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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A11 LOCAL Employers, hospital add new tools to reduce job-related pain By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER Work can be pain in the neck. Or back. Or feet. Employees in physi- cally demanding industries, such as manufacturing and shipping, can be particu- larly vulnerable to injury, and Good Shepherd Health Care System in Hermiston is hoping to better address the needs of the many area residents who work in those industries. Good Shepherd spokes- man Nick Bejarano said the hospital is working on a comprehensive pain man- agement program that will eventually feature behav- ioral health, acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy and more. “They can begin work- ing on a plan of action to get people back to work and to the lifestyle they’re accus- tomed to,” he said. The hospital’s first move was to hire chiropractor Christopher Scott about a year ago. Scott said he sees many patients who have job-related pain. Sometimes it’s an older patient whose body is breaking down after years of physical labor, and other times it’s an acute injury that happened when someone lifted something. “There’s a lot of phys- icality in what these guys do,” he said. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Chiropractor Christopher Scott has been seeing patients for about a year for the Good Shepherd Healthcare System in Hermiston. Scott is just the first recruitment is Good Shepherd’s first step in a plan to develop a comprehensive pain-management program. Patients who come in to see Scott get a work-up of X-rays and other diagnostic tests before Scott works with them on addressing the “bio- mechanical” causes of their pain. He performs hands-on manipulations but also teaches patients about exer- cises they can do at home to build core strength and help prevent future injuries. Preventing injuries Companies have their own programs that they hope will prevent employees from being injured in the first place. At the Walmart Distri- bution Center in Hermiston, manager Josh Burns said his duty is to make sure associ- ates go home safely every day. One way he does that is through a program called Axonify. At least once a week employees log into one of the work stations around the distribution center and answer a series of questions about how to do their partic- ular job safely. Afterward, they get to choose from a selection of computer games to play. They can challenge other employees and com- pare high scores. “It’s a little more fun than at our meetings reminding people of a list of rules,” Burns said. The company also had an ergonomics specialist come in and teach them a series of stretches for each type of Trucking talk covers growing pot industry By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER The nation’s changing attitude on marijuana poses a quandary for the trucking industry. The Oregon Truck- ing Association is trying to help transportation compa- nies deal with that change. Waylon Buchan is the director of government affairs for the Oregon Trucking Association. He addressed a couple dozen trucking company human resource directors, super- visors and the like on mar- ijuana policy during the association’s symposium last week at Wildhorse Resort & Casino near Pend- leton. Legal marijuana is big business, he said, with Oregon projecting more than $22 million in tax rev- enue from marijuana sales in 2019. “When this gets to the $100 million point, that’s real money,” he said. That economic green means government is not stepping in to roll back the progress on pot. Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was adamantly opposed to marijuana, Buchan said, but made few moves to step on what states did with legalizing the sub- stance. And state after state is moving in that direction. Semi-trucks park in Stanfield. According to New Fron- tier Data, which tracks the cannabis industry, only Idaho, South Dakota and Kansas will not offer some kind of legal marijuana mar- ket within the next decade, and the legal marijuana industry by 2025 looks to employ more than 1 million people. All of that is going to affect trucking and trans- portation, Buchan said, and the industry abides by U.S. Department of Transporta- tion and federal laws, which prohibits marijuana. Even a doctor’s note allowing a truck driver to use pot, he said, will not supersede the prohibition, and case law has already decided that issue. But that does not mean companies have an easy HH FILE PHOTO out to create anti-marijuana policy. “We already have a criti- cal driver shortage,” Buchan said, along with mechanics and related positions. Thus a strict anti-marijuana pol- icy could send would-be employees to seek another job. Still, he said, companies should follow what the fed- eral transportation depart- ment mandates when it comes to drivers, and com- panies must be consistent with enforcing their own marijuana policies. He also let the crowd know more marijuana changes could be on the horizon. The next session of Con- gress is looking at 41 bills dealing with marijuana — 27 in the House and 14 in the Senate. WIN Enter To $3,000 Newspaper sponsored • Local Shopping Survey build a program of stretches, joint-strengthening exer- cises, posture-building movements and activities to increase stability while walking on wet surfaces. Not only do the exercises help with employee well- ness, but Campbell said it also gives team leaders an opportunity to spot if an employee seems extra tired or distracted. “That’s when they say, ‘Maybe today is not the day to have Tony up on a lad- der,’” he said. Lamb Weston has also increased automation for some of its more physi- cally demanding jobs, and Campbell said they have developed a workflow that rotates workers through multiple tasks through- out the day so they’re not