A8 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Health center
is county’s new
point of pride
O
n June 1, 2020, Deschutes County opened its
Stabilization Center. There was a lot to like about
that. Now there’s more.
Perhaps the best praise a gov-
ernment program can get is when
other communities start calling
and asking about how to imitate it.
The stabilization center may not be
the right fit for every community,
but it should be a point of pride
that Deschutes County’s center is
getting those calls.
The center serves adults and
children who need short-term
mental health crisis assessment
and stabilization. That’s vital be-
cause it helps plugs a hole in ser-
vices. Law enforcement deal with
many people who aren’t best
served by locking them up in jail
or taking them to the emergency
room. They need mental health
treatment. And rather than ty-
ing up police officers or sheriff’s
deputies for hours in, say, the
emergency room, people can be
dropped off in minutes at the cen-
ter and get appropriate care.
The center has seen nearly 900
clients since it opened. Of those,
530 are different people, meaning it
sees some people more than once.
Repeat business is not necessarily a
failure. If people need help, the cen-
ter wants them to come again.
The center is seeing clients with
higher acuity — more serious —
problems than Program Manager
Holly Harris anticipated. For in-
stance, it is not seeing as many
people with mild depression, who
may just be staying home because
of the pandemic, she said.
Clients are asked where they
would have gone if the center had
not been open. That data is in-
complete and may not be accurate.
But some say they would consider
suicide, the emergency room or “I
don’t know.” Only about 8% of the
clients are children. Harris specu-
lated that may be, in part, because
people don’t know that it is a place
that children can be taken.
One of the big issues for the cen-
ter has been being able to be open
24/7. It has been since Oct. 19. Af-
ter all, mental health crises don’t
conveniently happen in a 9-to-5
window. While most of the clients
the center gets do come during
more normal business hours,
about 16% come between 11 p.m.
and 6 a.m. During that window,
there’s really nowhere else for peo-
ple to go, Harris said.
Come June 30, 2022, funding
will run out to keep the stabili-
zation open 24/7. Without it, the
center would have to switch back
to Monday through Friday. Let’s
not wait until June 2022 to get that
resolved.
State’s economy not
starting at bottom
T
here were several times in
2020 when we didn’t just
want a mask over our nose
and mouth. Could we block our
eyes and ears as well?
The economic news seemed to
be one dismal story after another.
We have all heard about or know
people who lost their jobs and
businesses that struggled to stay
alive. It was heart-wrenching to
hear Bend Chamber of Commerce
CEO Katy Brooks tell us about
business owners desperately reach-
ing out to the chamber for help.
But we are going to come out of
this. One curious thing about how
Oregon is weathering the recession
was recently noted by Josh Lehner,
state economist.
Oregon’s economy is usually
more volatile than other states. It
has to do with many things. It typ-
ically means that some of Oregon’s
major industries “grow faster in ex-
pansions but fall or slow further in
recessions.”
This COVID-19 shutdown re-
cession has been different for
Oregon.
Oregon is doing about the same
as the rest of the nation, Lehner
wrote. The state still lost more jobs
relatively speaking, but wages have
rebounded a bit faster.
We are not saying this is great
news. And sometimes economic
data is later revised to create a
slightly different picture.
At least, it’s better than what we
might have expected. As Lehner
says: “For now this is overall en-
couraging in the sense that Oregon
is not starting from the bottom of
the pack like we normally do com-
ing out of a recession.”
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
My Nickel’s Worth
Mayor Endicott and COVID-19
Which is the real George Endicott?
The one who as mayor urged Red-
mond residents in the city’s Decem-
ber Newsletter to “remain steadfast
through this pandemic. Be safe. Wear a
mask. Keep your distance”?
Or the one who attended a meeting
at a Redmond restaurant on Dec. 28?
The meeting was called for owners of
local businesses like restaurants, which
are currently barred from serving in-
house customers by Gov. Kate Brown’s
COVID-19 orders, to discuss reopening.
