The Hanover County Community Profile: Social Services

The Social Services Department is responsible for various benefit and service programs affecting children, families and the elderly through the following divisions:

• Family Services Division
  Receives and processes initial applications for assistance and provides initial screening and assessments for other service needs by families. In addition, the division refers customers to employment related services, such as child day care and job training for TANF recipients, in order to make the family as self sufficient as possible. By February 2004, benefit programs saw increases in every category except for TANF applications which remained stable.
  
  

  Point in time estimates, aid to families in poverty, February 2004

  	Applications	Cases	Total Recipient	Total Children	TANF	Non-TANF
  Food Stamps	95	1,008	2,280	n/a	210	798
  Medicaid	101	1,043	n/a	2,179
  Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)	25	159	337	240
  Source: Hanover Co. Dept. of Social Services

  
  
  

  Benefit Program Statistics at February's end 1999-2004

  Food Stamps	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
  Applications Received	88	82	93	99	83	104
  Cases	569	565	629	727	856	1,008
  Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)	162	143	148	167	193	210
  Non-TANF	407	422	481	560	663	798
  Total Recipients (Adults and Children)	n/a	n/a	1,403	1,695	1,966	2,280
  Source: CATSTATS
  Medicaid
  Applications Received	n/a	n/a	n/a	72	84	108
  Cases	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	1,043
  Source: MEDPEND
  TANF
  Applications Received	34	30	46	47	43	41
  Cases	88	n/a	87	116	133	152
  Total Recipients (Adults and Children)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	315	337
  Children only	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	227	240
  Source: CATSTATS

  
  Day care spaces available through the Department numbered 349 in 1999, declined to 300 in 2000, and then increased to 348 in 2001, and 418 in 2002. There were a total 4,696 licensed day care spaces in 36 facilities in 2003, another 1,232 in fourteen exempted religious centers, and another 119 spaces in eleven licensed family day care homes.



• Social Work Services Division
  This division is responsible for adult, adoption, foster care services, child protection services, and emergency/crisis assistance.
  
  The State Department of Social Services operates a statewide hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week to receive reports of child abuse and neglect and refer these reports to the appropriate local department of social services for investigation.
  
  Approximately 65,000 calls per year are received by the hotline. Individuals may contact the state Hotline within Virginia at 1-800-552-7096 and from out-of-state at 1-804-786-8536. Hearing impaired individuals may also contact the Hotline through the Virginia Relay Center at 1-800-828-1120.
  
  

  Child Welfare Statistics 1998-2003

  	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
  Children in Foster Care (point-in-time estimate)	29	47	45	48	57	59
  Child Abuse or Neglect (founded number per 1,000)	2.31	1.96	1.16	2.37	2.1	n/a
  Source: Social Services Department, CLIKS

  
  
  

  Children in Foster Care, 3/31/2002

  Surrounding Jurisdictions	Average Number per Day	Percent of State Total
  Caroline	9.80	0.13
  King William	5.50	0.07
  New Kent	7.50	0.10
  Hanover	34.70	0.46
  Henrico	136.50	1.79
  Richmond City	720.50	9.47
  Goochland	19.20	0.25
  Louisa	15.70	0.21
  Spotsylvania	55.00	0.72
  Virginia Total	7608.30	100.00
  Source: http://www.dss.state.va.us/pub/pdf/fc_table.pdf




• Elder Services: Adult Protective Services (APS) investigates reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of adults aged 60 and over and incapacitated adults over 18 years of age and provides services when persons are found to be in need of protective services.
  
  The goal of APS is to protect a vulnerable adult's life, health, and property without a loss of liberty. When this is not possible, APS attempts to provide assistance with the least disruption of life style and with full due process, protection, and restoration of the person's liberty in the shortest possible period of time. APS seeks to achieve simultaneously and in order of importance: freedom, safety, and minimal disruption of lifestyle and least-restrictive care.
  To report suspected financial exploitation or other kinds of abuse to the elderly or adults with a disability, call your local department of social services or the Virginia Department of Social Services' 24-hour, toll-free Adult Protective Services hotline at: (888) 832-3858.
  
  There were 39 elder Abuse Cases in Hanover County in 1999, 29 in 2000, 33 in 2001, 26 in 2002 and 26 in 2003.
  
  The County provides companion services through three organizations with which it contracts. For information on these services, call (804) 752-4100. Meals on Wheels, Inc., which serves the greater Richmond area, also provides services to people who are unable to shop and cook for themselves, most of whom are elderly citizens. Data on the number of clients and meals served in Hanover County are as follows:
  
  

  Elder Services

  	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
  Elder abuse cases	n/a	39	29	33	26	26
  Organizatins providing companion services	3	3	3	3	3	3
  Meals-on-/wheels (number of clients) (from July to July)	n/a	89	55	66	96	n/a
  Meals-on-wheels (number of meals) (from July to July)	n/a	9379	7674	13152	19685	n/a
  Sources: Archival Prevention Social Indicators, DSS Financial Report, DSS log, Greater Richmond Meals-on-Wheels, Inc.