Restructuring will reduce Polson family services office to “satellite”

POLSON — Effective May 1, all but two staff members at the Lake County Child and Family Services office in Polson will be relocated to Missoula or Kalispell and the Polson office will continue to operate as a satellite office of the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS).

According to Jon Ebelt, DPHHS public information officer from Helena, the office is being restructured, but it’s not closing.

“The reason for the change is to address the need for additional resources in the Missoula and Kalispell offices,” he said. “The plan still provides for service in Lake County and residents will still have access to their caseworker.”

The Polson office will remain open and staffed by two employees, although four of the office’s current caseworkers will transfer to either the Missoula or Kalispell offices. According to Ebelt, the employees were given a choice of which office they wanted to be transferred to. So far, two have picked Missoula. One of the positions is currently vacant, but will be assigned to Kalispell when filled. The other caseworker has yet to decide.

These four employees will continue to carry their current caseloads so there will be no disruption to families and children in Lake County. These staff will report, at times, directly to the Polson office to complete work on active cases or assigned reports.

“Our plan is to do our best so that Lake County families don’t notice a difference,” Ebelt said. “We do not see this adversely affecting them.”

The decision was made in an effort to efficiently utilize staff and stretch resources to more families in Western Montana, and is a strategy that’s been under consideration since 2010.

After careful analysis, DPHHS determined that the report referral numbers and caseloads do not support the current level of staffing patterns in Lake County. Therefore, the restructuring is intended to create a more equitable distribution of CFSDs resources. Currently, some offices are struggling to assure that they can respond timely to reports to assure children are safe. By moving these positions to other locations, CFSD can better utilize these positions to cover Lake County and support the surrounding counties’ ability to respond to the reports of abuse and neglect.

In short, this allocation of resources will provide greater efficiency for CFSD and more timely service to more children in the region. The state maintains that will not negatively impact CFSD’s ability to timely respond to reports in Lake County.

To assure a seamless transition, CFSD Regional Administrator Nikki Grossberg will be in the Lake County area continuously meeting with stake-holders and attending child protection team and foster care review committee meetings over the next several months.

“Cost is not the motivating factor; this is more about workload,” Ebelt said. “It’s being done to provide the best service to the most people.”