a line item veto by Gov. Tomblin. Later, the governor restored about $260,000 of those cuts by taking money from a trust fund to provide future children’s programs.

Members of the House amended a special session bill dealing with appropriations from excess lottery for Fiscal Year 2015, beginning July 1. The amendment cuts $1.06 million from the racetrack purse fund to restore the governor’s cuts to child advocacy centers, family resource centers and domestic violence prevention and assistance programs.

Advocates held a rally at the Capitol Tuesday urging lawmakers to find a way to restore the more than $800,000 in funding to make service programs whole, but instead of finding just that amount, Delegates voted to restore the full $1.06 million, putting money back into the trust fund the governor had used to previously restore funding.

“This is especially good news as it would mean the state would not need to borrow against other children’s programs,” Stephen Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, said in an email after the vote.

The money comes from excess lottery revenues that would have been appropriated to the racetrack purse fund. The money in that fund is used to pay winners who bet on races at horse tracks.

“Unfortunately, we’re taking this money from a group that doesn’t deserve to be cut either,” Delegate J.B. McCuskey said on the floor, “but this will show West Virginians where our priorities are.”

Lawmakers say moving those revenues to fund services should not affect the racing industry itself, as in the number of races they are able to run, but may slightly effect the amount tracks are able to pay out.