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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 18, 2018
FIRES: Lightning struck Umatilla County 120 times
Continued from 1A
a brush truck to Arling-
ton, where multiple lighting
strikes caused fires, and was
working on sending another
to Condon.
Gilliam County could
have more fires Saturday.
Roberts said lighting strikes
that smoldered in the night
might spark off during the
day when the conditions
were right.
Gov.
Kate
Brown
declared the Stubblefield
Fire in Gilliam County
a
conflagration
emer-
gency, according to a press
release from the governor’s
office. Brown’s declaration
allows the Oregon Office of
State Fire Marshal to send
resource to the scene.
Pendleton did not have
any fires sparked by the
overnight storm, Capt. Dan
Hergert said. But Pendleton
sent crews and equipment
Friday to help the Pilot Rock
Rural Fire Protection Dis-
trict take on blazes.
The
Forest
Service
reported most of the fires
remain less than an acre, but
additional fires are likely to
happen as the temperature
warms.
From Thursday night to
Friday morning, National
Weather Service mete-
orologist Robert Cramp
said lightning struck 1,500
times across the Pendle-
ton office’s coverage area,
which includes Eastern Ore-
gon, the Columbia River
Gorge, and parts of Central
Oregon, Eastern Washing-
ton, and Idaho.
In Eastern Oregon, light-
ning struck Umatilla County
120 times and Morrow
County 210 times.
Cramp said the weather
service issued a red flag
warning on Wednesday in
anticipation of the storms,
and although no thunder-
storms are expected for Fri-
day evening or Saturday,
they are expected to return
on Sunday night and go on
through Tuesday.
———
Antonio Sierra and Phil
Wright contributed to this
story.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Firefighters mop up on a brush fire that burned through tall grass and sage brush Friday northeast of Lexington.
CARE: Home care component is going to be difficult
Continued from 1A
ages, they enlist more senior
services. But these services
will continue to stretch thin
unless something changes.
According to the United
States Census Bureau, the
number of people aged 65
and older grew from 35 mil-
lion in 2000 to 49.2 million
in 2016. And two-thirds of
the nation’s counties had an
increase in median age in
2016. The Census Bureau
estimates that 15.2 percent
of Umatilla County’s pop-
ulation and 16.1 percent of
Morrow County’s popula-
tion is 65 and older.
“Typically, as we know
in the aging population, it
usually doesn’t get better,”
said Paula Hall, CAPE-
CO’s chief executive officer.
“Things seem to get worse,
unless it was an accident or
an injury or so forth.”
Hall said there is a “dig-
nity” to a person staying in
his or her home — in addi-
tion to the cost savings that
come along with it.
State Sen. Bill Hansell
said a combination of
resources share the respon-
sibility of helping citizens
age in place, including indi-
vidual investments and sav-
ings, federal dollars and
state resources.
“I know parts of our pop-
ulation, for whatever reason,
aren’t able to provide for the
services they need,” he said.
But determining who
should pay is a difficult dis-
cussion to have, according
to Hall.
“I’ve never found it easy
to engage with conversa-
tions about aging and the
responsibility that we as a
society should hold,” she
said.
“My personal opinion is
that if you’re in a healthy
environment in your own
home then you’re going to
thrive,” she said. “And we
know that when you go into
a care facility, if you have
any savings, it’s going to
be more than likely mini-
mal and it’s going to be used
up within a year — and then
what happens? You’re on
Medicare and it costs a lot of
money for Medicaid to then
offset that cost.”
CAPECO provides Par-
tin funding to cover four
hours of home care services
per week.
“That’s not very much,
but we make it,” Partin said.
Part of the reason Partin
can continue living at home
is because her granddaugh-
ter, Shauna Partin-McAl-
ester, pays the remaining
cost for the services. Hodge
works for Partin 10 hours
per week — or 40 hours per
month. Partin-McAlester
pays what CAPECO doesn’t
cover, which is the addi-
tional 24 hours per month
and comes out to about $300,
said Partin-McAlester.
“She did a lot for me
growing up,” she said. “I
just want to make her com-
fortable and happy until she
does have to go to a retire-
ment home, because even-
tually she’ll need full-time
assistance.”
