Wallowa County Chieftain
HEALTH
W ALLOWA C OUNTY WRAPAROUND CARE
Continued from Page A1
“As Congress considers
signifi cant reforms to health
insurance coverage, it is crit-
ical that such reforms do not
undo the gains and progress
we have made,” said Jett.
The progress has been felt
by millions of Americans.
The American Psychiat-
ric Association reports that
68 million Americans suffer
from mental illness or sub-
stance addictions.
And according to the fed-
eral Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Ad-
ministration, since the es-
tablishment of ACA nearly
30 percent of those who got
coverage through the nation-
wide Medicaid expansion
were individuals suffering
with a mental disorder. Those
disorders can include anxiety,
schizophrenia, or an addiction
to substances such as opioids
or alcohol.
These are among the coun-
try’s most vulnerable individ-
uals — according to the APA
— those most likely to suffer
from poor mental health and
addictions. They are most at
risk of becoming homeless,
incarcerated or committing
suicide.
Wraparound care
GOBHI CEO Kevin
Campbell said that in his opin-
ion the greatest loss, should
the ACA be repealed, would
be losing important parts of
wraparound care. Such care,
Campbell said, can dramat-
ically improve the lives of
both the mentally ill and their
families.
Wraparound care provides
integration and collaboration
within the broader health
system. This goal is to create
security and access to com-
munity-based services to keep
people with mental health is-
sues out of jail or hospitals.
“This is important because
early intervention saves lives
and saves money,” said Jett.
“As Congress considers sig-
nifi cant reforms to health in-
surance coverage, it is critical
that such reforms do not undo
the gains and progress we
have made to improve health,
increase care and reduce cost
— Oregon’s triple aim.”
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
To service the increase in
individuals now able to access
reliable care, it was necessary
to hire and train more health-
care workers
Since the ACA was im-
plemented 23,300 new health
SCHOOL
Continued from Page A1
But other courses, like the
three-day weaving class, will
be taught by visiting artists.
North Carolina-based design-
er Amber Jensen will teach
students who are as varied as
the instructors in both geogra-
phy and demographics.
“We’ve got some people
signed on from here, others
who are coming in just for the
classes,” said Hennes.
Hennes said the nonprofi t
offers a 20 percent discount
for Wallowa County resi-
dents. The costs of the cours-
es vary, from $65 for spoon
carving, which includes all
relevant materials, to $295 for
the weaving course.
News
wallowa.com
Wallowa Valley Center
for Wellness has been able
to “braid together” funding of
integrated services since ACA
went into effect.
Several Wallowa County
residents have shared their
stories of how this practice
helped them. To protect their
privacy, the Chieftain made
the decision to withhold their
names.
• One individual joined the
Center for Wellness’s “Couch
to 5k” walking group more than
two years ago. Since that time,
they have taken over leader-
ship of the group, encouraged
peers to participate and made
the group more accessible.
In addition, this individual ex-
panded the group from Enter-
prise to include Wallowa and
Joseph. Through this process,
this Medicaid member has
lost weight, gained leadership
abilities and improved their
quality of life and for others in
the group.
• Another client who was
receiving mental health ser-
vices suffered from disruptive
sleep patterns and inconsis-
tent food choices. This person
wondered whether or not these
two problems contributed to
care jobs were created in Ore-
gon, according to the Oregon
Health Authority.
Campbell reported that
his group was funding more
than 150 health care work-
ers through their behavioral
health provider network.
“Those jobs weren’t there
three to four years ago,”
Campbell said. “It’s not all
about the money, it’s about
the fl exibility clients got in
treatment. Our enrollment
grew by over 60 percent. We
went from 28,000 to 48,000
enrolled. “
Campbell notes there are
times when individuals need
temporary emotional help, and
the ability to fi nd that in a pri-
mary care setting is important.
“Adolescence is a horribly
challenging time, after having
a baby is another time,” he
said. “There’s nothing wrong
with you if you’re having dif-
fi culties, it’s perfectly normal
to be stressed at this time and
being able to refer people for
mental health assistance or
getting someone to come in
and get help — that’s the mag-
ic that I’ve seen happening. “
Expansion
Before the Affordable
Care Act, the Oregon Health
Plan was directed by the leg-
islature to offer the children’s
health improvement program
(or CHIP) to all Oregon chil-
dren who came from a family
that had an income of double
twice the national poverty
line.
But few adults were cov-
ered by the plan, because the
income limits were so low.
