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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Ore. pushed to provide services for at-needs kids
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) 4 Children
with intellectual and devel-
opmental disabilities being
attacked and locked up in
isolation. This is what some
kids from Oregon were sub-
jected to after being sent to
out-of-state facilities because
of a lack of services in their
home state.
They9re coming back,
and now the state faces chal-
lenges to give them proper
care.
Currently, 37 children
remain in out-of-state facili-
ties, down from as many as
88, Gov. Kate Brown9s office
said this week.
State Sen. Sara Gelser, a
Democrat from Corvallis and
chairwoman of the Senate
Human Services Committee,
said she wants the number
reduced to zero quickly.
At the same time, Oregon,
which has sent some children
to repurposed jails in the
state, is trying to ramp up its
capacity to serve those who
are returning and others with
needs.
The Oregon Secretary of
State9s office said in a 2018
audit that the child welfare
system <is disorganized,
inconsistent, and high risk
for the children it serves.=
In a follow-up pub-
lished in June, the audits
division said <extensive
work= remained to improve
child safety and that staff and
foster homes needed to be
added.
Gelser, who has been at
the forefront in the effort
to bring the kids back to
Oregon, said newly released
documents show that as
recently as last November,
the Department of Human
Services, or DHS, antici-
pated having over 120 kids
in out-of-state placements
by the end of June. The state
reversed course amid reports
the children face abusive
environments in some of
those facilities.
Gelser said that this sum-
mer, she visited several out-
of-state programs serving
about 12 Oregon children.
She was impressed with the
quality of one of the pro-
grams, at Forest Ridge, in
Estherville, Iowa. It offers
behavioral health interven-
tion, drug counseling and
other services in a rural set-
ting with 140 residential
treatment and emergency
shelter beds.
But Gelser said she had
<deep concerns= about
another facility that she did
not name that serves about
80 children, including three
from Oregon, and is housed
in a refurbished office park.
<Over the course of my
two hours there, I witnessed
a physical intervention,
a seclusion, and a child
restrained in a classroom
with a foot-to-chin body sock
that left her without the use
of her hands or feet,= Gelser
said, specifying that the
children involved were not
Oregonians. <I saw dishev-
eled 8bedrooms9 that did not
reflect a homelike environ-
ment and signage that sug-
gested discipline is imposed
in ways inconsistent with
Oregon policy.=
Some Oregon chil-
dren were housed in Red
Rock Canyon School in St.
George, Utah. The school
is understaffed, leading to
violence, sexual miscon-
duct, and an unsafe atmo-
sphere, Utah9s Department
of Human Services told the
school9s owners in May. The
facility9s parent company
announced on July 9 it would
close.
At Clarinda Academy in
Iowa, where Oregon also
sent vulnerable children,
some staff slammed children
to the ground while pun-
ishing them, and kept sev-
eral students for weeks at a
time in a suspension room,
according to a report in the
Des Moines Register, citing
state documents.
To better serve the return-
ing children and others,
Oregon intends to develop
additional psychiatric resi-
dential treatment services,
hire caseworkers and develop
capacity for an additional
15 beds by the end of the
year, Brown9s office said.
Caseworkers will also work
more closely with families,
Gelser said those steps are
<welcome and critical.=
New partnerships with
programs like Parrott Creek,
a facility in the Portland sub-
urb of Oregon City, raise
hopes that Oregon can reach
its objectives, Gelser said.
TRIATHLON: Two
Sisters men won
their age group
Continued from page 1
45-49 age division and 12th
overall.
Another athlete with
Sisters connections, Erin
Kanzig, also shone, as she
won among women in the
<paddle= triathlon in which
the swim was replaced with
using a paddle board to
navigate the 1,500-meter
water section. Kanzig, who
was celebrating her 29th
birthday, clocked 2 hours,
54 minutes.
Sisters residents Tate
Metcalf (3:05:19) and Ross
Kennedy (3:26:37) also
competed in the Olympic-
distance triathlon.
The festival features
events spread over two days
that include a duathlon, relay
races, a half-ironman tri-
athlon, a half-marathon and
more.
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Saturday, Sept. 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Cuppa Joe with the
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Upstairs at 220 S. Ash St., Ste. 8 | Tu.-Sa., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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