Health Secretary Sebelius talks health reform in Portland

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian

While some states vigorously resist the federal health reform law, Oregon officials and health industry leaders offered mostly praise of the plan to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who swung through Portland on Tuesday.

Sebelius is reaching out to governors and state officials, whose cooperation is crucial in implementing the federal health reform law passed in March. The law makes states responsible for accomplishing much of the overhaul work.

“You may be further ahead than other parts of the country,” Sebelius told Oregon health care leaders at a forum organized by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

Some states aren’t exactly cooperating. Attorneys general in 14 states—including Washington—have filed lawsuits to overturn the requirement that individuals purchase health insurance or pay a financial penalty. Missouri voters earlier this month passed a ballot initiative to exempt residents from the mandate to obtain insurance. Similar initiatives go before voters in Arizona and Oklahoma in November.

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Letters: Hard choices: Oregon’s money crisis

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Letters to the Editor, The Oregonian

Regarding your Aug. 22 story “Have we the guts to make cuts” and the item on four ways to run the state more like a business: How about we pledge to managers in state government a guaranteed and similar level of money for their departments from year to year, and then reward them for finding ways to save money? Currently, managers intentionally spend all the money available to them, even if they don’t need it, in order to ensure they will get a similar budget the next year.

A common refrain in business goes, “If you make the boss money or save him money, you’ll make money, too” (through promotions and salary increases).

Create a system that incentivizes managers to save money, and we’ll cut more fat out of state government than we could ever hope to by using the blunt hatchet of anti-tax ballot measures.

THEO BURKE
Northeast Portland

*****

We must have just fallen over the cliff. Even The Oregonian is now suggesting it is time to start cutting back several decades of spending more than we have.

Government doesn’t do a very good or efficient job of much of anything. We keep adding programs and agencies, and our attempt is to take care of everything that might have a need. We seem under the false impression that if we can just get the enormously wealthy citizens to pay more and more, we can live happily every after and not pay for much of it ourselves. If 25 percent of the population had far more money than they needed, maybe that would work, but the very well-to-do are few and far between, and some of them have already lost much of what they had.

So, we are all either going to have to dig a lot deeper, or cut a whole bunch of our programs back. And this means you and me.

Are you ready?

BARRY ADAMS
Southwest Portland

*****

Can Oregon downsize government? It’s absolutely essential. Lawmakers and policymakers must use the next legislative session to consolidate and integrate agencies.

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Family leave laws cover a variety of situations

Sunday, August 15, 2010
Jeff Burgess, The Register-Guard

Coinciding with the release of our new Family Leave Laws Handbook, we continue our series of columns devoted to common family leave issues employers might encounter. This week we examine pregnancy-related incapacity and parental leave following the birth of a baby or following an adoption or foster care placement.

Employees who are eligible for protected family leave under the Oregon Family Leave Act or the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or both, and who work for an employer large enough to be covered by those laws, may take leave from their jobs for prenatal and postnatal care and to bond with the child after the birth, adoption or placement in foster care.

Pregnancy-related incapacity

Both OFLA and FMLA allow pregnant employees to take time off for any period of disability related to pregnancy or childbirth, occurring before or after the birth of the child, or for prenatal care. Pregnancy disability leave is a form of serious health condition leave.

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Caring for Oregon’s kids

Sunday, August 15, 2010
William C. Bell, The Oregonian

In these challenging economic times, there may be no greater public imperative for a state and its communities than taking care of its most vulnerable children.

When a child enters the foster care system, the state holds a critical public trust and bears responsibility for the child.  There is also a responsibility held for every vulnerable child who may be at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect, and who may need foster care to protect that child’s safety.

While government bears a legal responsibility for children in foster care, and children at risk of needing foster care, government was never intended to play a long term parenting role. Every child deserves to live in a safe, loving and permanent family that provides a lifelong connection. No young person should grow up in a foster care system that is intended to be only a temporary haven.

It is highly significant - and very encouraging – to have Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz declare that the safe and equitable reduction of the number of children in Oregon’s foster care system is a top priority.

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DHS director lauds progress in child safety campaign

Friday, August 13, 2010
Alan Gustafson, Statesman Journal

State efforts to improve the safety of Oregon children are paying off, Human Services Director Bruce Goldberg said Friday.

In his “director’s message,” circulated to employees of the state Department of Human Services, Goldberg highlighted achievements made since a 2007 critical report “showed starkly that we needed to do more to keep children safe in Oregon.”

Summing up reported progress, Goldberg wrote: “Today fewer children are being abused or neglected in foster care, fewer children experience repeat abuse, more children are returning sooner and safely to their families, more children who cannot return home are being adopted sooner, and fewer children experience more than two foster family placements.”

