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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2020)
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2020 HermistonHerald.com EasternOregonMarketplace.com UPDATES State health plan website will be unavailable July 2-5 during upgrade HERMISTON HERALD The Oregon Depart- ment of Human Ser- vices and the Oregon Health Authority will be upgrading the eli- gibility system Ore- gonians use to apply for health insurance coverage. As part of that tran- sition, the online appli- cation for the Oregon Health Plan will be unavailable from July 2-5 while the upgrade is being put into place, according to a news release from the state. Any application that is started before then but not submitted by 4 p.m. on July 2 will not carry over to the new system and will need to be restarted, offi cials said. People can still mail in paper applications or apply over the phone at 1-800-699-9075 during that time. Both options are available in multi- ple languages. According to DHS, the new Oregon ONE system will continue to be upgraded, in phases, through February 2021. Once the system is fully upgraded, Oregon residents will be able to apply for all of their cash, child care, food and medical benefi ts in one place. “This upgrade is just the fi rst step in improv- ing the way the state delivers health and human services ben- efi ts to Oregonians and their families,” DHS director Fariborz Pakseresht said in a statement. Photo contributed by Kimberly Nevil Lifeways CEO Tim Hoekstra, center, prepares to cut the ribbon at a celebration for the opening of the organization’s new Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Hermiston. Hope for healing Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital will off er inpatient care By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR W hen Umatilla County Com- missioner John Shafer worked for the Umatilla County Sher- iff’s Offi ce, he says, he saw far too many people in the middle of a mental health crisis who ended up in the Umatilla County Jail because there were no available beds for them at an inpatient men- tal health facility. “They’ve turned our jail into a mental health facility, and our cor- rections staff are not mental health professionals,” he said. Shafer said there is a “humon- gous need” for psychiatric hospital beds in the state, which is why he is excited that Umatilla County now has those beds located right in the county as Aspen Springs Psychiat- ric Hospital opens in Hermiston. The 16-bed hospital at 1212 Linda Avenue is run by Lifeways, Inc., a community mental health provider whose services cover parts of Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Lifeways held a ribbon-cutting cel- ebration for the facility on Thurs- HH fi le photo Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Hermiston will off er 16 inpatient beds for people experiencing a mental health crisis. “Our main focus will be Eastern Oregon, but we will be serving the entire state.” — Jana Flataur, Aspen Springs Administrator day, June 24. “We’re just really excited to start serving the community,” said Aspen Springs Administrator Jana Flatau. She said it should just take a few more days for the state to do its fi nal licensing survey before they can start taking patients who are experiencing an acute men- tal health crisis and need inpatient care. After a brief, scaled-down “soft opening” period, the facility will offer 16 spots for people tem- porarily in need of 24-hour care while they are in crisis. “Our main focus will be Eastern Oregon, but we will be serving the entire state,” she said. Oregon’s shortage of beds for psychiatric patients has been a topic of concern across the state, but particularly in Eastern Oregon. As a county commissioner, Shafer said when people asked him during his campaign what Umatilla Coun- ty’s top problem is, there was no doubt in his mind it was inadequate resources for addressing mental health. He criticized state government for cutting thousands of mental health beds, including the Blue Mountain Recovery Center in Pendleton in 2014. He also said the state needs a mental health-ori- ented version of the Justice Rein- vestment Program, which focuses on reducing recidivism by fund- ing additional supervision and sup- ports for people who are released from prison. He said he has heard area resi- dents say they were afraid to send See Healing, Page A8 COVID-19 cases rise in Umatilla County By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Shearer’s Foods announced on June 29 that six employees of its Hermiston processing plant have tested positive for COVID-19. INSIDE A3 Local churches make adjust- ments in the face of COVID-19 A6 Students honor their middle school teachers Umatilla County hit a record new number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Tuesday, June 30, according to Umatilla County Pub- lic Health. The county health department announced that eight Umatilla County residents with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized. Over- all, as of June 30, the county has had a total of 482 confi rmed cases and currently has 42 presumptive cases. According to the county, 267 people have recovered and there are 252 active cases when counting both confi rmed and presumptive. The health department cur- A7 Dr. Robert Rolen retires from practice. rently defi nes a presumptive case as someone who has been in close contact with a confi rmed case of COVID-19 and is now showing symptoms, but their test results have not yet come back. On Monday, June 29, the county reported its fi fth death of a COVID-19 patient. The patient was a 74-year-old man with under- lying health conditions who tested positive on June 21 and died at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston on June 26. “We recognize that we are in a very abnormal situation with an unknown endpoint and as such, increased stress, fear and anxiety See COVID, Page A8 A9 HAREC researchers study pollinators.
