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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017
Duo: Both entered military in 2009
Gov. Kate
Brown held
a ceremonial
signing cere-
mony Friday
in Salem for
new laws
to help the
mentally ill.
Continued from Page 1A
Though now it feels rou-
tine, waking up in the mid-
dle of the night to respond to
a car accident or house fire
together wasn’t exactly what
the two envisioned as their
life together when they started
dating 11 years ago. But after
both TJ and Shaunna served a
tour in the U.S. Marine Corps,
firefighting began to play a
critical role in easing them
back into the community they
called home.
In fact, 11 years ago,
Shaunna envisioned the exact
opposite.
“I actually swore I’d never
get into the fire industry,”
Shaunna said. Growing up,
her mom worked for Medix in
emergency medicine in Sea-
side, and she said she became
irritated with her working long
hours at strange times of day.
“I hated the sound of that
pager going off,” Shaunna
said.
But this irritation wasn’t
enough to dissuade the crush
she developed for TJ when she
was 14, who at the time was a
volunteer firefighter and her
sister’s best friend.
To help move the rela-
tionship, her sister suggested
she ask TJ to help her fix the
radio in the car she just pur-
chased at 16. One thing led
to another, and suddenly she
found herself loving another
first responder.
Unique challenges
While it’s not uncommon
for couples to be in the same
business, some things get
more complicated when the
business is saving lives.
“It’s one thing when you’re
risking your own life,” TJ
said. “But it’s different when
it involves people you love.
Potentially sending my wife
into a structure fire is a little
bit of a tall order, but it’s a job
that has to be done.”
That personal connection
is a benefit, too, TJ said. The
two have an immense trust and
respect for the other’s abilities
and judgments. They rarely
have to communicate because
both know what needs to be
done and how.
“When we get done with
a call, we both experienced
all the same stuff,” TJ said.
“Because of privacy issues, we
can’t talk about our work with
people who weren’t there. But
since we both were there, we
can help each other process.
You see some terrible things
sometimes.”
It’s a lifestyle and under-
standing the two developed
while serving in the Marine
Corps. Both entered the mil-
itary in 2009 — TJ after vol-
unteering with Cannon Beach
Fire and Rescue for seven
Submitted Photo
New laws: Tragedies
have drawn attention
to treatment gaps
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Cannon Beach volunteer firefighter Shaunna White, right holding onto car door, partici-
pates in a training exercise last week. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
her to try firefighting with him,
to help recreate the structure
and team atmosphere of the
military.
“It doesn’t necessarily
make the transition easier, but
it will help you give a direc-
tion to feel like you are doing
something, instead of hanging
up your uniform and remem-
bering the good old days.
That’s hard.”
Into the future
Cannon Beach volunteer firefighter Shaunna White, far right,
watches over a vehicle-extrication training exercise last week.
years and Shaunna right out of
high school.
TJ was inspired by his
father, who served as a police
officer in Cannon Beach. Serv-
ing his country was a way to
help replicate the safe, simple
childhood he got to experience
in Cannon Beach, TJ said.
When the fire department
threw a going-away party for
TJ at the Driftwood, one of
the wives asked him why he
was joining the service. “I
pointed back at my team, and
said, ‘That’s why’ — to make
sure people could continue
to do whatever they want to
do without fear of something
else.”
“Wow,” Shaunna said.
“That’s a beautiful story. I just
didn’t want to go to college.
And I wanted to be a Marine.”
“So basically you were
more scared of college than
going into combat?” TJ asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Shaunna
laughed.
Strong, unstoppable
For Shaunna, it was her
grandfather — a veteran of
both the Korean and Vietnam
wars — that inspired her to
enlist. Being a Marine meant
being strong, being unstoppa-
ble. It meant success.
“So when I finally got in,
I remember asking, ‘Can I be
a tanker?’ and they said that
was for only men. I asked to
be a grunt, and again, only
men,” Shaunna said. “I could
be a cook or a tactical switch-
board operator, so I chose the
last one.”
The two separated for 11
months for training before
TJ managed to transfer near
Camp Pendleton in California,
where Shaunna was stationed.
A year-and-a-half in, they
were married, which allowed
them to stay together through-
out their tours.
“It put a tremendous stress
on our relationship,” TJ said.
“It’s a lifestyle that’s hard to
understand if you’re not in it.”
After living in a world
where 4 a.m. runs and six-
hour packing trips in the beat-
ing sun are status quo, both TJ
and Shaunna found something
missing in their lives when
returning to the civilian world.
“The Marine Corps made
me feel unstoppable. It made
me who I am today, instead
of college. I had this overall
important mission. Only 6 per-
cent of Marines are female,”
Shaunna said. “So when I
got out, I felt like I was noth-
ing, insignificant. It made me
depressed.”