repeating the same motion over and over for the whole shift. work, designed to prevent injury. An associate from each department leads their team in stretches daily. Physical preparation is important when some employees are manually moving as many as 10,000 boxes per day. Burns said there are a variety of other ways Walmart seeks to keep its associates safe, including regular analysis of data. If the company can see a spike in shoulder injuries at a cer- tain time of year, they will look at what might be con- tributing to the problem and how to mitigate it. Another of Hermiston’s largest employers, Lamb Weston, also has safety pro- grams in place to protect employees. Tony Campbell, direc- tor of safety and health, said he has seen a lot of improvements to employee health and safety over his 17 years with the company. At their Richland plant, for example, Campbell said they’re now over a year without an OSHA-record- able injury. “We’ve really drastically reduced our incident rate,” he said. Lamb Weston has inter- nal focus groups and audits geared toward improving safety for each job, and like Walmart, has worked with ergonomics specialists to Addressing injuries From a chiropractor’s perspective, Scott said that jobs are hardest on the body when they involve being in the same position through- out the entire work day. The healthiest practice, he said, is for humans to have a good mixture of sit- ting, standing and lying down during a 24-hour period. Too much sitting or stand- ing or lifting can cause prob- Pet fosters open their homes By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER Tater stiffened her short, stout body, stood her ground and barked. She is 9, can’t see well and is a tad hard of hearing, but Lulu already was barking, so Tater joined right in. Susan Goodnow of Pend- leton, her voice rising just enough over the dogs, told them both to settle down. Not that it did much. Lulu, a Catahoula, is Goodnow’s pet. Tater is one of the two dogs Goodnow is foster- ing for the Pendleton Ani- mal Welfare Shelter. The Chihuahua-mix looks like a big baked potato when she lays down, Goodnow said, so Tater it was. Pepper, a bearded collie, is the other foster dog and stayed in a back bedroom out of sight. Both came from difficult lives. “You know, they are just waiting for the perfect home,” Goodnow said. Goodnow, retired, said she dog sat for friends and neighbors and about a decade ago that led to fos- tering dogs. She estimated she has fostered around 100 dogs. “I’ve always had dogs,” Goodnow said. “At one point I didn’t have dogs for two months. It made me crazy.” Like PAWS, Hermiston’s Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue also relies on multiple local and regional fosters. Robin even dangerous conditions, but she was in heat. That’s not a good situation for an animal shelter, so Good- now took her in, and she has been adjusting. “She’s looking for a nice home with an old lady,” Goodnow said. “She gets up on the bed at night and under the covers and keeps my feet warm.” Rolling with unpredict- able behavior is key to fos- tering pets, she said, but so STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY is careful observation. Fos- Susan Goodnow’s Catahoula ters have to learn how one dog, Lulu, takes the pet interacts with another presence of two foster dogs pet, with adults, with chil- in the house in stride. dren, how a dog tells it’s scared or wants out. “By having a dog in your Barker, volunteer with Fuzz home, you can discover its Ball, fosters dogs herself. “Without fosters, we behaviors,” Goodnow said. cannot continue to run the “You can get a better idea of how to describe a dog to the rescue,” she said. Fuzz Ball has 16 animals potential family.” Goodnow also said folks in six foster homes, Barker said, and the nonprofit can have to understand the role use more help. But people of fosters. “You get in your mindset are reluctant to foster pets during the holidays. She you’re helping the dogs find said people new to fostering good, permanent homes,” have to commit to keeping a she said. “The dogs you’re pet as long as necessary, and fostering do not belong to they need a home appropri- you.” ate for the pet. Dogs that Fuzz Ball and the Pend- run need fenced yards, for leton Animal Welfare Shel- example, and someone will- ter have foster pet applica- ing to take kittens cannot let tions online at http://www. fuzzballrescue.com/ and them stay outdoors. Goodnow has fostered http://pendletonpaws.org/. dogs for as little as a day You also can email Fuzz and as long as a year. Tater Ball at fuzzballrescue@ came into the Pendleton gmail.com, and PAWS is Animal Welfare Shelter in available at 541-278-0181. late summer after living in The two nonprofits also are a home with unsanitary and on Facebook. MCKAY CREEK ESTATES Are you worried about falling? 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And working at a business like a tire shop can be particularly demanding because it combines lifting heavy tires and standing on hard concrete floors all day. “It’s hard on your body,” he said. Scott said when he sees people in physical jobs that are experiencing pain, often their job has built up cer- tain muscles but overall they aren’t that healthy. They might be overweight, or eat- ing a lot of junk food that increases inflammation, or not getting any cardio — all risk factors. Poor mental health can play a contributing role as well, he said. Reversing those habits — through healthy eating, exer- cise and addressing men- tal health problems — can help people better manage or avoid job-related pain. And when that isn’t enough, Good Shepherd will con- tinue recruiting providers who can provide other meth- ods for treating injuries. McKay Creek Estates 1601 Southgate Pl. • Pendleton, OR 97801 www.PrestigeCare.com STEP INTO SAVINGS! 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