Goldberg praised the efforts of child welfare workers and managers: “We have come a long way since 2007 thanks to child welfare front line staff and managers across the state and the leadership of Erinn Kelley-Siel, who joined DHS in 2008. We still have more work to do. We cannot rest until every child with whom we have contact is safe. But this kind of progress is heartening.”

Read the Original Article

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With budgets tight, child care subsidy gets cut

By Shellie Bailey-Shah KATU News and KATU.com Staff

Click for Video

PORTLAND, Ore. - Low-income parents may find themselves without child care in the next few months after a program meant to help many of them work is being slashed.

The latest victim, Employment Related Day Care, is part of the nine percent cut Oregon’s Gov. Ted Kulongoski has ordered across all departments.

Terra Buchanan, a single mother of two, will be one of 5,500 families out of 11,000 who will lose the day care subsidy by the end of the year. In all 10,250 children will be affected.

She got a letter this weekend that said her day care subsidy will be eliminated Dec. 31. Buchanan gets $631 a month to pay for child care so that she can work at a $13- an-hour job at a call center. Without it, she says she’ll have no choice but to go back on state assistance.

“It’s going to have to cost more in the end,” she said. “If they take away my ability to work, I now need their help to pay my rent, my electricity, food, everything that I was doing myself by having a job, I’m now going to need the state to help me with because there’s no way for me to afford it.”

The subsidy she receives from the state pays for about two-thirds of her child care expense.

But starting Dec. 31, only families who’ve received state welfare assistance - called TANF - in the past two years will qualify for the day care help.

Gene Evans, with Oregon’s Department of Human Services, acknowledged these cuts will mean some working parents will lose their jobs.

“A reduction in their child care is going to have an impact on their ability to stay employed,” he said. “It’s a bad choice for everybody involved.”

Buchanan says it will ultimately cost taxpayers even more money.

“If they take it away, there’s no way for me to support my kids, and I’m back on welfare again,” she said. “I’m technically in the system even more if they take this away from us.”

At this point, the only thing that can save the day care subsidy is action by the state Emergency Board, which is made up of lawmakers. Last week the board saved a senior in-home care program that was on the chopping block, but the board likely will not meet again until the fall.

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State budget: Oregon can’t move money from roads

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Harry Esteve

At Oregon State University in Corvallis, construction is under way on the $12 million Hallie Ford Center, where researchers will focus on the long-term well-being of children and families. At the same time, Malina Newell in Keizer worries that state cuts to day care will threaten the immediate needs of her family.

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The real winners in health care reform: kids

By Mary Brown, David Willis and Arthur Jaffe

In March, America made history by passing the Affordable Care Act. As the summer heats up, so does the ongoing debate around the country about what the new health reform law actually means for all Americans.

Not everyone is convinced that the law is good for the country. But there is one constituency group that clearly came out as winners in the fight, one group that—although literally necessary for the future survival of our country—can’t speak up for itself and often is ignored. They are our nation’s most important, yet most vulnerable resource: our children.

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Oregon Foster Care Improves in Latest Federal Review

Yesterday the Oregonian released a story, Oregon Foster Care Improves in Latest Federal Review, discussing Oregon’s completion of 6 key federal requirements for the safety and well-being of children in foster care. These requirements included returning foster children to their families sooner, reducing abuse and maltreatment, and moving children less frequently while they’re in foster care.

We are proud to recognize that the Vice President of Children First for Oregon’s youth program, the Oregon Foster Youth Connection (OFYC), is interviewed in the story, highlighting challenges youth face in state foster care. You can hear more from Nicole by watching her recent video. 

Children First commends the Children, Adults and Families Division of DHS for taking the difficult steps necessary to meet the federal requirements, but we know there is still a long way to go.

Last May, during National Foster Care Month, we released our 2009 Essay and Policy Recommendations, Keeping Children Safe: Improving Oregon’s Child Welfare System. This essay highlights 9 policy recommendations that CFFO believes will make further impact on keeping children safely in their homes, improving the experience of foster care, and ensuring that youth aging out of the system at age 18 have the support they need to successfully transition to adulthood.

Individuals, lawmakers and community leaders all play a role in building a safer future for children and a stronger future for families. By continuing effective efforts that keep kids safe, Oregon can continue to focus on its core values and can be a national leader in child welfare issues.

Thank you for the role you play in making Oregon a better place, and for supporting Children First for Oregon.

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Abuse of Lane County boy shows child welfare failures similar to death of Jeannette Maples

Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 9:00 PM
The Oregonian Michelle Cole, The Oregonian

The 9-year-old boy’s injuries included a severe burn and a host of broken bones. But the story he and his siblings told was even more disturbing:

Adopted from state foster care, the boy appears to have been abused in his new home. He talks of being tossed in a creek, fed baby formula and forced to sleep outside. If he was good, he got a blanket.

