October 14: Out of the Darkness Walk

Join the Oregon Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Riverfront Park on October 14th to walk and raise funds to further suicide prevention research, education, support, and advocacy! AFSP funds groundbreaking suicide research, leads the way in mental health and suicide prevention advocacy, and provides educational programs to change the culture around mental health and suicide. Each year, communities around the country gather to walk in support of AFSP’s mission and bring greater awareness to local and national suicide prevention efforts.

We encourage you to support this important work! You can participate as an individual, create or join a team, or donate to this year’s campaign.

Click here to register – we hope to see you there!

September is Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month. Are you prepared for any type of disaster? This year, we have two calls to action! First, be sure to sign up for Marion Polk Alerts to ensure you are notified of warnings and potential emergencies that affect you. Second, be sure to prepare and plan for you, your family, children, and pets. Below you’ll find resources in multiple languages, with tips for everyone, including children, parents, pet parents, and teachers.

CDC Ready Wrigley: activities and checklists for children & parents

Red Cross Prepare with Pedro: activities and lessons for children, parents, & teachers

Ready.gov Kids: additional resources for K-12 classrooms

Ready.gov: Checklists, plans, and all things preparedness

Please note, FEMA will be testing the national emergency alert system on October 4. 

Tami Cirerol recently joined the Prevention Team in August as the Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention Program Coordinator. Tami received her Masters Degree in Health Science from Boise State University. She brings a variety of experience with her, including work at the state, regional, and local levels. Previously, her work focused on programs for older adults and family caregivers, as well as behavioral health initiatives. Collaboration is a cornerstone to Tami’s work and she is excited to meet and work with community partners.  

Tami and her husband recently moved to Salem. They both thoroughly enjoy going to the coast and walking the beautiful trails in the Salem area. Tami also enjoys knitting and her husband leaves her to it.  

Alvin Klausen was born and raised in Salem. After high school, he served as a United States Marine and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Utilizing the GI Bill, he received bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from the University of Oregon. For nearly a decade, he owned and operated a small business in Marion County and served as the District Representative for United States Congressman Kurt Schrader. Currently, he works as the Government Relations manager for Marion County. During the construction of the new YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties building, the opportunity arose to establish affordable housing for veterans in the Salem community. Alvin was appointed as board president of veteran housing project to establish a board and see the project to fruition.

As Oregon faces a housing crisis, I am lucky to play a part in addressing that challenge while serving the men and women who served our nation. I hope the success of Courtney Place will lead to similar programs standing up in every county in Oregon. Every Oregonian deserves to have a place to call home, especially the ones who chose to serve.

4. When can Veteran’s start applying for housing at Courtney Place?

Veterans can begin applying for spaces in Courtney Place in November for placement starting in January. People applying must have served in the United States military and make below 60% area medium income (AMI).

The Training Program equips families and youth with the tools they need to navigate challenges and promote wellness effectively. Knowledge is power.

Lastly, our Support Groups provide a sense of belonging and understanding that only a community can offer. Sometimes the journey is easier when shared.

We’re thrilled to share some recent triumphs that motivate us to keep pushing forward:

• The launch of the Nurturing Fathers program has been met with resounding positivity. A program that is evidence-based, specifically for fathers designed to teach parenting and nurturing skills.
• Our services have expanded into Clatsop, Tillamook and Columbia Counties, which is a significant step in reaching more families.
• Children’s Mental Health Acceptance Day saw an incredible turnout with over 20 tabling partners and resources. The event welcomed esteemed figures like Senator Sara Geisler and shed light on acceptance of children’s mental health.

Our journey is dynamic, and we’re excited about the upcoming events and goals:

• We're actively contributing to the launch of the Mobile Crisis Training Academy, a crucial step in ensuring swift and effective responses to crises.
• To meet the diverse needs of our community, we're intensifying efforts to provide resources and training in Spanish.

You can be a part of our mission:

• Spread the word about Reach Out Oregon's warm line, a lifeline for many families.
• Attend our enriching training sessions and join our email/newsletter list for timely updates.
• Community partners can make a significant impact by referring families to our services.
• Mark your calendars for the Yearly Children's Mental Health Acceptance Day event in May 2024 – your presence matters.

In a world that's constantly changing, our commitment remains unwavering: Every family deserves to be heard and understood. Thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to making this vision a reality.

This summer the Youth Development Prevention Specialist, Macie Reynolds, had the honor of being a part of an amazing youth service-learning project called Care Corps.

Haven’t heard of Care Corps? It has been operating for ten plus years providing service learning and job skill development to youth of Salem, connecting high school aged youth with their peers and not only representing their schools, but Salem. Over the course of three weeks, a group of students who might not know a single person come together to learn about Care Corps key values. They embarked on a week of providing more beauty through nature to their community. This year Care Corps had two main projects, two service groups took the challenge of adding shade, flowers, and trees to the Capital Futbol Club fields, and the other group was given a section for the new youth micro shelters through the Church at The Park organization.

This group added trees, flowers, and a walking path towards a hand-built bench by one of our very own Care Corps participates. Overall, 31 youth came together over three weeks and gained knowledge about forestry, landscaping, pollution, clean streams, farming, and even how to lead a team through many challenges. At the end of the three weeks, youth finished their time with Care Corps by giving a presentation about what they learned and what they took from this experience. Safe to say over half of those students plan on returning to Care Corps next summer.

