Street roots
Oct 14, 2011
Liiycjt
New domestic violence crisis workers to work alongside police
BY JOANNE ZUHL
meeting. “We gather more evidence, we
gather more trust and we gather more
n its first meeting in what is
support. The involvement at that front end
Domestic Violence Awareness
is a critical stage.”
month, Portland stepped up its game
The ordinance comes on the receipt of
on the issue by funding a new program to the first-year figures from The Gateway
have domestic violence advocates work with
Center for Domestic Violence Services,
the police on evenings and weekends. which opened in September 2010, the first
Domestic violence accounts for about
of its kind in the region. The center, located
5,000 calls to the Portland Police Bureau
at 103rd Avenue and East Burnside,
each year, the majority coming on, evening
received more than 2,000 participants
and weekend hours when other services are
seeking assistance in more than 4,500 visits.
closed. Under the one-year pilot project, two
With 19 partners from health, legal and
full-time crisis response advocates will
housing services, the one-stop center
partner with officers responding to those
provides a coinprehensive spectrum of
calls to provide safety planning and
options for someone seeking help escaping
resources to victims.
domestic violence. In its first year, center
On Oct. 5, City Council voted
staff facilitated the fifing of 557 restraining
unanimously to dedicate $41,720 to the joint order applications^ in 15 languages. And it is
project with Multnomah County, which is
the only location in Multnomah County
contributing more than $83,000 in federal
where petitioners can teleconference with a
grant funding.
judge to have their restraining order
“We know in the District Attorney’s office
approved by the court
The center also provides childcare for
that the'best practice is going to be hands-
parents while they receive consultation and
on at the front of the case,” said Rod
Underhill, Multnomah County chief deputy
assistance.
“This city-county collaboration that got
district attorney, who testified at the council
STAFF WRITER
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the idea off the ground is a reflection of our
shared commitment to address the epidemic
of domestic violence in our community,” .
said Jeff Cogen, addressing the council.
“While crime in general has been declining,
domestic violence is an exception to that
and the incidences have been increasing.”
County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury
addressed the council saying that the center
has created a new entry point to services for
women and children who wouldn’t
traditionally approach agencies. In
Multnomah County, the service portal for
domestic violence assistance: is primarily
through shelters.
“The existing system is structured and
funded for crisis and post crisis response
and not prevention,’’ Kafoury said. “And in
nearly every case, when a woman calls a
shelter for assistance, she is told that
there’s no room at the inn. We can and
should do more to help these families before
they reach the crisis point.”
As a pilot project, the two new positions
are tapping into the city’s one-time money
and come as an emergency request by
Councilman Dan Saltzman outside of the
regular budget process. Commissioner
Randy Leonard raised the point that while
he supported the service behind the
request, and voted for it, it will become a
bigger issue next year when the city will be
looking at funding cuts between 4 and 8
percent actossits bureaus.
“I’m trying to understand the consistency
of, now buying into what will inevitably be a
request for ongoing funding, knowing we’re
going to have to cut live firefighters, live
police...”
Leonard said. “I’ve ruminated over where
we are going, to begin identifying more than
$4 million in cuts in the fire bureau, over $6
million cuts in police, and I don’t know how
many million cuts in the parks bureau.”
Commissioner Amanda Fritz said that in
light of upcoming budget cuts, the results of
the pilot project could help determine how
resources are applied, which could mean
shifting hours and staffing to cover evenings
and weekends that might not mean
additional costs in the future.
messages to communicate with patients.
Gideonse calls these brief, non-clinic based
interactions “touches.” He says they are
essential to engaging the patient in their
own healthcare and helping them stay
healthy.
Coordinated care, he says, “is not about
increasing visits. It’s about increasing
touches. You meet their needs in a non-visit
way.”
A benefit of coordinated care is that if
gain a solid understanding of their patient’s
health to know the care the patient needs
without having to wait until the patient gets
sick again and seeks more costly hospital
and emergency room care.
