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@OHAOregon
April 18, 2024
Media contact: Timothy Heider, 971-599-0459, timothy.heider@oha.oregon.gov
SALEM, Ore. — Measure 110 Behavioral Health Resource Network providers reported increases in client engagement over all service areas, according to recently released quarterly reporting data.
As providers continue to establish and expand services, the most recent data revealed a 346 percent client gain in screening services since the program’s start – indicating that more providers are seeing new clients for the first time. Supported employment showed the highest overall percentage gain at 422 percent.
Client screening is an important first step for people seeking substance use treatment and recovery. As a result, network providers have reported increased numbers of people are accessing low-barrier treatment services and supports.
The latest data also show a 258 percent increase in people accessing peer services, in addition to other supports. Many peer service providers reported meeting people in their homes or in community settings and using other measures to lower service barriers such as providing childcare and securing transportation to treatment.
Measure 110 network providers report the number of clients they serve and the number of encounters they have with their clients as a measure of overall engagement. Some clients may receive multiple services within a network or within multiple service networks.
The latest report covers network activities from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2023. Collectively, Measure 110 providers have now reported five quarters of data and expenditures from July 1, 2022, when the first network was established, through Sept. 30, 2023.
Overall, Measure 110 providers reported 267,000 encounters for people seeking peer support services and more than 220,000 encounters for substance use treatment over the 15 months of operations from July 1, 2022 – September 30, 2023.
OHA continually updates a comprehensive Measure 110 data reporting dashboard that includes quarterly data, expenditures, key demographic information, and aggregated narrative summaries for the 42 statewide service networks.
The dashboard also contains a section that shows how providers are conducting community outreach to directly connect individuals to services in their communities.
“Public awareness campaigns and community engagement activities play a pivotal role in dismantling social stigmas, misconceptions, and discrimination related to specific health services and conditions,” reported one provider. “By challenging and dispelling these stigmas, we empower individuals to seek care comfortably, which in turn, lowers the hurdles to accessing services.”
Other providers focused on reaching populations that historically have been under supported. “Our peers and navigators have been able to do community outreach on a regular basis…with peer support referrals and health screenings,” reported one provider. “[Our] outreach focuses primarily on the houseless, unstably housed, incarcerated, transitional, and marginalized BIPOC communities.”
Another provider described the value of providing supported employment services to people in need. “The housing portion of our services has helped build tangible life skills as our tenants work to remodel and create a beautiful space while earning a paycheck.”
Despite the reported growth in service access, nearly one-third of providers continue to report challenges around building their workforce.
The deadline for the next round of reporting for expenditure and program data is in April and will cover the time from October 1 - December 30, 2023. OHA expects to publish that data in Summer 2024.
Background: In November 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 110, the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act of 2020, which became effective Dec. 4, 2020, to better serve people actively using substances or diagnosed with a substance use disorder. In July 2021, the legislature passed SB 755, which amended the act and made it more feasible to implement.
People who provide drug treatment and recovery services and advocates for criminal justice reform wrote Measure 110 in response to the high rate of drug addiction and overdoses in Oregon, and the disproportionate impact of those outcomes on Oregon’s communities of color.
Their goal was to establish a more equitable health-based and effective approach to substance use disorder.
OHA is continuing to develop and sharpen strategic parameters around data collection, establishing standards for the type that is appropriate to collect, modifying internal systems and processes to capture data outcomes, metrics, and reducing administrative burden on providers.
The Measure 110 program continues to refine service data collection for communities of color and other disproportionately affected communities, as the networks transition toward implementing Race Ethnicity and Language Disability (REALD) standards in their data collection.
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EDITORS: Dr. Paul Cieslak of OHA is available for interviews until noon today. Contact OHA External Relations at PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov to set something up.
April 11, 2024
Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, 971-246-9139, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
PORTLAND, Ore. — Outbreaks of Salmonella infection linked to backyard poultry have been well documented, but a recent Oregon public health investigation highlights the risks of home chicken flocks for newborn babies.
An Oregon Health Authority (OHA) report in today’s edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) details an investigation into a case of salmonellosis – the disease caused by Salmonella bacteria – in a newborn whose parents kept backyard poultry.
OHA and Crook County epidemiologists investigated the case as part of a routine, multi-state review of backyard poultry-associated salmonellosis outbreaks reported to CDC from across the country during 2023.