“There were a whole lot of
kids with coverage through
OHP and their parents didn’t
have that coverage,” said
Campbell. But after the ACA,
the income levels were in-
creased to all adults who
made 138 percent of the pov-
erty line.
There are major benefi ts
when an entire family is in-
volved in treatment, some-
thing that has been done in
Wallowa County for many
years through Wallowa Coun-
ty Together. And Campbell
said that work must continue
for the community to see the
full social benefi t.
But access to mental health
wrap around care is not just
for the severely mentally ill,
or families with addiction or
other functional problems.
Cutbacks
Even if ACA is not re-
pealed until 2020, as Republi-
cans are currently suggesting,
the danger of cuts to services
remains.
Chris Bouneff, executive
director of National Alliance
on Mental Illness, discussed
those threats in the alliance’s
February report for staff.
“We knew the day was
coming that the federal invest-
ment would decrease for this
“expansion population” and
that Oregon’s share would in-
crease,” he wrote. “That day is
now here.”
He said there is a great dan-
ger of “going back to the days
when people in need received
nothing, which put untenable
pressure on emergency rooms,
law enforcement, schools and
just about every other public
agency and community set-
ting. There is no excuse to go
backward.”
“We’ve got real challeng-
es,” said Bob Joondeph, ex-
ecutive director of Disability
Rights Oregon.
“Oregon does not stack up
well in terms of youth illicit
drug use, youth suicide rates,
the number of adults receiving
mental health care. We know
statistically we’re a long way
Hennes got the idea for
the school after attending the
North House Folk School in
Grand Marais, Minn., years
ago. He learned timber fram-
ing skills there and saw what
a valuable asset a folk school
was to the community. He said
it can offer a way for a commu-
nity to preserve and important
knowledge, and also offers
local youth the opportunity to
fi nd useful, lucrative careers.
“I certainly see it that way,”
said Hennes. “If we can fi nd
a young kid who just goes
wild for timber building or
something, it can offer them a
way to make a living in their
hometown.”
Hennes said he hopes to
offer future courses in that
vein, as well as boat building
and fi eld trips and other lon-
Wallowa County
ger, more complex offerings.
Hennes said he will work to
not duplicate experiences al-
ready provided by the Josephy
Center, Wallowa Resources
and other local businesses.
The nonprofi t is hosting
some of the courses on the
street-level event space be-
neath the Jennings Hotel. It
also purchased a small brick
building on W. McCully Street
across from the hotel. Hennes
said that the 600-square-foot
structure will allow for some
classroom space in the short-
term, and the empty lot next
door offers room to expand.
Hennes said at least 8 rooms
will be available for rent at the
formerly dilapidated downtown
Jennings Hotel, and possibly as
many as 11 by Memorial Day.
Local contractors have been
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their mental health issues.
Because of the availability
of wraparound care through
ACA, the individual received
diet and exercise assistance
and lost more than 100
pounds making better food
choices and exercising regu-
larly. They now reports better
sleeping patterns, increased
mobility and better mental
health.
“This individual would not
have realized these gains had
it not been for the wrap around
care they are now receiving
through expanded Medicaid
services,” said Chantay Jett.
from fi lling the need. Peo-
ple’s health can be improved
if there is good preventative
health assistance available.
But it requires a new way of
building a capacity to deliver
that assistance. Frankly the
way the world works is that
is driven by money. Everyone
recognizes it is good for peo-
ple’s health, but fi nding the
money . . . Squeezing down
access to resources is not go-
ing to do it.”
Republican plan
The Chieftain has attempt-
ed to contact a number of pol-
icymakers and legislators to
get an explanation of how the
Republican-proposed Amer-
ican Health Care Act effects
the mentally ill, but the act be-
ing debated in the U.S. House
of Representatives is still in
fl ux and hard answers are nil.
Eric Fruits, an economics
professor at Portland Univer-
sity and economy advisor for
the Cascade Policy Institute,
a right wing think tank, ex-
pressed the feelings of most
individuals involved in the
process.
“I think what you see today
is nothing like what we’ll ac-
tually end up getting,” he said.
“Who knows where it will
go?”
He did, however, speak to
the biggest problems Republi-
cans had with the Affordable
Care Act.
“There is a huge chunk of
the middle class that has been
hammered hard by ACA, see-
ing huge decreases in the val-
ue of their coverage,” he said.
“The middle class is worse off
under the ACA than pre-ACA.
Also, employer insurance has
dropped 2 percent.”