That’s when TJ convinced
One of the largest benefits
Fire Chief Matt Benedict sees
in veterans who serve as vol-
unteer firefighters is an innate
sense of responsibility, work
ethic and respect.
“They understand struc-
ture, and that is critical. They
will fall back on their military
background in a major inci-
dent,” Benedict said.
For the past year, Bene-
dict has seen veterans, such as
Shaunna and TJ, transition and
grow more comfortable with
the job.
“It’s important to keep their
minds busy, and we give them
an opportunity to do that,”
Benedict said.
Shaunna is pursuing her
fire-science degree at Clat-
sop Community College with
the hopes of making firefight-
ing her career. TJ is pursuing
a degree is psychology at Ore-
gon State University while
working as a phlebotomist at
Providence Seaside Hospi-
tal in the hopes of becoming a
physician’s assistant in emer-
gency medicine.
What type of first responder
work and where are to be deter-
mined for TJ and Shaunna’s
future, but no matter what,
they are committed to keeping
Cannon Beach safe.
“When I left the mili-
tary, I missed the challenge,”
Shaunna said. “It took me
awhile to get here, but I fell in
love.”
Warrenton: Epicenter of housing development
Continued from Page 1A
withdraw the biological opin-
ion, and for FEMA to suspend
implementation of new flood
plain development rules until
after a public rule-making pro-
cess and a review under the
National Environmental Pol-
icy Act.
“These proposed rules
would undo decades of urban
growth management and nat-
ural resource protection,” Jon
Chandler, CEO of the Oregon
Home Builders Association
and president of Oregonians
for Floodplain Protection,
said in a release announcing
the lawsuit. “And they would
result in millions of dollars of
economic loss and expense for
Oregon property owners and
local governments, not to men-
tion years of uncertainty.”
Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian
Warrenton has struggled with flood insurance and levee
certification issues.
The coalition includes sev-
eral trade groups represent-
ing homebuilders, Realtors,
farmers and the construction
industry, along with individual
landowners
and
several
county and city governments,
including Warrenton.
Warrenton Mayor Henry
Balensifer said the city, which
has taken multiple hits regard-
ing flood insurance and levee
certification, felt the need to
join the coalition to make sure
its voice was heard. The city
paid $500 to be a part of the
coalition but is not helping
finance the litigation.
“I can understand the sci-
entific basis for protecting or
enhancing ecology, but it’s
not taking into consideration
the human aspect,” Balensifer
said.
Warrenton has become
the epicenter of new hous-
ing development amid a hous-
ing shortage. But much of the
city’s lands are low-lying and
considered at risk from a 100-
year flood, which can restrict
development and significantly
increase flood insurance rates.
“We want to make sure
we’re protecting the future of
our town, in terms of being able
to provide spaces for housing
and encouraging development
in our city,” Balensifer said.
and potential barriers in car-
rying out the law.
Another new law signed
by Brown this month requires
public and private health
insurers to cover behavioral
health assessments and med-
ically necessary treatment for
people in mental health crisis,
a mechanism to help finance
care.
“These bills ensure that
when Oregonians reach out
for help in a behavioral health
crisis, they can access a broad
range of mental health profes-
sionals, emergency services
and critical support systems,”
Brown said in a statement Fri-
day after a ceremonial signing
in Salem with advocates for
the mentally ill. “Now, Orego-
nians in their most vulnerable
moments will have the tools
they need to recover, without
undue financial burden.”
Crisis response
Columbia Memorial and
Providence Seaside work with
Clatsop Behavioral Health-
care — Clatsop County’s
mental health contractor —
on crisis response to the men-
tally ill. A crisis respite cen-
ter that opened last summer
in Warrenton is also intended
as an alternative to emergency
rooms or, in more severe cir-
cumstances, the county jail.
The hospitals are a partner in
the crisis respite center.
“CMH has been following
this practice already and we
are glad to have the state make
this the standard policy for
everyone,” Trece Gurrad, the
vice president of patient care
services at Columbia Memo-
rial, said of the emergency
room protocol in an email.
Janiece Zauner, the chief
operating officer and chief
nursing officer at Providence
Seaside, said in an email that
“we are working on develop-
ing innovative, sustainable
solutions that actively engage
community resources to meet
the needs developed in these
policies. We are beginning
the work in each ministry this
summer, and hope to have
community-based solutions
identified later this fall, before
the legislation takes effect.
“Caring for patients with
behavioral health needs is a
priority, and we will be work-
ing on how best to implement
targeted strategies in support
of people in need.”
Tragedies
Social workers, police
officers and prosecutors who
regularly encounter the men-
tally ill recognize the chal-
lenge for emergency room
doctors and nurses. But some
have observed that hospitals
at times seem unprepared to
handle people in a behavioral
health crisis and unable to
link patients to treatment.
