Community Services annual review: adult services, child protection trends and an emergency assisted-living response

Cara Terry, director of Crow Wing County Community Services, presented an overview of the departmentand introduced managers from adult services, children and family services, community corrections and public health to review year-over-year metrics and notable events.

Tammy Luick (Adult Services) summarized programs supporting adults with mental-health and substance-use needs, disability services and housing stability. She highlighted a December 2025 emergency protective-services response to an assisted-living facility whose license was revoked: staff said 42 vulnerable residents required coordinated transition planning, on-site stabilization and public-health support, and all 42 residents were safely transitioned to appropriate settings within seven weeks. Luick said public-health staff helped manage a concurrent COVID-19 exposure and that the county still seeks reimbursement from the facility for expenses incurred.

Cara Griffin (Children & Family Services) reviewed child-protection volumes (about 1,600 reports annually), screening and assessment trends, foster-home capacity needs and outcomes for prevention-focused interventions (POP). Griffin said ongoing child-protection cases increased and the countymaintains an average monthly out-of-home population of roughly 76 children.

Gina Hire (Public Health) described WIC activity, family home visiting numbers, emergency-preparedness training and community initiatives (Crow Wing Energize, stop-the-stigma mental-health events). She also described the countywork on "Brainard for All Ages," an age-friendly community designation with surveys and focus groups.

Why this matters: the Community Services update provides an accounting of program volumes and a snapshot of system pressures (child protection caseloads, housing needs, assisted-living emergency response). The assisted-living intervention demonstrated cross-agency response under state mandates and produced outstanding reimbursement questions for the county to pursue.