New Human Services hotline in Washington County aiming to help all residents in need

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — It starts with just picking up the phone and calling Washington County’s new hotline.

“My father fell ill earlier this year and my wife and I were sitting around talking about how do we get the services to help him,” said Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman.

The county has created its first Department of Human Services to streamline that process and make sure residents who need help get access to every department.

“One example is a grandmother calling and saying she’s concerned regarding to her daughters’ needs and grandchildren. Generally we’d call children and youth services but in this case we provide grandma with support from our local aging services and senior centers, foster care grandparent programs and we dig deeper and mom had mental health needs and we were able to connect her to the behavioral health department,” said Washington County DHS Director Kim Rogers.

It’s an initiative county commissioners believe will provide more immediate access to services and help all residents of the county.

“Because the sooner we deliver all of the services to this person and this family, the more quickly they will become better residents of the county and in the long run will save the taxpayers money by using this new system,” said Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan.

County commissioners told Channel 11 there will be an immediate cost cut of about $400,000 from getting rid of duplicate services by combining departments. The hotline will be staffed 24/7 at 724-228-1234.

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