Westmoreland County’s new human services department will be expanded to advocate for health and welfare concerns, including homelessness prevention, and programs to deal with food insecurity.

Commissioners this week approved creation of four new positions and revised job descriptions for two others as part of an overall increase in the size of the department that when created two years ago had just one employee but now will have a roster of at least nine people.

“The county is required under state and federal law to provide a wide swath of human services and so we need to provide them in a more efficient, expedient way so consumers are helped,” said Westmoreland Commissioner Doug Chew.

The department’s primary focus has been on traditional human services such as oversight of the children’s bureau as well as behavioral health, area agency on aging and veterans administration.

The expansion includes creation of an administrative director, public relations specialist, homeless prevention manager and community education specialist, all new areas of focus for the department that administers about 35% of the county’s $420 million budget.

“This is really part of a larger plan to ensure we provide the necessary services people need,” said Human Services Director Rob Hamilton.

The new jobs will be paid for through a combination of state funds and money generated through various legal settlements with national drug distributors and manufacturers sued in connection with the opioid epidemic.

Westmoreland County is expected to receive about $48 million over the next 15 years from the opioid litigation settlements.

Hamilton said the human services expansion is part of an overall plan to increase the county’s involvement in public health and other social services that traditionally have been the concerns of outside nonprofit agencies. Plans call for the creation of a homelessness advisory board to coordinate the county’s response to residents in need of a place to live as well those with food insecurity.

Other areas such as transportation needs, job training and workforce development also will be addressed as part of the reorganized human services department.

“A lot of times to get to the heart of an issue you have to address the symptoms. We are going to address the base needs where ever we can to get to the crux of the issues,” Hamilton said.

As part of the reorganization, the department will revise its drug overdose task force. It was created in 2013 to deal with the increasing number of opioid addictions and overdoses in the county through education and prevention programs.

Fatal overdoses in Westmoreland declined by about 35% last year, according to statistics the county coroner.

Tim Phillips, who served as task force director for the last decade, will see his duties increase under the human services expansion. He will become the director of community relations and prevention and in doing so will earn a $7,200 raise to more than $75,000 a year.

In his new role, Phillips will continue to oversee taskforce activities as well as an expanded menu of social service and health issues.

“Because we don’t have a health department, these are areas where we can provide services,” Phillips said.

Commissioners last month announced it received a two-year $250,000 grant from the Richard K. Mellon Foundation to pay for the initial expansion of the county’s human services department.

“This board recognizes the importance for human services,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher. “This is just stage one. When we brought (Rob) in we knew there will be three or four different stages and there will be changes and there will be positions added as we keep going. This is just the beginning.”

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