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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2021)
8A | OCTOBER 7, 2021 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Oregon FFA and Les Schwab ‘Drive Away Hunger’ Oregon FFA and Les Schwab Tires Centers rec- ognize the great need to help fight hunger. Those affected by food insecurity are in need year- round, especially now as the holidays are fast ap- proaching. Since 2013, Les Schwab Tire Centers of Oregon has partnered with Oregon FFA in a Drive Away Hun- ger Initiative to help raise as much food and awareness as possible. The initiative will take place the entire month of October. The public is urged to join in the effort to drive away hunger by dropping non-perishable food do- nations at any Oregon Les Schwab Tire Center, Wil- co, or Grange Co-op store through Oct. 31. The timing of this initia- tive is important to help lo- cal food banks and pantries gear up for the upcoming holiday demands. This special partnership allows FFA members to live out their motto of “learn- ing to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve.” FFA members follow in the footsteps set by the em- ployees at Les Schwab Tire Centers as they generously giving back to their local communities daily. Over the past eight years, this ef- fort has raised nearly three million meals for those in need. The Oregon FFA is part of the National FFA Orga- nization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America. It is a nation- al youth organization of 760,113 student members, all preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business, and technology of agriculture. There are 8,817 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Oregon FFA is made up of more than 11,000 members in 109 chapters throughout the state. The FFA mission is to make a positive differ- ence in the lives of students by developing their poten- tial for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultur- al education. To learn more, visit on- line at the Oregon FFA Facebook page, #ORF- FADriveAwayHunger, and www.lesschwab.com/drive- away-hunger. 1445 N Gateway Blvd Cottage Grove, OR 97424 Contact our New Patient Coordinator at from A1 CRISIS sistance Helping Out On The Streets) program in Eugene. The program has established itself nationally as a trailblazer in the field of crisis response. White Bird Clinic launched CAHOOTS as a community policing ini- tiative in 1989. CAHOOTS workers are not trained in law enforcement, but rath- er work as an alternative to police responses to non-vi- olent crises. The program mobilizes two-person teams consist- ing of a medic (a nurse, paramedic or EMT) and a crisis worker who has sub- stantial training and expe- rience in the mental health field. Law enforcement and community members alike have praised the program’s success in de-escalating situations and finding posi- tive outcomes. White Bird has also stat- ed that it saves the City of Eugene millions of dollars each year. It also cuts down on ambulance rides and emergency room visits by offering preventive ser- vices. The effort to support ru- ral mobile crisis response elsewhere in the region be- gan in Florence three years ago, a model which has also achieved notable success. The West Lane MCR, a team of 10 people, has been praised for establishing a strong partnership with law enforcement. While initially only cov- ering the Florence area, the program has been able to reach out into county area and work with the Lane County Sheriff ’s Office as well. The service is 24/7 and includes support for people with suicide ideation, acute mental health crises, family conflicts, unhoused needs, drug and alcohol issues, and requests for welfare checks. Kidnapping and drown- ing events have even been addressed by the team. Lori Severance, a li- censed clinical social work- er with the West Lane team, said responders are often out on calls for two or three hours at a time. “We stay as long as we’re needed and then we pro- vide referrals,” she said. The program owes part of its success to building strong community collab- oration and support, said Severance, including reg- ular meetings with other stakeholders. This has allowed clients to be connected with ser- vices more quickly and better coordinated between community resources. Some notable lessons from the West Lane proj- ect, though, are areas which Cottage Grove may be keen to learn from. Organizers pointed out that law enforcement may not always have the abili- ty to provide assistance on non-criminal mobile crisis calls, which could be a po- tential safety issue for MCR workers. Determining the best way to provide case man- agement services is also a concern. For example, it should be decided whether to contract out these ser- vices to a local agency or manage them within the MCR program itself. The scarcity of resources rural communities possess may alone be somewhat of an issue in this, too. Senior Program Services Coordinator at Lane Coun- ty Debbie Heeszel said the West Lane project had made it clear a “one size fits all” approach would be the wrong strategy and recom- mended a nuanced applica- tion to South Lane. Currently, there are sev- eral services for dealing with mental health crises in Cottage Grove. South Lane Mental Health, a key player in this project, has offered walk-in and call-in services since the 1990s and provides crisis lines and mobile re- sponses to its clients. The Cottage Grove Com- munity Medical Center keeps a South Lane Mental Health crisis worker staffed in its emergency room, though in-person respons- es have been suspended since June 2021 due to staff- ing shortages. CGPD also responds to crisis calls in the commu- nity and will often assist in transporting a person in crisis to an appropriate ser- vice. Nonprofit services like Community Sharing and Family Relief Nursery pro- vide aid as well. Still, attendees of last month’s virtual meeting noted a laundry list of needs and strategies for the community. One question posed to the group asked: If South Lane had sufficient access to behavioral health ser- vices, what would it look like and how could progress be measured? Answers were numerous and included needs to ad- dress youth concerns, de- fine the boundaries of the service, secure adequate funding, diminish the stigma around behavioral health and track progress from both the client and provider perspective. A second question asked about the needs and barri- ers experienced locally in regards to planning for the project. One salient point made on this was a great need for more mental health staff in the area as well as post-con- tact services which prevent crises from becoming cycli- cal events. CGPD Chief Scott Shep- herd said his department is strongly in favor of a pro- gram that could reduce of- ficers dealing with mental health situations. “We’d just like to pledge our continued support for this conversation,” he said, adding that about 1,050 calls for service with a men- tal health component have been made to the depart- ment this year. “I can’t say they’re all mental health ‘crises,’” he said, “But any percentage that could re- duce the amount of officer time … would be beneficial to the community.” Future public discussions will be held on the subject, though no dates have been announced. # 541.640.7625 Your Partners in Wellness NovaHealthPrimaryCare.com SOUTH LANE COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE The Only Emergency Medical Transport Service in South Lane County Call 541-942-4493 for info. 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