HONESDALE, PA — Wayne County Human Services Director Andrea Whyte last week submitted the county’s human services block grant final report for the year.

The Commonwealth’s fiscal year ended on June 30, and Whyte delivered her report for the county commissioners’ approval on November 13.

From a total allocation of $2,599,716, an unexpended balance of $84,701 remains.

That money includes $22,500 for mental health, related to the delayed completion of personal care home funded through a 26-county consortium and additional funding for training of mental health first responders.

Whyte said $51,900 remains to be incorporated into the following year.

“I truly appreciate the ability to use funding for needed services. It allows us to be able to adapt to the needs of the local population. I cannot explain how important this is for people,” she said.

She highlighted assistance to the Rachel’s Challenge program as a result of this flexibility. “It came about after serious things happened in our local schools,” she recalled. Rachel’s Challenge impacted 13,000 people, about one-quarter of the county population. “That’s a very significant number,” Whyte said.

The county also established a mental health crisis unit, reaching out to clients in their homes to intervene, keeping people out of hospital emergency rooms. With the closing of other mental health facilities, emergency rooms had been seeing more and more of these people, Whyte said. The program has kept 30 people out of hospitalization and 70 others from additional intervention services, she said.

Whyte provided several financial reports. Wayne County spent $5 million on children and youth services (CYS) in the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Wayne County costs grew to 24% ($1,225,766) of the total during the year. Whyte said those costs had been 21 to 22% in past. State funding was $2.7 million and another $937,000 came from federal funding funneled through the state.

The commissioners also authorized a fund transfer, as an amendment of the CYS budget for the community based placement program.

Whyte said the transfer was required because one area of the budget appropriations was overfunded by more than 10%, triggering the need to reduce it.

The CYS Early Intervention program expended its funding for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. It was funded at $277,510, of which $29,086 was local money.

Whyte also provided a first-quarter 2014-2015 fiscal year report on the county’s temporary emergency food assistance (TEFAP) program, funding service for 1,534 households.