S moke S ignals
OCTOBER 1, 2017
9
Dedication was held Oct. 3, 1997
CELEBRATION continued
from front page
At the April 14, 1996, General
Council meeting, architect Frank
Whalen said design started in
August 1995 and the construction
budget for the 29,000-square-foot,
two-story structure was approxi-
mately $4 million. Future expan-
sion of the building will be easy,
he said, because of the design in
the shape of a medicine wheel with
four separate wings.
Ground-breaking occurred in
August 1996 with then-Health &
Human Services Director Cheryle
A. Kennedy mounting a backhoe to
move the first clump of dirt.
The new building was designed to
house the medical and dental staff,
support services and wellness and
counseling, which included alcohol/
drug, mental health and vocational
rehabilitation. Also scheduled to
move into the new building were
Indian Child Welfare, foster care
and general and emergency assis-
tance programs. New services made
possible by the new, larger building
were optometry, pharmacy, a med-
ical lab and radiology.
In the center atrium hangs a
500-pound mobile of several hun-
dred salmon silhouettes that were
created by Tribal Elders. Memory
bricks were purchased by Tribal
members and placed randomly in
the entrance’s main sidewalk.
On Sept. 8, 1997, Pierson Mitch-
ell blessed the new Health & Well-
ness Center. Warm Springs Tribal
members Anna and Rudy Clements
were honored guests.
“A blessing is necessary in order
to ensure the clinic is a place of
health and healing,” Health Com-
mittee member Patti Tom-Martin
said during the ceremony.
A dedication ceremony was held
on Oct. 3, 1997, to honor staff and
Tribal members who contributed to
“the realization of the dream of hav-
ing our own health center for Tribal
and community members and those
who have continued to serve the
membership even before there were
buildings and programs.”
During the dedication ceremo-
ny, Tribal Council Chair Kathryn
Harrison delivered a speech and
Tribal Elder Nora Kimsey gave
the blessing. Kennedy, who is now
Tribal Council chairwoman, spoke
about how far the division had come
since Restoration and working
part-time out of the depot building,
and showed historical slides of
previous buildings used to provide
health services to Tribal members.
Two of the first physicians to
provide services at the clinic were
James Molloy and Glenn Geritz.
Molloy left his Sheridan practice
to work for the Tribe.
Some of the familiar names listed
in Nov. 15, 1997, Smoke Signals as
staff members at Health & Well-
ness included Kennedy, Alan Ham,
Penny DeLoe, Dr. Eric Webster and
Tom-Martin.
Kennedy, who was one of the first
three employees hired by the Tribe,
said her job then was similar to that
of a planner. She recalls conducting
a Needs Assessment Survey to find
Smoke Signals file photos
Then-Tribal Council Chairwoman Kathryn Harrison delivers a speech during the dedication ceremony for the Health &
Wellness Center on Oct. 3, 1997.
The Health & Wellness Center under construction in 1997.
If you go
Health & Wellness Center
20th anniversary event
When: 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6
Where: Health & Wellness Cen-
ter, 9615 Grand Ronde Road
More information: 503-879-
1407
out what services were needed by
Tribal members in the six-county
delivery area.
“Our Restoration was really
about acquiring health services,”
she said. “That was really para-
mount. Health, education services,
housing, a homeland for our people
and economic development. Those
were really the underpinnings for
Restoration.
“We had a tremendous amount
of data and a lot of it was like
self-identification because many of
our members didn’t have services
for years and years. When we asked
questions like, ‘Do you have a cur-
rent condition that you need to see
a doctor right now,’ there was an
overwhelming response of ‘Yes.’ ”
Kennedy said she worked with
Portland State University to com-
pile and interpret the data, which
helped to plan the services offered
in the new Health & Wellness
Center.
“We had several community
meetings where we had put the
wish list kind of on the road,” Ken-
nedy said, traveling to population
clusters in Eugene, Bend, Portland,
Yakima and Seattle. “We asked,
‘What is your highest priority?’ and
health care was always No. 1.”
Kennedy recalls she planned staff
training and certifications, as well
as purchase of medical equipment,
to coincide with the construction
schedule so that everything was
ready to go on opening day.
“All of that was targeted for one day
when we would open those doors,”
Kennedy said. “It was a big job.”
Tom-Martin, who was program
manager of Vocational Rehabilita-
tion at the time and is a longtime
member of the Tribal Health Com-
mittee, credits Kennedy with the
vision that saw the Health & Well-
ness Center through to fruition.
“It was just an amazing thing to
have health care in Grand Ronde,”
Tom-Martin recalls. “My grand-
mother’s children died from stuff
that I get a vaccination for. It was
just amazing to us to have health
care out there. And, of course, they
built that building. It looked like
the Taj Mahal it was so nice.
“Cheryle Kennedy, she was the
dreamer. The one who made that
happen. … She had that vision
and made us think that we could
have that, too. You could not deter
Cheryle Kennedy. She just wouldn’t
give up. I didn’t have the vision that
she had for that building. It was just
amazing when that thing went up.”
Tom-Martin said the major
change that she witnessed was that
Tribal members who lived outside
of the Grand Ronde area who would
not travel to the clinic located in
modulars started making the drive
to receive their health care in the
new building.
“The biggest change was to be
able to open a full array of services
with a one-stop shop for health
care,” Kennedy said. “Before, it was
piecemeal.”
Since its opening, the Health &
Wellness Center has seen antici-
pated expansions. Most recently in
December 2010, a 4,000-square-foot
addition was opened that added six
more work stations to the Dental
Clinic and added 2,000 square feet
to the Medical Clinic. In addition, a
new metal roof and Native-themed
flooring were added.
The $2.25 million expansion and
renovation was paid for using feder-
al grant dollars leveraged by about
10 percent in Tribal funding.
The Tribe also recently received
a $500,000 federal grant to help
expand the Behavioral Health
wing to meet increased demand
for services.
According to the 2016 Grand
Ronde Annual Report, the Health
& Wellness Center had 15,812
patient visits for medical needs,
2,477 patients for dental work,
2,774 patients for optometry needs,
1,495 patient visits for behavioral
health and 2,475 visits for commu-
nity health.
In 2016, there were more than
5,514 active medical records and 185
active Behavioral Health records on
file, and the Pharmacy filled more
than 90,000 prescriptions.