Wyoming County is continuing to boost its efforts to boost mental health awareness across the county.
At a Wyoming County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday morning (April 1), commissioners announced that Teresa McCloskey of Nurse Family Partnership has helped secure a $136,000 grant for each of the next two years to finance an in-home maternal mental health program.
According to Commissioner Chair Rick Wilbur, the grant is through the Moses Taylor Hospital Foundation and will help deal with things such as post-partum depression. Although the grant is for two years, the program will go much longer than that as future funding sources are being secured to help fund the program when the grant expires.
“This will be another addition to the county’s mental health capabilities,” Commissioner Tom Henry said. “I’m proud to represent a county that continues to take mental health seriously and put funding to make sure people who are battling things like depression can continue to find help.”
Jail update
Commissioners also gave an update on ongoing negotiations with Susquehanna County after the closure of its prison last month. Wilbur said procedural details are being ironed out and they expect to have a contract to hold some of Susquehanna County’s inmates next week. They also have received interest from female corrections officers who are interested in employment in Wyoming County.
“If we get more female guards, we could possibly bring our females that are being boarded at other facilities back,” Wilbur said. “If that happens, we could save the county a lot of money because it’s expensive to board inmates elsewhere.”
Currently, the Wyoming County Jail does not have any female inmates in-house.
In other business, commissioners approved the hires of Harley Townsley as the county’s Human Services Director and Miranda Morgan as a Children & Youth Caseworker I. Townsley replaces John Alunni, who resigned at the end of last year.
Commissioners also signed a proclamation declaring April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Wyoming County. They thanked the county’s Children & Youth caseworkers for all that they do in championing the safety of the county’s children.