Shocked by details in an affidavit filed with the court, state officials and children’s advocates are asking the same question: How could something like this happen again in Lane County, just months after 15-year-old Jeanette Maples died?

On Wednesday, the Department of Human Services released a preliminary, three-page report highlighting common themes between the boy and Jeanette, who died in December after child welfare workers failed to respond to repeated reports of her abuse.

In both cases, the state had information pointing to trouble in the children’s homes, yet didn’t step in. Officials said further investigation will determine whether the same workers were involved and look for other areas where the system failed.

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Balancing Oregon’s budget: The cuts we just can’t afford

Monday, June 28, 2010, 9:00 AM
By Jerry Cohen, Robin Christian

It’s been said that a society is measured by how it cares for those in the dawn of life, the twilight of life and the shadows of life. If we allow the governor’s plan to balance Oregon’s 2009-2011 budget with 9 percent across-the-board cuts to stand, our state will fall tragically short of that measure. The irony is that the governor’s plan is likely to slow—not speed up—our economic recovery.

Why?

—Thousands of teachers, in-home care-givers for seniors and people with disabilities and child-care providers in communities from Ontario to Port Orford will lose their jobs, adding to our 10 percent unemployment rate and triggering new costs.

—Millions of dollars in federal matching funds from education and human-service programs will vanish from our communities and economy.

—Schools will be forced to cut hours, days and programs, further diminishing our children’s preparation to compete in a global marketplace.

—Small businesses across the state will shut their doors one by one because, after hanging on by a thread for the past two years, they can no longer wait for the recovery to come to Oregon.

—Thousands of working parents will lose their child-care coverage, forcing many of them to either leave children home alone or quit their jobs, again leading to costly ripple effects.

—Oregon’s lauded home- and community-based system of services for seniors and people with disabilities will be decimated, leaving our most vulnerable citizens without proper care, good choices or dignity—and sending many of them into more expensive nursing homes.

Across-the-board cuts might be awful but understandable if the budget shortfall had been caused by overspending on children, seniors, the poor and those who serve them. But that’s just not the case. The percentage of most of these services from the state’s budget has been diminishing.

The revenue falloff is the result of a recession triggered largely by Wall Street excesses and exacerbated by Oregon’s inherently unstable revenue system. We were shortchanging our kids and elderly even before this crisis.

Let’s be clear: The state of Oregon is required to operate within a balanced budget. We know that tough and lingering economic conditions require difficult choices, especially as the state faces revenue shortfalls, now and in the future. But these cuts and the devastating chain reaction they would set off in every Oregon community show us that there simply must be a better way.

Now more than ever, we need Congress to pass extended recovery-act provisions. Now more than ever, we need the governor and the Legislature to develop a better approach both in the short term by identifying less destructive alternatives, and in the longer term by reforming the kicker laws and closing tax loopholes and tax breaks. And now more than ever, we need to come together as Oregonians to preserve essential services key to our collective economic future and quality of life.

We must choose carefully to shape a tomorrow where Oregon prospers again.

Jerry Cohen is Oregon state director of AARP. Robin Christian is executive director of Children First for Oregon.

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A tip of the hat; a kick in the pants: June 15, 2010

6/15/2010 12:15:00 PM

A temporary fix to a long-term bleacher problem deserves a tip of the hat for the partnership it may signal. The Confederated Tribes and the Round-Up Association have joined together to replace old wooden seating with new aluminum bleachers in the Indian participation section in time for the Centennial Round-Up.

The bleachers, a traditional gathering place for tribal members and other participants in Round-Up festivities, are clearly worn out and inadequate. The long-term solution is to raise the money - lots of it - needed to elevate the bleachers and cover them with a roof to protect everyone from the sun and rain. This would bring this part of the grounds up to the same standard as the rest of the beautiful new grandstands that are set to open this fall. The current Indian participant bleachers are too low, making it difficult to view many of the rodeo activities.

The new partnership formed for a temporary fix can, hopefully, lead to a longer term partnering-up to do a permanent fix. That would be worth another celebration at the 2011 Round-Up and a big hat tip to both Tribal members and the Round-Up board.

A kick in the pants for anyone who believes limiting or cancelling Oregon’s child care subsidy for low income parents is a good idea. There are many Department of Human Services programs on the chopping block to help fill the $577 million state budget shortfall, but this is one to save.

Without the Employment Related Day Care program, thousands of working parents would no longer be able to afford child care. Without child care, they would not be able to continue working.

