Agency: Indiana Family and Social Services Administration
Secretary: Katherine L. Davis
Public Information Number: (317) 232-4453
Administration of Human Services
Public assistance and service programs in Indiana are administered by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, including the Divisions of Family and Children; Disability, Aging, and Rehabilitative Services; and Mental Health. Each of the 92 counties has an Office of the Division of Family and Children, which is staffed by employees of the Family and Social Services Administration. Programs have various combinations of federal, state, and local funding.
The optional state supplement to the supplemental security income program (SSI/S) is administered by the Division of Family and Children and is restricted to persons residing in licensed residential facilities.
General assistance (GA) is administered by Township Trustees without state supervision and is locally funded.
Assistance and Services
Assistance programs administered by the Family and Social Services Administration are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Medicaid (MAP) for the categorically needy, including Medicaid for patients under age 21 or over age 64 in Medicaid-certified mental health facilities and categorically eligible persons residing in Medicaid-certified intermediate-care facilities for the mentally retarded; Food Stamps (FS); state assistance programs for residents in county homes, room and board assistance; eye treatment; Child Support Enforcement (CSE); hospital care for the indigent; and the refugee resettlement program. The Division of Family and Children has a component that provides education, training, and employment to TANF and FS recipients under Indiana Manpower Placement and Comprehensive Training. There are cooperative arrangements with the Indiana Department of Employment and Training Services, Private Industry Councils, and Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) offices.
Other services administered by the Family and Social Services Administration include child welfare programs (CA/N, CPS, CW); foster care/adoption assistance (FC/AA); family preservation and support services (FP/FS); services to families (SF); services to the aged (OA); adult protective services (APS); vocational rehabilitation (VR); services for the blind and visually impaired (BS); developmental disabilities services; services for the deaf and hard of hearing; Social Security disability determinations; the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG); the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant; the Substance Abuse Treatment Block Grant; the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), including homemaker services and home based and protective services for children.
Related state agencies are responsible for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); the corrections program for adults and youths (CP, YA) and adult and juvenile parole (PAR, Y-PAR); employment services (ES); JTPA; unemployment compensation (UC); mental retardation programs (MR); the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCHBG); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the Preventive Health Services Block Grant (PHSBG); and state veterans services (VET). Probation services for adults (PRO) are the responsibility of the county courts.
Go to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s web site.
Find out more about whom to contact in this state in the 1998/99 Public Human Services Directory.