14
S moke S ignals
OCTOBER 1, 2018
Behavioral Health hires two new staff
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
Two new mental health professionals have joined the Community Health
Department in the past few months and are available to help Tribal pa-
tients.
Dr. Gilberto De Jesus-Rentas is the Tribe’s part-time psychiatrist and
Christine McCambridge is the new psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Health Services Executive Director Kelly Rowe said both De Jesus-Rent-
as and McCambridge help the department better serve its clients.
“Dr. De Jesus-Rentas has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience
to Behavioral Health, which has been invaluable for program planning,”
Rowe said. “We are very fortunate to have engaged him to provide psychi-
atric services to our patients. … Having Christine join Health and Wellness
to lead Behavioral Health has been instrumental in development of the
array of services we are able to offer.”
Gilberto De Jesus-Rentas
De Jesus-Rentas began his career work-
ing in community health and has always
enjoyed interacting with clients from dif-
ferent cultures.
“It is something I really like profes-
sionally,” he said. “When we moved from
Florida to Oregon, my ambition was to
work in a Tribal community. When I saw
the opportunity out here, I applied. I feel
that I can provide a service that is needed
in the region.”
De Jesus-Rentas completed his residen-
cy at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health
Center in the South Bronx, which includes
De Jesus-Rentas
a mix of patients from mostly African, His-
panic and Russian backgrounds. He has been a psychiatrist since 2005.
Now, he splits his time between a private practice in Salem and working
in Grand Ronde.
De Jesus-Rentas earned a bachelor’s degree from Pontifical Catholic
University of Puerto Rico and attended medical school at Ibero-American
University in the Dominican Republic and completed an internship at the
San Juan City Hospital. He has a specialty in general psychiatry and two
sub-specialties in forensics and child/adolescent psychiatry.
“My original goal was to work in gerontology, but it didn’t take me long
to decide I wanted to do child psychiatry instead,” De Jesus-Rentas said.
“The forensics part I decided to do because I was doing a lot of consul-
tations in juvenile cases and found myself talking a lot to the court and
preparing reports.”
A forensic psychiatrist provides services, such as determining compe-
tency to stand trial, to the court as well as providing treatment. De Je-
sus-Rentas’ private practice is set up specifically for forensic consultation.
“That is how I keep what I learned in use,” he said. “I also work with
a citizen review board to look at cases for the Department of Human
Services. I get lots of questions about mental health so it is a good use of
what I know.”
De Jesus-Rentas has three sons with wife, Yessica, and enjoys going to
movies, baseball games and his children’s sporting events.
Christine McCambridge
The Tribe’s new Behavioral Health psy-
chiatric nurse practitioner began in June.
She decided to apply for the position after
living and working in Portland during the
past year.
“I grew up by the beach and so living in
Portland wasn’t for me,” she said. “I be-
gan talking to Kelly (Rowe) to see if there
was something I could do here. At my old
job, I mostly saw patients for medication
management. Here, I could do that and
administrative functions.”
McCambridge has worked as a psychiat-
ric nurse practitioner for eight years and
Christine McCambridge
held a variety of different positions in that
time. In Grand Ronde, she sees patients ages 5 and older.
“I think just having that experience has helped me get to this point,”
she said.
McCambridge earned a bachelor’s degree in health care administration from
Oregon State University. She began working at a hospital in Newport shortly
afterward and was upset by how she saw nurses treating some patients.
“I thought that I could do their job, but in a nicer way,” she said.
So, McCambridge enrolled at Linfield College in McMinnville and earned
a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
After taking time to raise her boys, now ages 26, 24 and 22, she attended
the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Chapel Hill, earning a
master’s degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
In her spare time, McCambridge enjoys walking on the beach, hiking to
waterfalls and playing tennis.
Since she began working for the Tribe, McCambridge has enjoyed im-
mersing herself in its culture and history with the help of longtime support
counselor Joe Martineau.
“I am so fortunate to have Joe around,” she said. “He has been great to
learn from.”
To make an appointment to see McCambridge or De Jesus-Rentas, call
503-879-2026.
Afterhours health line
Tribal members can contact the Afterhours Health Line for questions
about health care concerns you may have when the clinic is not open.
You can reach the Afterhours Health Line by calling 503-879-2002 and
follow the prompts.
The Afterhours Health Line will coordinate care and communicate with
Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Center providers.
‘This is a time of growth and
change in our communities’
GRANTMAKER continued
from page 13
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rates in Indian Country are very,
very bad for a number of reasons.
Having a back-up bus option for
these kids made all of the differ-
ence. That was huge to people out
there, who live in a very remote
area without taxis or bus service.
… Those two partnerships felt very
powerful to me.”
George noted that a negative im-
pact of having a Community Fund
is the perception that the Tribe has
“loads of money.”
“At times, people think if you
are able to share with others, you
must be filthy rich,” she said. “Our
Community Fund was built into the
foundation of our casino, but there
have been times where the Tribe
has been met with doubt because
we have the money to give away
to others in need. … If you visit
Grand Ronde, you won’t find any
mansions, but what you will find
is adequate housing, which looks a
lot different than what you would
see 35 years ago.”
She said that things that have
changed over time are streamlining
processes to make fund applica-
tions more accessible and simplify-
ing applications so that less time is
spent filling them out.
“This way, more organizations
can follow their mission and spend
less time securing grants. … Also,
we don’t ‘hide the ball.’ We tell
applicants very clearly what they
need to do to apply,” she said.
George said one question that some
organizations found challenging was
how much diversity they had among
members on a nonprofit board.
“Some had a hard time with
that, but other nonprofits actually
thanked us for giving them an op-
portunity to have a conversation
that they felt they couldn’t have
before this time,” George said.
“It’s also nice to challenge our own
thinking about the impact of our in-
vestments. This is a time of growth
and change in our communities.”