According to the report, the baby boy was born at a hospital about 150 miles away from his parents’ home. The newborn was discharged with his mother to a relative’s home the day after his birth, but four days later was readmitted to a second hospital with bloody stool and lethargy, prompting health care providers to collect a stool sample for analysis. The sample tested positive for a strain of Salmonella known as Thompson.
Neither parent had symptoms of salmonellosis, nor had they been diagnosed with the disease. However, the baby’s father, who tended the family’s backyard poultry at the family’s home 150 miles away, was present at the hospital during the child’s birth and stayed with the child and the child’s mother at the relative’s home when the baby fell ill.
The newborn had not traveled to the home where the backyard poultry were kept during the time between his birth and his hospital admission for his illness.
Nearly a month after the newborn was admitted to the hospital with salmonellosis symptoms, state and county epidemiologists collected environmental samples from the chicken bedding in the family’s backyard poultry coop, where the child’s father had previously had contact. Two of the samples matched the Salmonella Thompson strain found in the child.
Paul Cieslak, M.D., medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations at OHA’s Public Health Division and co-author of the MMWR article, said epidemiologists don’t know the exact mechanism by which the newborn was exposed to the Salmonella Thompson strain. But it’s telling that the newborn’s family started keeping backyard poultry only about a month before the child’s birth.
“It’s possible one of the parents was shedding the organism even though they weren’t showing symptoms and exposed the baby during or after his birth,” Cieslak said. “The bacteria also could have been carried from the family home to the newborn on clothes, shoes or other belongings. Once it’s on surfaces, it can be transported and transmitted fairly easily.”
The case is a strong reminder about the importance of hygiene when tending backyard poultry, “especially when persons at risk for exposure are newborns and young infants whose intestinal flora and immune systems are still developing,” the article’s authors wrote. “In addition to adhering to recommended hygiene practices, families contemplating raising backyard poultry should consider the potential risk to newborns and young infants living in the household.”
The CDC has the following recommendations for backyard flock owners:
The article’s lead author was Stephen Ladd-Wilson, Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Section, OHA. Other co-authors included Karen Yeargain, Crook County Health Department; Samuel Myoda, Ph.D., and Mansour Samadpour, Ph.D., Institute for Environmental Health Laboratories, Seattle; and Karim Morey, Oregon State Public Health Laboratory, OHA.
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EDITORS: Dr. Paul Cieslak of OHA is available for interviews until noon today. Contact OHA External Relations at PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov to set something up.
April 11, 2024
Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, 971-246-9139, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
Article published in CDC’s MMWR finds no deaths attributed to mRNA shots
PORTLAND, Ore. — COVID-19 vaccination is not linked to death from cardiac causes among previously healthy young people, according to an Oregon Health Authority (OHA) study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study, appearing today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), examined nearly 1,300 deaths among Oregon adolescents and young adults – ages 16 to 30 – occurring over 19 months during 2021 and 2022. It found that none of the fatalities that happened within 100 days of receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose was attributed to vaccination.
The findings answer a question that’s lingered since early 2021 as state and federal public health agencies rolled out new mRNA vaccines during the pandemic: Do rare cases of myocarditis associated with COVID-19 vaccination put people at increased risk for cardiac death?
Study co-authors Paul Cieslak, M.D., and Juventila Liko, M.D., M.P.H., of OHA’s Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Section, say suggestions of an association between receipt of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose and sudden cardiac death among healthy adolescents and young adults are not supported by the Oregon data they reviewed.
“According to information recorded on death certificates, among 1,292 deaths of persons 16 to 30 years of age from June 2021 to December 2022, none was found to have been caused by COVID-19 vaccination,” said Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations.
Of 40 deaths that occurred among persons who had received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose, only three occurred within 100 days after vaccination. However, two of the deaths were attributed to chronic underlying conditions, and the cause was undetermined for one. No death certificate attributed death to vaccination.
Cieslak noted there were 30 deaths among persons this age that were caused by COVID-19. Among these 30 decedents, he said, the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS) database had records for 22 (73%), only three of whom had received any COVID-19 vaccination.
“Studies have shown significant reductions in COVID-19-related mortality among vaccinated persons; during the first 2 years of COVID-19 vaccine availability in the United States, vaccination prevented an estimated 18.5 million hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths,” Cieslak and Liko wrote in their report.
The researchers acknowledged two limitations in their findings.
