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Director's message
Gary Weeks
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January 21, 2005
To: DHS Employees
From: Gary Weeks, Director
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Helping children in need
The Oregon Department of Human Services and a group of East Multnomah County schools are joining forces to support children and families in ways that help achieve the national goal of "no child left behind."
A growing number of children in the mid- and East Multnomah County school districts -- including Gresham, Barlow, Centennial, and Reynolds -- are facing issues that can get in the way of their school success and make it difficult for them to start their adult lives on a positive path. In the past decade, East Multnomah County has seen increasing population growth, along with rising child poverty rates, growing numbers with no health care, and many needing free or reduced lunches.
Statistics show Reynolds school district, for example, has seen a 30 percent growth in households between 1990 and 2000. The percentage of children in poverty is near 20 percent in both Reynolds and David Douglas schools. And the percentage of students eligible for free lunches is more than 50 percent in David Douglas schools.
The department is initiating a pilot project with these school districts to find ways to work with educators and the school system to make every child successful. This is not the first time that DHS has been closely linked to a school system; for example, the department has long worked with schools in the Lincoln County area on issues like these.
Working with school staff
Some of what we are working on in the East Multnomah Schools Pilot Project includes the following:
- helping staff learn and identify the resources available for students struggling with various human service-related issues;
- coordinating joint trainings of DHS staff and school personnel to increase the connections between the employees and determine ways to work together more effectively;
- developing a connection with the schools to help the department with parent issues and help us recruit foster families in local areas so students don't have to relocate and change schools when they are facing this kind of family crisis.
The schools superintendents and other staff have been generous with their time and ideas on how to better partner with us to help their students. This pilot project will also help us find ways to do our human services work better. And, since this is one of the largest school partnership projects the department has ever undertaken, what we learn here may help us replicate this effort in other parts of the state.
Planning for long-term care
If you're not sure why Oregonians should be concerned about the future of long-term care in this state, consider the following statistics from estimates by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis:
- An increase of 25,000 is expected in the estimated number of seniors statewide in 2005, compared to the year 2000.
- By the year 2010, the increase jumps to more than 75,000 additional seniors age 65 and over.
- By the year 2015, the total numbers of those age 65 - 69 more than doubles from the year 2000. More specifically, 112,759 seniors are in this age group in the year 2000, and an estimated 217,832 are expected to be in this age group by the year 2015.
These statistics illustrate that Oregon will be facing a number of challenges in the future in terms of determining how to plan and provide long-term care for this increasingly large population group.
Long-term care services and supports
Long-term care includes services and supports that a person may need over time due to their age or disability -- to ensure that they are living in a safe, healthy environment. Key to this planning is making sure that decisions about long-term care should promote choice, independence, and dignity for the individual.
The issue of long-term care will be part of our discussions with the legislature this session. Oregon received national attention in 1981 for its innovative ways of using Medicaid dollars to finance home- and community-based alternatives to nursing home care. Now some 25 years later, we need to look at what the future vision is for long-term care in this state.
We will be involving many people in this discussion - including the Governor's Commission on Senior Services, provider groups and others - to ensure budget implications are considered as well as impacts on health care, housing, and public health issues.
We will keep advocating and promoting healthy living and taking care of yourself as you age. We'll also be looking for ways to help people focus more on financial planning for aging including long-term care insurance and long-range financial planning.
We will continue to advocate for seniors and people with disabilities, including developmental disabilities, so that they are able to live as independently as possible, while receiving services that they need.
Food for thought
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller
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Oregon Department of Human Services
Director's Office
500 Summer St. NE E15, Salem, OR 97301-1097
Phone: (503) 945-5944
Fax: (503) 378-2897
TTY: (503) 947-6214
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