PICKAWAY COUNTY FAMILY & CHILDREN FIRST COUNCIL
PROGRAM/COMMITTEE REPORT
Program Name: Pickaway County Help Me Grow
Contact Person: Aimee Roberts
Phone: 474-9544 Fax: 474-8250
Program Overview: Serving children at risk for or experiencing developmental delays ages birth through two.
Report to Council
Date: January 17, 2013
Report: Since we last met in September we have received 25 referrals to “Central Coordination”. Of those 25 referrals, 14 became Early Intervention (Part C) “Program Referrals” and 3 became Home Visiting “Program Referrals”: Referral sources to Central Coordination include, Regional Infant Hearing(1), Hospitals(5), Physicians(8), WIC(1), EHS(1), HMG HV program(1), and HMG transfers(1). The remainder came from primary caregivers and family members(7).
As part of the Provider Agreement for Home Visiting Services the agency completed 3 out of the 4 reports that will lead to an additional (one time) payment of $12,500 to be used for the HV program “start up funds”. The fourth report has been put on hold by ODH and is suppose to generate another $5000 in “start up funds”. (There has still been no word on when Medicaid billing will be put in place.)
Our county HMG has been working hard to learn and implement the 16 new HMG Rules that became effective on September 3, 2012. As of December 1st all the new HMG paperwork was put into place for our local program.
As the Contract Manager for the 3 HMG programs/functions I have been looking into ways to simplify our roles without adding much cost to either program. At one time I was meeting with surrounding counties about regionalizing some functions of the program (primarily looking at “child find” and “public awareness” activities), however those “talks” seem to have stopped. Therefore in November I started looking at finding someone locally to contract with HMG to complete some of those tasks (ie…former EI/HV parent). I am currently in discussion with a previous HMG intake coordinator and am hopeful that she will accept the position and we will have her in this new position sometime in February.
Also, one of our HMG Service Coordinators who is currently able to do EI Evaluations/Assessments is no longer going to be eligible to do that role as of the end of this June. Therefore I have also been looking into the possibility of finding qualified evaluators/assessors who are interested in contracting with HMG to complete evaluations/assessments for our EI program.
In December I started working on creating a Pickaway Co. HMG Website. I am hoping to have that up and running by the end of February.
Also, in December HMG and EI/BYC school together hosted the annual Silent Auction in conjunction with Breakfast with Santa at BYC South. I am happy to report that we raised over $1000 that will be divided between the 2 programs. HMG uses that money to purchase items that cannot be purchased with grant dollars, ie…gas cards to medical appts, emergency diapers and birth certificate vouchers. Thank You to local businesses for their generous donations to the auction and for those who came out to bid!!!