In commenting on the possibility
that businesses might defy the gover-
nor’s mandate, Endicott told Oregon
Public Broadcasting reporter Emily
Cureton on Dec. 30, “I can’t condone
it, or not condone it. … I just think that
people as individuals can make up their
own mind about how they act.”
He went on to say, “But, if you’re go-
ing to do that (reopen illegally), you
better all do it together.”
I deeply regret that owners of some
small businesses are fighting for their
economic lives. I will do what I can, to
patronize them within the limits of es-
tablished regulations.
Still, the health of our community is
at risk, and the governor’s orders are in
keeping with what health experts tell us
will help reduce the number of people
who become seriously ill or die.
I am deeply concerned that the
mayor of my city does not take this
health crisis to heart. This is a time that
calls for fact-based, ethical leadership
that puts first the health and safety
needs of all. Mr. Endicott is not rising
to the occasion.
— Richard Lance, Redmond
Trump’s COVID-19 successes
It’s a new month and, like clockwork,
here comes another Trump-dump
guest column from Richard Belzer.
I thought the objective of the guest
columnist was to offer readers a per-
spective based upon a special knowl-
edge or expertise in a certain matter.
I have read Mr. Belzer’s “monthly col-
umns” for a couple years now and
am still waiting for something new or
interesting.
Mr. Belzer believed the federal re-
sponse and specifically President Don-
ald Trump’s response to COVID-19
was incompetent. Was it Trump’s in-
competence that cut through the D.C.
bureaucratic swamp to develop and
distribute a safe vaccine in less than a
year whereas typical development takes
three years? A Biden administration
would just now be releasing its first
plan and that would be for arranging
tables and chairs at its first COVID-19
response conference, including how
much avocado toast to order.
Was it Trump’s incompetence that
coordinated the speedy production of
ventilators such that no patients were
without one? Was it Trump’s incom-
petence that mobilized a hospital ship
and converted a conference center into
hospital ward for New York City? Was
it Trump or was it your guy in New
York (Gov. Andrew Cuomo) who re-
fused to utilize those resources and in-
stead forced nursing homes to accept
still COVID-19 positive patients just
released from hospitals, resulting in
tens of thousands of deaths.
You stated that Trump needed to
take actions like FDR in WWII. You
must be conflating FDR’s imprison-
ment of hundreds of thousands of Japa-
nese Americans with your demand that
Trump shut down the whole country
and confine all Americans nationwide
to their homes.
— Bill Rich, Bend
Not all bad news
Most of what we read about
COVID-19 is bad news. The daily body
count, the new more dangerous strain,
the fear of contracting or spreading the
virus and the devastating economic
shutdowns. While all this is real and
newsworthy, we are missing some im-
portant and optimistic developments
that might lift our collective spirits.
First, the vaccines are here, are ef-
fective and soon will be available to
all. The current administration should
receive credit for Operation Warp
Speed, and our pharmacological com-
panies should be honored for their
incredible scientific diligence in de-
veloping the vaccine in response to a
world crisis.
Secondly, we have therapeutic drugs
available which have shown great effi-
cacy in fighting the disease.
Anti-viral drugs such as Remde-
sivir and other anti-inflammatory
medications are being used routinely
to lessen the symptoms of the virus.
Lastly, we can sense that our econ-
omy will soon fully reopen. If teachers,
front-line workers and elderly folks
can be quickly vaccinated, then there is
no reason the country should remain
in perpetual lockdown. We need the
media to accentuate the positive news
so that 2021 begins with some much
needed optimism.
— Bill Eddie, Bend
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COVID-19 poses special risks to people like my brother-in-law
BY HAROLD POLLACK
Special to The Washington Post
I
n mid-November, my wife,
Veronica, got a phone call she’d
been dreading. Her brother
Vincent was very sick, and had been
taken by ambulance to our local hos-
pital. Veronica raced there, where she
found Vincent febrile and groggy,
complaining of abdominal and chest
pain. He was placed in the COVID-19
unit and given oxygen while we
awaited definitive test results.