After that first phase, the patient will
most often interact with the panel manager.
Autumn Bolds, the panel manager on
Solotaroff’s team, says she calls as many as
patients a day and apeafcs
be introduced to a social worker, those
long as 30 minutes.
people are in the building to meet the
Bolds role may sound simple, but it is a
patient in person, that day. “Giving someone
critical link in sustaining care. Bolds
a slip of paper with a phone number on it is
reminds patients about scheduled visits, lab
really different from introducing them to a
or other routine tests, and inquires about
social worker. You’re directly linking the
any health goals a patient may have set “It’s
next step,” Gideonse says.
letting them know that we care,” she says.
Kay Dickerson says
She says patients
the Richmond Clinic’s
become more
patient teams
responsible for their
encouraged her
care, knowing that
We're changing not only the tremendously when
someone will
she was dealing with
habits of the health care
occasionally call.
a combination of
“They realize they
system, but the habits of the mental and physical
are not thé only ones people who use it."
illnessess.
involved in their
REP. TINA KOTEK
She had just
care>” Bolds says.
arrived in Portland in
Bolds keeps
September 2006,
multiple thick white
shortly after
binders full of*
Hurricane Katrina
information on social-service agencies in
devastated New Orleans, Louisiana, where
Portland. Connecting healthcare to social
she lived. She and her husband had
services, many say, is vital. Oregon Health
relocated to Portland, and were processed
Plan patients, because of their socio
through Washington High School. Gideonse
economic status, most often need an array
was volunteering, and told Dickerson she
of sèrvices besides health care, including
had-depression, anxiety, posttraumatic
housing, employment services, and other
stress disorder, and that she had Type II
needs.
diabetes. He asked if she had insurance. “I
“The social interventions are going to be
don’t have nothing,” She remembers
critical,” says Ed Blackburn, Central City
responding. “I don’t have a home. I have a
Concern’s executive director.
few boxes, two mountain bikes, a dog, and a
As Central City Concern’s programs
husband.”
began developing 25 years ago, there was a
Gideonse gave her his card. “Come to our
deliberate effort to offer, in addiction to
clinic, and we’ll take care of you,” she
health and addiction services, detox
remembers him saying.
services, alcohol and drug free hqusmg, low-
Dickerson went to the clinic within a
barrier housing, employment services, s
week, and now has her diabetes under such
services to help people get on disability, etc.
control that she does not need to do regular
“We get better outcomes because of it,”
tests. “I’ll always have diabetes,” she says.
Blackburn says.=“We realized early on that
“But I have it extremely well under control
you can’t successfully treat people on an
with diet, exercise and pills. I’ve worked
outpatient basis if they’re homeless and
very hard on it.”
don’t have a place to live.”
Her patient team worked closely with her
The Richmond Clinic coordinates care
and answered any question that she had.
similarly to the Old Town Clinic and relies
“They take time to address your specific
heavily on phone calls, emails, and even text
PHOTO BY KEN HAWKINS
Kay Dickerson walks her dogs daily to get the exercise that helps control her diabetes. She says
the coordinated care she recieved at the Richmond Clinic helped her get her spectrum of health
problems Under control.
problems,” she says. “And patients
understand what the nurses and doctors are
trying to tell them.”
Without the encouragement of thé
doctors she worked with, Dickerson is not
sure she would have made the changes in
her lifestyle that are helping her manage her
illnesses.
That nexus of requiring providers to
collaborate and encouraging patients to
assume responsibility for their health, Kotek
says, is at the heart of HB 3650’s efforts.
“We’re changing not only the habits of the
health care system, but the habits of the
people who use it,” she says.
If CCOs can accomplish the hopes and
visions of those looking to them to provide
care to one of the most vulnerable
populations in the state, then they will
greatly contributed to changing lives.
As Greenlick says, “they have great
promise.”
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