Kenosha County Human Services releases 2024 annual report; highlights calls, Meals on Wheels, behavioral health and public health activity

Kenosha County Human Services presented its 2024 annual report to the Human Services Committee, providing a year‑end snapshot of calls, program enrollments and service delivery across multiple divisions.

‘‘This is the Kenosha County Human Services, 2024 annual report,’’ Katie Hanks, the county’s quality analyst for human services, told the committee, adding that the document ‘‘goes over all of human services’’ and that division‑specific dashboards and more detailed reports are available online.

Top takeaways presented at the meeting: - Calls and communications: the department reported a total of 403,399 calls to the Human Services Building in 2024. The Aging and Disability division accounted for a large share of these contacts; Hanks cited roughly 208,289 calls into that division that were handled or transferred. - Aging and community living: Meals on Wheels volunteers and contractors completed 49,963 home‑delivered meals in 2024. The division also reported more than 22,000 one‑way rides across its transportation services (regional, volunteer and Western County Transit links). - Behavioral health and crisis services: county staff reported multiple behavioral health programs, including a Community Support Program (132 participants, 30 new admissions reported for adults) and Comprehensive Community Services for adults (254 consumers served, 95 admitted). Crisis intervention providers logged about 17,000 contacts; the county care center had 577 admissions totaling 3,680 days of service. - Public health and prevention: the public health team handled 5,815 reportable‑disease investigations in 2024, with roughly 3,232 confirmed cases (the report excluded COVID‑19, influenza and RSV counts). The substance use prevention team distributed 2,983 naloxone (Narcan) kits and trained 1,502 people. The county’s school nurse program served 14,251 students. - Child welfare and family services: the child protective services access unit received 2,986 reports and screened in 691 cases; the ongoing services unit served families with long‑term supports, and juvenile CCS and CLTS programs continued to serve children and youth across several programs. - Long‑term care and facilities: Brookside reported 386 new admissions in 2024 and an average daily census of 136.5; Willowbrook reported limited movement with 13 permanent admissions and a total of 32 residents served during the year. - Economic support and collections: the county reported a monthly average of 21,536 FoodShare recipients and 38,146 Medicaid recipients; child support services collected about $31,000,000 in 2024.

Staff and committee members asked follow‑up questions during the presentation. Supervisors requested more breakdowns — for example, by disease type for the public health investigations and effectiveness measures for outreach and marketing — and asked for copies of year‑end budget numbers for Human Services. Hanks and other staff said division‑level dashboards and reports are posted online and that staff would share additional budgetary detail with the committee when available.

Laboratory and testing updates: county staff reported progress on in‑house controlled‑substances testing equipment (an LC‑MS/spectrometer). The new instrument had been purchased but was not yet fully operational; staff noted certification, calibration and staffing requirements can delay bringing such equipment online and said some testing is still sent to external labs with long turnaround times.

No formal actions were taken on the annual report itself; the presentation was informational and intended to inform future budget and policy decisions.