First, they could not exclude the possibility of vaccine-associated cardiac deaths more than 100 days after COVID-19 vaccination. They also pointed out that published data indicate potential adverse events associated with vaccinations tend to occur within 42 days of vaccination.
Second, although nearly a million adolescents and young adults had received a COVID-19 vaccination during the period of the study, the research could not exclude a rarer event among vaccinees in this age group.
“Nevertheless,” Cieslak said, “it is clear that the risk, if any, of cardiac death linked to COVID-19 vaccination is very low, while the risk of dying from COVID-19 is real. We continue to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all persons 6 months of age and older to prevent COVID-19 and complications, including death.”
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April 4, 2024
Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, 971-246-9139, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
April observance follows CDC report showing U.S. deaths from excessive alcohol use increased nearly 30% since 2016
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is recognizing Alcohol Awareness Month during April by encouraging people to have conversations about the harms excessive alcohol drinking causes to the health of communities – and that there’s never a wrong time to talk about the risks.
“Alcohol Awareness Month is a chance to seriously consider the role of alcohol in in our lives, and the toll it takes on our health and our communities,” said Tom Jeanne, M.D., M.P.H., deputy state health officer and epidemiologist at OHA. “We aren’t telling people to stop drinking. We’re saying that we need a new way to think about alcohol, and that’s it’s OK to talk about the risks to our health and for our communities.”
Jeanne said many people cross the line into drinking too much, partly because society makes it easy. “Alcohol has crept into so many settings of our daily lives, whether that’s at a work celebration, the local laundromat, or even a child’s birthday party,” he said. “Alcohol Awareness Month invites us all to reflect on the role of alcohol on our lives.”
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show deaths from excessive drinking are on the rise. In February 2024, the CDC released a report that showed the average annual number of deaths in the U.S. from excessive alcohol use increased about 29% from 137,927 during 2016–2017 to 178,307 during 2020–2021.
The share of Oregon adults who drink excessively is larger than people may realize – more than 1 in 5. Most people in this group do not have an alcohol use disorder. However, by drinking excessively, people increase their odds of developing an alcohol use disorder later in life.
OHA uses the CDC definition of excessive alcohol use, which includes both heavy drinking and binge drinking:
Binge drinking among Oregon youth has decreased by 50% over the past few decades, according to Oregon Healthy Teens survey data. While youth in Oregon are binge drinking less, binge and heavy drinking among adults remains high: nearly 1 in 5 Oregon adults report binge or heavy drinking in the past month, data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey show.
Overall, excessive alcohol use is the third leading cause of preventable death and disease in Oregon.
“Alcohol Awareness Month reminds us all to consider hitting the pause button on drinking and learn about the harms it can cause,” Jeanne said. He added that OHA, local public health authorities and community partners are working together to build long-term, community-oriented solutions to excessive alcohol use.
The following are tips for those considering drinking less or trying to support those around them who want to drink less:
Note: If you or someone you care about is suffering from alcohol dependence or an alcohol use disorder, free confidential resources and support are available online or by calling or 1-800-923-4357.
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March 26, 2024
Media Contact: Larry Bingham, 971-239-6499, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Reproductive Health Program at Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has launched a new website that makes it easier for people to seek abortion care information and services.
The Abortion Access in Oregon website, viewable at oregon.gov/abortion, includes webpages and links with current and accurate information about accessing abortion services in Oregon, including:
“The new Abortion Access in Oregon website helps us reaffirm to people in Oregon that abortion remains legal and protected in our state, and that anyone who comes to our state for an abortion, regardless of immigration status, has the legal and protected right to that abortion service, not just Oregon residents,” Governor Tina Kotek said.
“As challenges to women's reproductive freedom mount across the country, OHA remains staunchly committed to protecting access to the full range of reproductive health care -- including and especially abortion, fertility services, and contraception -- for all those who live in and visit our state,” said OHA Director Dr. Sejal Hathi. “The foundation of access is knowledge: of your rights, of available services, of the nuts and bolts of obtaining care. This website takes us one step closer to sharing that knowledge, and enabling greater access to protected care.”
The Abortion Access in Oregon website was created in collaboration with community, clinical and state partners to ensure the information it contains is relevant to, and accessible for, people seeking abortion care in Oregon.
OHA’s Reproductive Health Program, based at the state Public Health Division, has asked community, clinical and state partners to share the website link with their colleagues and staffs, as well as with community members and patients they serve.
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