Social sources

Under current law, first responders employed by the state don’t have to prove PTSD is related to work when seeking workers’ compensation. The new bill would give that presumption to more state workers.

‘It’s not necessarily doing anything to reinvent restorative justice or restorative approaches; it is making it so it is more streamlined access across the state,’ Dolan said. ‘This is trying to get some consistency and also respect the uniqueness of each county.’

“What does it hurt to do this? What if you’re a student who, for the first time, is getting a period, and you forgot something?” said the bill sponsor.

More people aren’t getting the help they need for basic services, which has meant the library is asked to fill that gap.

Now the Vermont Department for Children and Families is perhaps two months away from setting up temporary quarters in Middlesex in a state complex most recently used for inpatient mental health.

The state’s pandemic-era motel voucher program will continue for Winooskians and other Vermonters until April 2024. 

Nearly one in five positions sits empty within Washington County’s state-designated mental health provider.

Social services leaders say they’re scrambling to figure out what to do when the state’s program to help homeless people stay in hotels ends.