The Oregon Caregiver SPRING/SUMMER 2023 www.ohca.com 24 PROFILE Rep. Andrea Valderrama, (D-District 47) POLICY MAKER Representative Andrea Valderrama (D-District 47) currently serves as the co-chair of the Oregon Joint Ways and Means subcommittee on Human Services. As Oregon’s first Peruvian American legislator, she shares how her policies and budgets are shaped by her lived experiences and through the lens of racial, economic, disability, climate, and gender justice. What have been your experiences with long term care? We all have our own COVID-19 stories and the core of my work in the Human Services committee has been the experience my family had with my dad throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s right before the pandemic, and we made the decision to put him into a memory care facility in Springfield. As we all know, long term and memory care facilities, like the one my dad resided, were closed to the public until vaccines were developed and distributed. This experience was devastating for our family, and by the time we were able to visit him again he was no longer lucid. My dad passed away in December, and as I grieve his passing, I’m forever grateful to the workers and community who kept my dad safe and happy throughout that difficult time. As we work on healthcare workforce and resident needs in the Human Services subcommittee, I’ve centered the experiences we had with him because I know we are not alone. As we continue to address behavioral health needs and healthcare access, my approach centers compassion, dignity, and hope for a more well balanced and healthy family and community, especially in the last years of a person’s life. I’ll remain a strong advocate for needed behavioral health and long term care workforce investments, strong health and safety standards for residents, and an accessible and affordable healthcare system. What have you learned about Oregon’s long term care sector that you didn’t know before you took office? One of the things that continues to stand out to me is how important both accessibility and affordability continue to be for people from all economic and geographic backgrounds, and the impact that has on their wellbeing, their families, and their communities. I have also learned how complex the long term care sector is, the various types of care facilities there are, the different types of care workers, the types of teams that are required for one individual, and the complexity of resident care. The long term impact that workers have on the individuals and their residents is like that of a teacher and a student. We all think back to that one teacher who made a difference in math or learning how to read. I wasn’t aware of the impact—the multi-generational impact—that workers have on their residents, their families, and their communities. What are your policy interests and why are they important to you? My legislative and budget priorities are all based in racial, economic, disability, and gender justice values. Over the last few years, Oregonians have come together to tackle many challenges. These economic, educational, and social disruptions of the past several years have had a disproportionate impact on low-income families, small businesses, veterans, and communities of color. Oregonians in every corner of the state are looking to move forward and make progress on the issues impacting our communities. This session, I’m prioritizing housing and homelessness, reproductive and behavioral healthcare, strong schools, and a strong democracy because these are the issues I’ve heard from constituents and Oregonians for more than a year. What is your biggest takeaway coming out of the pandemic? One of the things I’m continuing to hear in the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services is how many of our home care and human services workers continue to make the The long term impact that workers have on the individuals and their residents is like that of a teacher and a student.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTY1NDIzOQ==