The costs of the ERDC program are paltry compared to the costs of unemployment benefits. These costs are not just financial. For children, this program can be the difference between growing up with working parents and being in a (hopefully) educational child care setting, versus growing up with unemployed parents and surviving on welfare. Another option for families is to leave children poorly-supervised - or unsupervised - while they work.

Cutting the child care subsidy program entirely would affect 35,000 children in Oregon; the proposed cuts would affect about 4,600 children.

We’ve written about the importance of this program before, and we’ll keep beating this drum. This is a program that keeps parents at work and helps keep children safe.

A tip of the hat to the 2010 Leadership Hermiston class for selecting a local women’s shelter as its community service project.

This year’s class, according to facilitator Brenda Turner, decided to take on improvements in landscaping at the shelter after touring it and noticed the grounds were sorely neglected. With the help of donations from the community, the class spent a day planting flowers, hauling off debris and fixing up a gazebo. It may seem like a small gesture, but it shows the pride of a community.

The leadership class project shows this year’s graduates are willing to step up in their community.

A tip of the hat to Amber Williams, who graduated from Blue Mountain Community College Friday despite becoming a mom seven years ago.

Williams took responsibility for her situation when she had a child at age 15, and after seven years of struggling through school while caring for her son, Jacon, she earned her associate’s degree.

She was willing to have her story told in the pages of the East Oregonian, and hopefully it was received by readers - especially young readers - as a positive example of how to handle adversity.

Williams admitted it was a mistake that temporarily derailed her life, and in the same way it was her responsibility to make good. She refused to be a ‘state aid case,’ despite being told she had little hope for anything else.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board, comprised of Publisher and Editor Tom Brown, Associate Publisher Kathryn Brown, General Manager Wendy DalPez, Managing Editor Skip Nichols, News Editor Daniel Wattenburger and Senior Reporter Dean Brickey. EO Publishing Co. Board Chairman Mike Forrester also contributes editorial content. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the East Oregonian.

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Oregon Drug Rules Tighten for Foster Children

6/15/2010, 12:11 a.m. PDT
MICHELLE COLE

(AP) — PORTLAND, Ore. - Justin Snegirev mostly remembers feeling nauseous, tired and alone during the more than seven years he spent in state foster care.

Placed in a foster home when he was 8, Snegirev says it wasn’t long before he was prescribed Ritalin, a drug used to treat attention deficit disorders. Next came an antidepressant and then a sleeping pill. Between ages 8 and 15, Snegirev says he was given at least seven different types of psychiatric drugs.

But he wasn’t mentally ill, says Snegirev, now 20. “I was in an abusive situation and was a kid who simply was expressing symptoms of abuse-and nobody was listening to me.”

As of July 1, Oregon will have a new law and new rules to ensure closer scrutiny of psychiatric drugs given to kids living in foster homes.

The change follows a November 2007 investigation by The Oregonian that found children in foster care were prescribed powerful psychiatric medications at four times the rate of other children covered by Medicaid. The investigation also noted that foster parents were paid more if children were on psychiatric medications.

A state audit the next year found one in five children in foster care was prescribed at least one psychiatric medication. The audit also found medication logs missing from child welfare files, poor communication between caseworkers and foster parents about medication and few children receiving timely mental health assessments as required by law.

New state data show those assessments still happen only half the time. Between October 2009 and January 2010, 55 percent of the children entering Oregon foster care had a mental health assessment within the first 60 days.

Officials say that will have to change under the new law. Children must have a mental health assessment before they are given any anti-psychotic drug or more than one of another type of psychiatric drug. There will also be mandatory medication reviews for children under age 6 who are taking psychiatric medications and for older kids with more than two psychiatric prescriptions.

In addition to the new law, the Department of Human Services has new rules on consent for psychiatric medications. In the past, the decision was left to the doctor and foster parents. Now, a child welfare manager must approve.

Changes made last year mean foster parents do not automatically get a higher rate simply because a child takes a psychiatric drug. Advocates for children support the shift of consent from the foster parent to child welfare manager. Read the Entire Article

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Oregon Drug Rules Tighten for Foster Children

The Associated Press • June 15, 2010

PORTLAND — Effective July 1, Oregon will have a new law and new rules to ensure closer scrutiny of psychiatric drugs given to children in foster care.
The change follows a November 2007 investigation by The Oregonian that found children in foster care were prescribed powerful psychiatric medications at four times the rate of other children covered by Medicaid.

A state audit the next year found one in five children in foster care was prescribed at least one psychiatric medication.
Under the new law, children must have a mental health assessment before they are given any anti-psychotic drug or more than one of another type of psychiatric drug. There will also be mandatory medication reviews for children younger than 6 who are taking psychiatric medications and for older kids with more than two psychiatric prescriptions.

Read the Original article

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