Fortunately, Partin has
a strong network of sup-
port — including her grand-
daughter and a cousin who
lives nearby and comes to
check on her throughout the
week. Altruistic friends and
family members are who
CAPECO relies on to pro-
vide services to as many
people as possible. Case-
workers do periodic reas-
sessments of clients to
determine if they need an
increase in services or if it’s
possible to decrease.
“What we do try to do is
go in and say, ‘You needed
this many hours, you daugh-
ter is moving back in town,
could she do some of this?’
So our intention isn’t to
reduce, but it’s to try to
reach as many Oregonians
and as many people in our
two counties that we cur-
rently serve with appropri-
ate services,” Hall said.
Hall didn’t know how
long people are typically on
the waiting list, but said it’s
too long.
“It’s always sad at the
end of the day that how
many of the 49 people are
going to end up in a care
facility when we could have
provided some preventative
services,” she said.
CAPECO
received
$191,403 to cover two years
of funding in Umatilla and
Morrow counties. Hall said
CAPECO isn’t allowed to
lobby, but it can “advo-
cate” for funding on certain
issues.
For example, she said
the organization can advo-
cate for a 10 to 30 per-
cent increase in funding for
homeless services — and
because this issue is a pri-
ority for Gov. Kate Brown,
Hall said funding is eas-
ier to secure. In the past,
CAPECO has advocated
just to maintain the current
level of funding for aging-
in-place services.
“OPI is a state program
and Medicaid is not. So you
have to say, ‘Yes, it’s cost-
ing the state this amount
of money, but it is prevent-
ing this additional debt and
additional cost on the fed-
eral side,’” Hall said.
But when there are other
issues to address in the state,
aging-in-place services can
often fall to the bottom of
the priority list.
“Do you invest in
schools? Do you invest in
law enforcement? Or do
you invest in aging-in-place
and senior services? It’s just
kind of a hard sell,” Hall
said. “We have to really
have some legislators pick
it up. Pick this up as a per-
sonal challenge, I guess.”
Hansell said it’s chal-
lenging to distribute a lim-
ited amount of resources.
Oregon has to tackle issues
such as education funding,
law enforcement, combat-
ing opioids and rising Pub-
lic Employee Retirement
System costs, as well as
aging.
“You have more demands
than you have resources
available to fill,” he said.
Finding home care work-
ers is also a challenge. Cli-
ents are responsible for find-
ing their own workers who
are employed through the
state. CAPECO currently
serves Umatilla and Mor-
row counties, but start-
ing Oct. 1 will be expand-
ing into Gilliam, Wheeler,
Sherman, Wasco and Hood
River counties.
“Pendleton is rural, but
we have parts of our service
area that we call frontier —
so no services. And I think
that’s what we’re going to
find when we expand our
services, especially to the
Gilliam, Wheeler and Sher-
man counties. The home
care worker component is
going to be difficult,” Hall
said.
According to U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau data estimates,
34 percent of Wheeler Coun-
ty’s population is aged 65 or
older, the highest percent-
age of any county in Ore-
gon. But it’s also the state’s
least populous county.
“And we know in those
counties, those frontier
counties, the aging popu-
lation is growing yet the
workforce is not there —
especially for home care
workers,” she said.
In situations where home
care workers are unavail-
able, CAPECO tries to
enlist the help from volun-
teers in the form of fam-
ily members, friends and
neighbors. And if a per-
son is unable to receive ser-
vices through OPI, there
are other paths available
to them. OPI is one pro-
gram under an umbrella of
senior care services. When
someone can’t immediately
access OPI they receive
options counseling, but this
mainly involves informa-
tion and referrals. There are
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“
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Katherine Hodge does June Partin’s dishes on Thursday at Partin’s home in Mil-
ton-Freewater. Hodges works for the CAPECO aging-in-place services and provides
in-home care for Partin.
also nutritional services that
deliver meals to a person’s
home.
CAPECO will con-
duct community forums to
determine what the high-
est needs are for the area.
The responses it receives
will drive the future direc-
tion of the organization.
If senior services are high
on the community’s pri-
ority list, then CAPECO
will have to explore differ-
ent approaches to providing
those services.
“It is our responsibil-
ity as a community action
agency that if we get a lot of
feedback saying this should
be your priority,” said Hall,
“then we have to say, ‘OK,
OPI is not filling the gaps,
so we have to look at other
ways.’”
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to come.
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New Patients
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Pediatrics
541.667.3740
600 NW 11th Street
Suite E-33
Hermiston, OR 97838