20
Of a certain age Wednesday, September 12, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Fire district launches
senior program
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
In an effort to decrease the
number of seniors in Sisters
Country who are injured or
die as a result of falls and fire,
the Fire Corps senior safety
committee, headed by preven-
tion volunteers Heather Miller
and Phil Drew, launched a
new Senior Home Safety
Program on September 11 at
the Senior Lunch program.
“We hope we can make it
safer for our seniors in their
homes, mitigating the pos-
sibility of falls, rather than
our needing to go out to pick
them up and take them to the
hospital,” said Drew.
The program is the result
of Chief Roger Johnson’s
initiative several years ago
to increase the department’s
outreach to the seniors of
Sisters Country. A review of
the response data indicated
that for the past six years,
traumatic injuries have been
the leading call for service
to the Sisters-Camp Sherman
Rural Fire District for patients
60 and over. Falls at home are
the leading cause of those
traumatic injuries, over two
times more than motor vehi-
cle traffic accidents. Chest
pain/discomfort accounts for
less than half as many calls.
Falls are the leading cause
of injury death among adults
age 65 and older. As many as
30 percent of older adults who
fall suffer significant injuries
which may limit their ability
to live independently.
After the age of 50, a per-
son’s risk of dying in a fire
increases. Between the ages
of 65 and 85 the risk is three
times higher and after 85 it is
four times higher. The issue of
fire in the home is a real threat
for someone with mobility
issues, cognitive decline, or
drowsiness due to medication
or alcohol. Working smoke
alarms can make the differ-
ence in whether or not some-
one escapes a fire.
For people with hearing
deficits, an alarm displaying
a strobe light can provide
visual warning. A vibrating
alarm for people with sensory
deficits can be placed under
a pillow or mattress to alert a
resident of fire.
The fire department cur-
rently will install, for free,
smoke detectors and replace
batteries for those who need
assistance. The service is
designed to keep older people
off ladders, thus reducing fall
risks. The alarm program is
being incorporated into the
safety program.
The Senior Home Safety
Program will involve Fire
Corps volunteers making in-
home visits to identify safety
and fire hazards as well as
ways to mitigate those haz-
ards. Their visits will provide
an opportunity to make con-
nections with older Sisters
residents, increase their
safety, and leave important
educational and resource
materials with them.
We hope we can make
it safer for our seniors in
their homes, mitigating
the possibility of falls,
rather than our needing to
go out to pick them up and
take them to the hospital.
— Phil Drew
People may call the fire
station to schedule a visit to
their home (541-549-0771),
or family, care providers,
neighbors, and friends can
make a referral to the station.
There is no charge for the
program.
Any time a person needs
assistance, Miller reminds
them to call 911 and not the
fire department, as their call
may go to voice mail during
non-office hours and help
could be significantly delayed
or not dispatched.
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CANDIDATE: Candidate
seeks to unseat
long-time incumbent
Continued from page 19
program, hoping to flip seats
in Republican-controlled
districts.
McLeod-Skinner’s cam-
paign isn’t one of them. If
the Red to Blue’s 73 candi-
dates are long shots, ones like
McLeod-Skinner _ running in
very conservative districts —
are real Hail Marys.
Walden, who typically
wins around 70 percent of the
vote, had a war chest currently
totaling around $3.2 million
in late June — 31 times big-
ger than McLeod-Skinner’s.
“The biggest issue is the
disparity in fundraising,” said
Jeff Dense, professor of polit-
ical science at Eastern Oregon
University. Without money,
she can’t afford a media cam-
paign, Dense said, noting that
eastern Oregon is peppered
with Walden campaign signs.
“I just drove by one in east
nowhere,” he said in a tele-
phone interview.
In an interview at a coffee
shop in Redmond — the town
near where McLeod-Skinner
and her wife live — the candi-
date said she felt compelled to
run because “our current rep-
resentative is not focused on
the district, not addressing the
issues that folks in my district
care about: health care, educa-
tion, economic development.”
She downplayed the fund-
ing factor.
“It’s not about a TV spot or
sending out fliers,” McLeod-
Skinner said, wearing faded
jeans, red work shirt and
scuffed cowboy boots. “It’s
about showing up. It’s about
listening to folks with respect
and hearing the issues that
people are concerned about.”
She accuses Walden of
not speaking out for his
constituents, including fail-
ing to oppose President
Trump’s trade war that risks
increasing tariffs on Oregon
wheat. Walden last year also
advocated the repeal of the
Affordable Care Act.
“His attack on healthcare
would hurt one in five people
in our district,” McLeod-
Skinner said.
McLeod-Skinner, who
has degrees in engineering,
regional planning and in law,
distances herself from city
Democrats, often derided
here as liberal elites from
Portland, uninformed about
challenges in this sparsely
populated, agricultural-ranch-
ing region. She calls herself a
rural Democrat, with loyalty
to constituents outweighing
party loyalty. She’s not big on
gun control, for example.
“Some Democrats felt I
was not far enough to the left
in the primary,” said the for-
mer Santa Clara, California,
city councilor. Her stance
resonated. She beat six other
candidates in the Democratic
primary for Oregon’s 2nd
District, taking 43 percent of
the vote.
Only registered Democrats
and Republicans can vote in
their own party’s primaries. In
the Republican one, Walden
got more votes than all seven
Democrats combined.
Walden did not respond
to requests for an interview.
His spokesman, Justin
Discigil, said in an email that
Walden has raised concerns
directly with the adminis-
tration about the impact of
tariffs on Oregon agricul-
ture. Discigil also defended
Walden on health care, saying
he extended the Children’s
Health Insurance Program
and responded to the opioid
crisis.
McLeod-Skinner’s role
models are Cheri Bustos,
a Democrat who beat a
Republican by 20 points
in an Illinois district that
narrowly chose Trump in
2016; and Connor Lamb, a
Pennsylvania Democrat who
won a House seat in Trump
territory in a special election
in March.
“I think we have an oppor-
tunity to absolutely shock
people,” McLeod-Skinner
said. “Eastern Oregon’s not
blue and I’m not looking to
turn eastern Oregon blue. I’m
looking to represent the folks
in my district who are not
represented.”
She’s crisscrossed the high
desert, forests and mountains
of the 70,000-square-mile
district — the second-biggest
in America among states with
multiple districts. She’s heard
voters’ concerns about lack
of economic development,
healthcare and educational
opportunities. She supports
exchanging public service
for college or trade school
educations.
On the campaign trail, she
sleeps in a teardrop trailer
outfitted with a mattress,
sometimes taking it onto the
wide, empty spaces of Bureau
of Land Management land.
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