Know any high school aged youth who want to grow their leadership skills and make a real change to their community while giving back to their home? Join us next summer for Care Corps 2024! Feel free to reach out to Macie Reynolds, mreynolds@co.marion.or.us

In our June ’23 Prevention Pieces Newsletter we told you about the exciting tobacco prevention work we are doing with community partners across Marion County. This work is supported by funds generated from Oregon’s Measure 108, which increased taxes on cigarettes and cigars, and established new taxes on e-cigarettes and nicotine vaping devices. Now that much of that work has been completed, we wanted to provide you with an update!

Due to the nature of the funding, community partners had a limited amount of time to design and implement their projects. Nevertheless, the projects they have completed have been incredible!

Students at Salem-Keizer School District’s Career Technical Education Center (CTEC) developed and produced two professional quality anti-vaping commercials for TV, which have been airing on Comcast for several months.

Language Link has also developed and implemented a Russian language media campaign that included monthly radio shows, beautifully designed ads in print magazines, flyer distribution and targeted social media.

Several organizations including the City of Woodburn, Micronesian Islander Community of Oregon (MIC), Interface Network, Mano a Mano Family Center, and Santiam Hospital and Clinics used their funding to conduct outreach campaigns including workshop series for youth and adults. These workshops included some amazing content like art contests, guest speakers, distributing lots of resources, and targeted support for youth, Spanish speaking community members, and individuals living with chronic disease.

Additionally, Raices de Bienestar incorporated tobacco prevention material into their traditional health worker mental health trainings and increased their staff capacity to reach even more community members throughout Marion County.

Lastly, City of Woodburn, Mano a Mano Family Center, and MIC are in the final stages of completing their community readiness assessments. These assessments will provide critical information for understanding how community members view the problem of tobacco and what additional resources are needed to make change.

We are grateful to these community partners for the hard work they have done to integrate tobacco prevention into their communities, and we are excited to see the ripple effects their efforts will have!

As fentanyl overdose deaths continue to rise and fake pills made with fentanyl circulate in the community, we are excited to share local efforts to bring awareness to the fentanyl issue.

South Salem High School students, Jillian Davison, Ellen Mahoney, and Lauren Reeves wanted to complete a Community Awareness Project for this years’ DECA (emerging leader program) competition.  While brainstorming ideas for the competition, their advisor mentioned fentanyl. After doing some research on fentanyl, they decided it was critical for the community to learn about its dangers. This  project has the potential to have a considerable impact in the community. In particular, peer-led youth prevention activities tend to be well-received by youth.  

We asked the students to share about the project as it gets underway.

Who are you hoping to reach with this project?

We are hoping to reach middle school students, our own high school community, and parents with children in the Salem-Keizer School District. By targeting different generations, we can more effectively spread the word about fentanyl.

What are some goals of the project?

We want to educate our community about the dangers of fentanyl. In order to accomplish this, we are planning a community conversation about fentanyl, and hope to present fentanyl information at middle school assemblies. 

Where can someone find out more about the project?

If someone would like to learn more about fentanyl, they can take a look at the toolbox we have created or the Beaverton School District page on fentanyl. We are hoping to replicate a page similar to the one on their website. 

What do you want the community to know about fentanyl?

Fentanyl is extremely dangerous and is not consistently or evenly distributed in pills. It is important to understand and be aware of the dangers of it.

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?

As fentanyl grows in popularity, it is important to know how to recognize the signs of fentanyl. Public platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and other social media are common places where dealers sell their pills.

Kudos to these students for taking on this very serious issue! Watch for updates to this project in a future newsletter!

Another local resource for fentanyl education is the newly released “Friends Fight Fentanyl” website that targets Marion, Polk, and Yamhill Counties. In addition to fentanyl information, the site includes information on helping someone who is experiencing an overdose, as well as other resources. Information is available in English and Spanish.

https://www.friendsfightfentanyl.com

Marion County Health & Human Services & Polk County is excited to partner with Willamette University to conduct a Regional Marion-Polk Environmental Scan on our community’s resiliency to environmental health hazards and threats!

Over the past several years, Marion County and Polk County have had declared emergencies that have impacted population health. These states of emergencies include a record-breaking heatwave in 2021, a destructive winter storm in 2021, devastating wildfires and poor air quality from smoke in 2020, and poor drinking water quality from cyanotoxin contamination in 2018. These Environmental Health Hazards and Threats (EHHT’s) contribute to poor health and standard ways of life for residents, visitors, and the agricultural community. The Environmental Scan is the first step to decrease vulnerability and adapt to environmental health hazards and threats such as high heat, wildfire, poor air quality, poor water quality, drought, severe winter storms, flooding, and vector borne diseases (such as mosquitos and ticks).

The Environmental Scan will be led by a Research Team at Willamette University. This team is comprised of seven professors with extensive knowledge and experience in research, assessment, and collaboration with community agencies and vulnerable populations. They will lead student researchers to gain tangible skills and experience assisting with interviews, focus groups, and research reviews. It will be conducted between August 2023 – June 2024 and consist of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Assessments, focus groups, a research and policy library, media scan, and more.

Does your organization serve a community vulnerable to environmental hazards and threats? Are you directly engaged in work to combat natural disasters and emergency preparedness? If you would like to participate or know more about the Environmental Scan, please contact us at MCHDPrevention@co.marion.or.us.