Tragedies, like the sui-
cide of Carrie Barnhart,
who jumped from the Asto-
ria Bridge in 2015 after sev-
eral interactions with police,
Clatsop Behavioral Health-
care and Columbia Memorial
involving her schizophrenia
and depression, have drawn
attention to treatment gaps.
Barnhart’s family has filed
a $950,000 lawsuit against
Clatsop Behavioral Health-
care and Columbia Memorial
alleging negligence.
Another
suicide
—
Susanna Gabay’s Vicodin
overdose in 2010 — inspired
state action. The 21-year-old
University of Oregon student
from Mosier, who struggled
with depression, had a psy-
chotic breakdown and was
placed in a hospital psychi-
atric unit on suicide watch.
She killed herself just before
a counseling appointment a
month after her discharge.
Her parents, Jerry and
Susan Gabay, said the hospital
did not disclose their daugh-
ter was on suicide watch and
told them she may — or may
not — have another psychotic
episode, not enough informa-
tion to alert them of suicide
risk.
The 2015 law that set a
protocol for hospitals when
discharging mentally ill
patients also clarified medi-
cal privacy to help avoid leav-
ing loved ones in the dark.
Patients are encouraged to
authorize hospitals to disclose
information to caregivers,
such as prescribed medica-
tions and behavioral warning
signs that demand immediate
medical help.
Follow-up appointments
must be scheduled within
seven days after discharge,
or hospitals must document
why the seven-day goal is not
possible.
The law was named the
Susanna Blake Gabay Act.
Jerry Gabay, who now
serves on the board of the
National Alliance on Mental
Illness-Oregon, said he and
his wife learned that medical
providers are reluctant to talk
with families about mental
health “in a way that would be
shocking if you came in with
a broken hip.”
Research
New research released
in April found that suicide
risk among emergency room
patients in mental health crisis
is reduced if they receive sui-
cide screening from an emer-
gency room doctor, guid-
ance on treatment options
when they are released and
follow-up phone calls. The
study, led by Ivan Miller, a
professor of psychiatry and
human behavior at Brown
University in Rhode Island,
showed a 30 percent decline
in suicide attempts over a
52-week follow-up period.
“It’s very important, par-
ticularly with people in a
fragile mental state, and super
important if they may be sui-
cidal, to want to have done
an adequate assessment of
their mental health condition,
which is not always done.
And in my personal expe-
rience, with my daughter,
it was not done, when I was
there anyway,” Gabay said.
“So you need to have an
adequate assessment of what
is the problem here. And then
don’t just release them and
say, ‘Hey, good luck.’ Give
them a little bit of a transition.
Have some plan about what
you’re going to do. Make an
appointment for them to see
somebody.”
Vanderpool: Gearhart resident started volunteering in November 2015
Continued from Page 1A
Instead, Vanderpool tries to
snap photos when the dogs are
more playful and in front of
better scenery, such as a tree in
the shelter backyard.
A welcome sight
When Vanderpool walks
through the doors each day
at about noon, the kenneled
dogs — sensing an upcom-
ing trek outside — burst with
enthusiasm.
Vanderpool employs a num-
ber of techniques to improve
their behavior as she walks
or plays with them. For start-
ers, she’s mindful of her own
temperament.
“If I’m getting nervous and
I’m not patient, the dog will
catch on,” she said.
In the shelter backyard, she
sometimes helps other volun-
teers teach the dogs tricks or
correct behavioral issues.
One exercise involves her
and a leashed dog walking
toward a pile of toys. If the pup
becomes too hyper along the
way, she shortens the leash. If
it misbehaves too much, she
may turn around, go back to
the starting point and walk the
dog toward the area again. She
repeats the process until the dog
calms down.
Later when a potential
adopter meets a dog, she dis-
cusses its background with
them to make sure the pet is the
right fit.
Volunteer honors
Vanderpool, 29, of Gearhart,
has been volunteering at the
shelter since November 2015,
soon after her family moved
from Portland. Since then, she
said she’s become more com-
fortable handling dogs with
behavioral issues.
Animal Shelter Supervisor
Stephen Hildreth presented Van-
derpool with a volunteer award
at a county Board of Commis-
sioners meeting in April.
“She is a dedicated young
lady,” he said. “She sometimes
is the only one out there in the
downpouring rain or the windy
storms walking the dogs.”
Lengthy commute times
meant Vanderpool was unable
to volunteer at a shelter in Port-
land, and she hasn’t lived with a
dog since she was a young girl.
Her move to the county allowed
her to volunteer regularly, and
she said she has no plans to stop
in the near future.
“I just really like helping,”
she said. “I really like coming
here and walking with them and
interacting.”
— Jack Heffernan