Vincent is one of an estimated 7.4
million Americans with intellectual
and developmental disabilities, or
IDD. Like roughly 600,000 others,
he lives in a Community Integrated
Living Arrangement, or CILA for
short. Residents and the staff who
care for them are at high risk during
this pandemic. They should be given
correspondingly high priority for
COVID-19 vaccines.
A mere bicycle ride from my house,
263 residents and staff at the Lude-
man Developmental Center were in-
fected with COVID-19. Nine died.
One English study found that adjust-
ing for a wide range of characteristics
and physical health challenges, people
with Down syndrome were 10 times
more likely to die of COVID-19.
U.S. studies also find sharply higher
COVID-19 mortality among people
with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
Across the United States, it’s un-
clear where CILAs or sprawling
complexes such as Ludeman stand
in the vaccine queue. There is no na-
tional definition of long-term care
facilities. States decide this on their
own. Illinois’ COVID-19 vaccine
plan makes little mention of IDD,
though officials recently indicated
that developmental centers and
CILAs would receive priority. Other
states took a similar approach, ref-
erencing disability and residence in
a congregate setting in broad terms
as factors in setting priority for vac-
cination, but neglecting to clarify
where people with IDD stand. Na-
tionally, caregivers, family members,
CILA residents and staff are largely
in the dark.
Vincent’s household includes five
other men. Two use wheelchairs and
require considerable help. Another
is an older adult. Two staff members
help Vincent prepare meals and per-
form housekeeping tasks, and assist
the gentlemen with bathing, tooth-
brushing and daily medications.
These workers are at risk — and thus
Vincent is, too — because they are
people of color living in south-subur-
ban Chicago communities hammered
by the pandemic.
Precautions to prevent the spread of
COVID-19 place people such as Vin-
cent in danger of other physical and
mental health harms. Many people
with intellectual and developmental
disabilities need services that can’t be
performed over Zoom. Direct sup-
port work is hard and poorly paid,
with frequent turnover. It’s important
for a family to be able to check in on
the care their relatives are receiving
— or not receiving — during this dif-
ficult time.
The psychological impacts of isola-
tion weigh on people with IDD. Win-
dow visits and Zoom are bewildering.
Many are frightened by masks and
other forms of personal protective
equipment or experience physical dis-
tancing as a form of punishment.
Veronica — a nurse and medical
social worker — has long monitored
Vincent’s medical and dental appoint-
ments, sorted through his clothing
and his room, observed him for inju-
ries and inspected his feet, which are
vulnerable to infection.
During the first few months of
quarantine, our visits with Vincent
were limited to short, physical-
ly-distanced doorway conversations.
Routine dental, podiatry and pri-
mary-care visits were postponed.
By summer, we were allowed brief
visits in the garage, where he could
share a snack and get a quick shave.
Staff turnover continued apace.
Telephone access to the house was
spotty.
Veronica couldn’t regularly monitor
his health. She couldn’t address rou-
tine problems as she’s always done. At
the hospital, nurses discovered that
his right big toe was ulcerated, bright
red and grossly swollen.
We anxiously waited for Vincent’s
test results. After three days, they
came back — COVID-negative. But
his toe ulcerations had resulted in
bacteremia, and — his doctors sus-
pected — produced pneumonia that
landed him in the emergency room.
This wasn’t directly attributable to
COVID-19. But absent the pandemic,
Veronica would have likely caught
and addressed the ulcerations that
may have made him so sick.
Vincent and his housemates need
early vaccines that would allow them
to resume healthy and safe lives.
Those who care for them have done
this hard work for months, facing
risks hardly reflected in their modest
wages. They earned a prominent place
in the queue. So did family caregivers,
particularly the estimated 1.3 million
over the age of 60.
Vincent is out of the hospital, re-
covering in our home. He and every-
one who lives with and cares for him
deserve to be safe.
e e
Harold Pollack is a professor at the University of
Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration
and co-director of the University of Chicago
Health Lab.