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.
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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.
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lems ranging from sprains to
herniated disks. Scott said
he addresses the immedi-
ate problem causing pain or
limited movement, but also
teaches the patients how to
change their movement pat-
terns at work.
Manufacturing and ship-
ping aren’t the only physi-
cal jobs that causes injuries
— Scott said he sees a lot of
farmers. 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
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