MOUNT VERNON — Ohio’s first lady visited Knox County on Monday afternoon to speak with leaders of the county’s social services agencies and exchange ideas with the Knox County Family and Children First Council. Frances Strickland also wanted to hear feedback, ideas, advice and solutions, as well as all about Knox County.
When her husband, Ted Strickland, was elected, she made a commitment to visit all 88 of Ohio’s counties. Monday’s visit was her 39th county.
In the meeting at the Knox County Educational Service Center, Strickland watched a PowerPoint presentation on county demographics. In 2006, the population estimate was 58,561, 56 percent of land is in farms and the median age is 36.5. In 2004, 19.4 percent of county residents were living at 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
Peg Tazewell, vice chairwoman of the council and director of Knox County Head Start, noted the county’s three institutions of higher learning, but pointed out what she called a disturbing statistic — that only 16.7 percent of residents have bachelor’s degrees or higher. That compares to 20 percent in Ohio and 25 percent nationally.
On a positive note, Tazewell said all of the county’s school districts are classified as effective and that graduation rates range from 93 to 100 percent.
Tazewell also noted transportation issues compounded by a lack of medical services, and explained that residents must often leave the county for medical care or to find a doctor who will accept the Medicaid medical card.
The group told Strickland of its priorities: The House Bill 289 plan that focuses on “Infants and Toddlers Thrive,” and the successful transitioning of young adults into adulthood and children into school.
The spirit of collaboration and cooperation among the organizations was mentioned several times.
Parent representative David Hatley said he had been a member of FCFCs in other counties, where he found such cooperation to be rare.
“The way our agencies collaborate is really good,” he said.
The group told Strickland of their successes and achievements, such as parent training and participation, a family oriented approach at Drug Court in dealing with teenage drug use, the annual Family Fun Day, and psychiatric services via videoconferencing so that residents can access out-of-area doctors, live via cable, computer and television.
Strickland found the latter service particularly interesting and told Angela Sausser Short of the Ohio FCFC, who accompanied her, “I don’t think I’ve heard of another county doing that. It’s interesting.”
She was told that Coshocton and Licking counties also use the service. Wendy Williams of the Community Mental Health & Recovery Board gave Strickland the details.
“We have significant challenges to get access to health care,” said Williams. “Many doctors don’t want to relocate to rural areas. But our customers really like this [video] approach, especially kids. They like seeing themselves on TV.”
Strickland asked questions, wanting to make sure an entire team was in place to help clients, not merely a doctor-patient videolink.
“This is just a piece of the team,” Patrick Evans of Moundbuilders Guidance Center told her.
The current economic and financial stresses were noted by the participants as leading to family and parent stress, which are also worsening.
Joy Harris of Interchurch Social Services said that more than 70 new clients had requested help from her agency so far this year.
“And these are new people, people we haven’t seen before,” she said.
Rick Schlegel of the Alcohol & Drug Freedom Center said his organization is also seeing an increase.
“I’ve seen more people in the past three or four years than I have in the last 20,” he said.
“Do you feel the community is pulling together, or do you feel people are hunkering down?” Strickland asked the group. The question was discussed but no firm conclusion was reached.
Strickland led a discussion on which social programs are working, halting the ones that are not and trying new ideas, noting that sometimes the availability of funding keeps unsuccessful programs alive. She noted a study that found the long-running DARE program in schools to be ineffective in preventing drug use by children.
“If you’re trying to check the system to see if it’s really dealing effectively,” she said, “you look for something that is spiraling out of control and if you have a sense of not knowing what to do about it. That’s when you have to step back and see what to do. If anything is growing at an alarming rate, and you feel that you don’t have an answer to it, you need to do something about it.”
Gloria Parsisson of Children Services said she has seen a change in the family problems her agency handles.
“It used to be alcohol and some drugs,” she said, “but now it’s mental health issues. Mental health is at the top of the list, followed by misuse of prescription drugs.”
“The safety net is torn,” added Roger Shooter of the Knox County Department of Job & Family Services. “It’s a federal issue, it’s an insurance issue ... it’s epidemic.”
Dennis Murray, FCFC chairman and health commissioner with the Knox County Health Department, expressed hope that the county commissioners and the mayor of Mount Vernon would attend FCFC meetings, to better understand the economic, parenting and health issues families are facing.
“Sometimes [government officials] are working on keeping the potholes filled but not looking at the human condition,” Strickland said. “You all are the ones who are looking at that.
“When you talk about the social well-being of the community, and you look at the indicators ... I just get this sense of an escalating problem, almost like the social fabric just isn’t holding together. While we’re doing our job, step back and look at the community as a whole.”
Strickland said she was pleased when Jennifer Odenweller of United Way of Knox County reported that the county’s Benefits Bank now has 50 trained counselors and is successful.
Strickland promised another visit in the future.
“I want to learn from you,” she said. “I picked up from you today that you all just want to work together. You know what the problems are, because you deal with them every day, but you also know the solutions. When you tell us about a problem, please also offer a solution. Thank you for caring.”
