Social Services

What is Foster Care?

Families are Needed!!
Thousands of children in North Carolina enter the foster care system each year, and range in age from infants to 18 years old. All foster children have unique backgrounds, experiences, personalities, strengths and needs. Some children in foster care require extensive care for physical or emotional handicaps and disabilities. Sometimes it becomes necessary to remove children from their homes. Maybe the home is not safe, maybe the caregiver could not care for them, or maybe they were abandoned... it does happen.

"Attention Medicaid Beneficiaries: 

Notice of Your Rights Under Hawkins v. Cohen"

Notice from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of NC 

An important health and safety service for our community's children, our staff members are available 24 hours a day year round to receive reports of suspected child abuse and neglect and conduct prompt investigative assessments. When abuse or neglect is determined, our staff works with the family in their home (when safe to do so). Through home based services, staff strive to enable abused and neglected children to remain with their families rather than be placed in foster care.

Henderson County Department of Social Services has a Program Integrity Unit that is devoted to investigating cases of fraud, abuse, and waste in public assistance programs. These programs include: Work First, Food Assistance, DayCare, Emergency Assistance, Low Income Energy Assistance, Special Assistance, etc.

Please try to provide as much of the following information as possible when reporting suspected welfare fraud:

Adult Day Care/Day health services provide an organized program of services during the day in a community group setting for the purpose of supporting the personal independence of older adults. The program focuses on the social, physical and emotional well-being of the person and offers a variety of activities designed to meet the individual needs and interests of the participants.

The North Carolina Services for the Blind provides the assistance of a community Social Worker to help family members, caregivers, civic groups, businesses, and other service providers gain access to information and services on topics related to vision loss, including: