Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 10, 1994 TAG: 9405100112
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Robert Freis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Truly an essential question, as old as our literature, fresh as today's headlines.
I'm contemplating the issue because of my new assignment.
My superior officers here at the Current have asked me to write about social services in the New River Valley. Generally, the mission is typical of what we reporters do, which is make ourselves experts.
It's up to me to learn every issue and meet everybody concerned with social services in the area and to accomplish this task rapidly.
The process can be overwhelming, even more so when you're dealing with an extensive web of agencies and individuals such as those that fall under the large umbrella of social services.
Consider the debate over national health care and you can really get lost amid the statistics and rhetoric.
Finding the human face behind the facts and figures is my new challenge.
Step one was attending a meeting last week of social service agency representatives known as the Montgomery County Human Services Commission.
Commission members believe they are their brothers' and sisters' keeper. They're idealistic, overworked, underpaid, maybe a little burned out, too.
There's a bit of the "circle the wagons" mentality about the group, which meets in a spare backroom at the courthouse annex building in Christiansburg.
Times are hard for social service organizations, which are viewed by some citizens as the embodiment of big government and high taxes.
The present political climate clearly makes some members of the Human Service Commission uneasy. They believe a large gap exists between the notion of cutting back services and the reality of how such measures will affect those who depend on them.
Here, in the New River Valley, many people who don't fit the negative stereotype of public relief recipients have found themselves thrown overboard by turbulent economic seas.
Plant closings and work force reductions - forces beyond their control - sucked many into a swirl of unemployment and dependency.
Rebecca Noftsinger, director of the New River Valley Free Clinic, said that when she first came to the job eight years ago, most who sought the clinic's medical attention were people who had lived in poverty much of their lives.
Now, she said, many clinic patients are middle class people who fell through the safety net when they were laid off and lost health care benefits.
It's a difficult place to be, particularly in an area that values both hard work and self sufficiency.
Folks aren't proud of being unemployed. They're struggling to get back on their feet. And they'll get there, eventually.
Meanwhile, here are some statistics you can all too easily give a local, human face:
The New River Valley's Head Start program has a waiting list that is occasionally as large as the program itself - 304 slots.
Head Start is a comprehensive educational program for young children and their families. It's federally funded and locally supported, and directed toward low-income families.
Patty Marickovich, area Head Start director, said increasing numbers of children are coming to the program without having had a complete physical examination, much less any immunization shots.
"Families are having to choose between food and medical care," she said.
It is also estimated that 25 percent of New River Valley children lack adequate health care. Even those who are eligible have difficulty getting access to medical attention.
Numbers like that surprise me, and they may surprise you, too - unless, of course, you are one of those struggling to stay afloat.
They illustrate the width and breadth of the community's challenge - perhaps even to those who believe their brothers and sisters should keep to themselves.
by CNB