Fruits believes that free
market health insurance will
benefi t the public, because
under the ACA insurance
working overtime on space that
now includes a shared sauna,
kitchen and baths.
A fundraiser for the folk
school is scheduled for April
1 at the Jennings Hotel. The
$70 meal is produced by
Tournant, a Portland-based,
farm-focused company creat-
ed by chefs Jaret Foster and
Mona Johnson.
For more information on
the folk school, visit www.
prairiemountainschool.com or
call Hennes at 503-863-6757.
You can also RSVP for the
fundraiser dinner there as well.
— Tim Trainor is interim
editor at the Wallowa County
Chieftain. Contact him at
541-426-4567.
March 22, 2017
A9
‘A
s Congress considers
signifi cant reforms to
health insurance coverage, it
is critical that such reforms
do not undo the gains and
progress we have made.’
Chantay Jett
companies were mandated to
provide a level of coverage
that were not needed by many
healthy people.
For instance, Fruits said a
woman past child-bearing age
does not need pregnancy ser-
vices. Some older individuals
do not want “extraordinary
measures” to be taken should
they have a heart attack or
stroke, and may have advance
directives stating the limits of
care described.
“I think if we had insurance
that was not so saturated with
mandated benefi ts you might
fi nd you can afford it,” Fruits
said.
But Fruits said he did not
know how the Republican
proposal would effect the
mentally ill, but he thinks its
an important part of the na-
tion’s health care system.
“I am becoming more and
more convinced that substance
abuse disorder is a physical
and mental issue that should
but addressed in our health
care system,” he said. “There
are treatments that work.
Some of the more effective
treatments require medical in-
tervention.”
The primary problem, ac-
cording to Fruits, is econom-
ics.
“I’ve said that the state
of Oregon can’t afford the
Medicaid expansion as it’s
written,” he said. “Oregon
committed to this Medicaid
expansion and knew the feder-
al aid will be dialed back and
never made any plans for that.
People are correctly worried
that if the Medicaid expansion
is dialed back, a lot of people
will lose coverage.”
According to the Nation-
al Council for Behavioral
Health, the rollback of ex-
panded care would end cov-
erage for approximately 1.2
million Americans with seri-
ous mental illness or addiction
problems.
Nearly all of the country’s
largest mental health groups
have lined up against the leg-
islation in its current form.
The Mental Health Liaison
Group, a group of more than
60 national organizations,
wrote a letter expressing “se-
rious concern” about the new
act and urging legislators to
“continue to protect vulnera-
ble Americans’ access to vital
mental health and substance
use disorder care.”
And Oregon’s poor and ru-
ral residents and those who are
too young to qualify for Medi-
care, would lose the most un-
der the Republican proposal,
according to data compiled by
the Kaiser Family Foundation
and analyzed by the Lund Re-
port.
That report analyzed resi-
dents of Wallowa County and
found that 60 year olds with an
income of $20,000 would lose
$9,760 in tax credits; those
with an income of $30,000
would lose $8,230; those with
an income of $40,000 would
lose $6,640. But those with
incomes of $75,000 and more
would see a reduced tax bur-
den.
A popular feature of the
plan for many businesses is
that it will end the requirement
for employers of more than 20
individuals offer coverage to
full-time employees.
The National Federation
of Small Businesses came out
in favor of the business con-
siderations of the Republican
proposal.
Other features of the new
act, as proposed, include re-
moving tax penalties for those
who choose to go without
health insurance. Insurers
would also be allowed to in-
crease premiums by 30 per-
cent for clients who let their
coverage lapse and then seek
to reinstate. In addition, feder-
al funds will be cut to Planned
Parenthood clinics for one
year.
Some parts will remain.
Republican legislators say
they will keep the prohibition
on denying coverage to people
with pre-existing conditions,
ban lifetime coverage caps
and continue to allow young
people to remain on their par-
ents health plans until age 26.
“There is no excuse to
go backward.” said Chris
Bouneff, director of National
Alliance on Mental Illness
Joseph Charter School senior
Ally Cooney is featured as this
week’s athlete of the week.
Cooney, 17 is a member of the
JCS track and field team.
When the Eagles competed at
the Mullen-Leavitt Invite track
meet last week, Cooney was
the only Eagle who won a first
place at the meet. She made a
winning leap of 32-02.75 for
the triple jump.
Cooney also competes in
volleyball, basketball, horse
4-H and FFA. She maintains a
regular presence on the JCS
honor roll and plans to attend
Boise State University in the fall.
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Ally
Cooney