Carbon County will receive over $80,000 through a grant amendment to help provide initial assessments for the area's aging population.

On Thursday, the board voted to approve an amendment to the Title XIX Medicaid grant between the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Department of Aging and Carbon County Area Agency on Aging for the term of July 1 through June 30, 2017.Commissioner William O'Gurek explained that this amendment will result in Carbon County receiving $81,980 and possibly more for the Area Agency on Aging's level of care assessments done on people seeking services through the department.The Area Agency on Aging provides senior citizens with a number of services, including legal services, family caregiver support, home-delivered meals, nursing home transition and more.The commissioners commended Susan Zeigler, administrator of the agency, as well as her staff for their hard work to fulfill the needs of the approximate 400 consumers currently using the programs.O'Gurek said that the county used to have backlogs for the assessments and at times failed to meet the standards that the state set in the amount of time allowed for an assessment to be done. Pennsylvania allows 15 days for the completion of a level of care assessment.Now, the average turnaround time between when a person makes an inquiry and a determination is made through the assessment is one week."There is a need," O'Gurek said, noting that in July alone, there were 36 cases started in the agency. "We have an aging population around here and people are always looking for services, whether it is in their home or in a nursing home."The commissioners also approved an agreement with Julie Rovinski-Mann of Jim Thorpe to continue in the position of Carbon County Link coordinator for July 1 through June 30, 2017.The Link program is a collaborative effort that helps provide information to the aging population about services that are available to those in need of long-term living situations.The program partners with various agencies around the state to help make sure people are getting the services they need to enhance their living situations.In other human services matters, the commissioners received notification from the state that the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol program's primary allocation from the Department of Human Services, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for the 2016-2017 fiscal year is $582,577.Of that total, $390,793 will be used for behavioral health services to those who are uninsured, do not have insurance that covers the services they need or cannot obtain medical assistance; while the remaining $191,784 goes to Act 152, which provides for nonhospital residential detoxification and rehabilitation services for people who are medical assistance eligible.