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HONESDALE — At their Tuesday morning work session, the Wayne County Commissioners recieved an update on the progress of this year’s annual courthouse lobby art show, as well as several projects in development at the various departments of the county Human Services Agency.
The 23rd annual art show in the lobby of the courthouse is tentatively scheduled for late April, reported Carleen Faatz, though that timetable is subject to change pending schedule verification among county agencies and participants in the show.
Begun in 1989 as a “Senior To Senior” art show bringing together the various handicrafts of seniors in area high schools and senior citizens around the county, explained county Human Services Administrator Andrea Whyte, the art show has changed over the years to include other Wayne County artisans, though the primary focus remains on seniors and students.
“Now,” said Whyte, “It’s really more of a community art project. It’s meant to bring out the spirit of the whole Wayne County community. It has been a good thing for the community and for those who display at the show.”
Those who would like to purchase items on display at the show will be required to contact the vendors directly, both Faatz and Whyte explained, in order to keep the county’s liability at a minimum.
More details on the show — including the dates it will be running — will be announced after they are finalized, Faatz said.
In order to reduce pressure on the Sheriff’s office to watch over the lobby display, the commissioners asked Faatz to try to solicit people involved with the event to remain in attendence as “loss control” people.
“We’ve never lost anything,” Faatz said, “But it would be good to have someone there.”
Whyte then gave the commissioners a rundown of the business she planned to present at the Human Resources Department, including two programs in the works that aim to help seniors in need.
The first project — just in the initial planning stages now — is called Care Transitions, in which the Wayne County Area Agency on Aging (WCAAA) hopes to implement a program to help seniors transition back to life at home after being released from the hospital.
The goal of the program is to make sure seniors who may have a difficult time filling their prescriptions and keeping follow-up appointments have someone to rely on that can help organize these things in order to keep them from having to go back into the hospital.
HONESDALE — At their Tuesday morning work session, the Wayne County Commissioners recieved an update on the progress of this year’s annual courthouse lobby art show, as well as several projects in development at the various departments of the county Human Services Agency.
The 23rd annual art show in the lobby of the courthouse is tentatively scheduled for late April, reported Carleen Faatz, though that timetable is subject to change pending schedule verification among county agencies and participants in the show.
Begun in 1989 as a “Senior To Senior” art show bringing together the various handicrafts of seniors in area high schools and senior citizens around the county, explained county Human Services Administrator Andrea Whyte, the art show has changed over the years to include other Wayne County artisans, though the primary focus remains on seniors and students.
“Now,” said Whyte, “It’s really more of a community art project. It’s meant to bring out the spirit of the whole Wayne County community. It has been a good thing for the community and for those who display at the show.”
Those who would like to purchase items on display at the show will be required to contact the vendors directly, both Faatz and Whyte explained, in order to keep the county’s liability at a minimum.
More details on the show — including the dates it will be running — will be announced after they are finalized, Faatz said.
In order to reduce pressure on the Sheriff’s office to watch over the lobby display, the commissioners asked Faatz to try to solicit people involved with the event to remain in attendence as “loss control” people.
“We’ve never lost anything,” Faatz said, “But it would be good to have someone there.”
Whyte then gave the commissioners a rundown of the business she planned to present at the Human Resources Department, including two programs in the works that aim to help seniors in need.
The first project — just in the initial planning stages now — is called Care Transitions, in which the Wayne County Area Agency on Aging (WCAAA) hopes to implement a program to help seniors transition back to life at home after being released from the hospital.
The goal of the program is to make sure seniors who may have a difficult time filling their prescriptions and keeping follow-up appointments have someone to rely on that can help organize these things in order to keep them from having to go back into the hospital.
Whyte says the WCAAA isn’t even to the point of looking into possible funding streams for the gestational project. However, it has formed an exploratory ad-hoc committee with Wayne Memorial Hospital to find ways to implement the project, which she says should benefit both the seniors and the hospital as the federal government is likely to stop reimbursing hospitals for patients’ repeat visits for the same health concern in coming years.
Another topic Whyte says weighs heavily on the minds of her WCAAA colleagues is the lack of suitable “adult day care” programs and facilities throughout the county.
With just one facility (Devereux Pocono Center) at the extreme southern tip of the county equipped to care for adults unable to care for themselves while their regular caregivers are at work, Whyte says the bulk of the county cannot regularly make the trek to get their loved ones into Devereaux’s program.
Whyte says the WCAAA advisory council has had an ad-hoc committee dedicated to finding a solution to this problem, but has recently asked one member of that committee to join the council on a more permanent basis.
This new council member could then work with the caregiver support group WCAAA sponsors to help find the additional resources necessary in the county.
