EOCIL - Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living

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En el podcast de hoy, nos tomamos el tiempo para hablar con uno de los directores asistentes de EOCIL. Richard ha asumido el papel principal como director asistente de los Servicios de Extensión de EOCIL. Se centra principalmente en correr la voz sobre la prevención del VIH. Desglosamos el programa y lo que Richard ha planeado para él. Queríamos compartir la importancia de su trabajo sobre cómo ayuda a reducir el estigma en la comunidad. Ya sea normalizando las pruebas o asegurando que los proveedores de salud locales estén equipados con la medicación adecuada para ayudar a prevenir la propagación del VIH. Esto incluiría informar a los proveedores y a la comunidad sobre la PEP y la PrEP. Dos medicamentos separados pero esenciales que pueden beneficiar a muchas personas en riesgo de contraer el VIH. Desglosamos esto y nos sumergimos en cómo es el proceso, qué podría esperar al venir a recibir un kit de prueba de VIH para llevar a casa y cómo podría ayudarlo a comprender mejor su estado de VIH.

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In today’s podcast, we take the time to speak with one of EOCIL’s assistant directors. Richard has taken the lead role in because the assistant director of EOCIL’s Outreach Services. He primarily focuses on spreading the word about HIV prevention. We break down the program and what Richard has planned for it. We wanted to share the importance of his work on how it helps reduce stigma in the community. Whether that be by normalizing testing or ensuring that local health providers are equipped with the proper medication to help prevent the spread of HIV. This would include informing providers, and the community, about PEP and PrEP—two separate but essential medications that can benefit many people at risk of acquiring HIV. We dive into what the process is like, what you can expect when coming in to receive a take-home HIV test kit, and how it could help you better understand your HIV status.

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In today’s episode of Voices in Action, we cover the hot topic of Senate Bill 420 and how that will increase access to crucial resources for people with brain injuries. Brain injuries are an issue that many people can face throughout their lifetime, from young kids hurt while playing to teenagers in sports to the elderly population falling. David gives us his background on how he started his career path and the personal connection he has with brain injuries. We then bring up the main topic for this episode, Senate Bill 420. He breaks down what it is and the ideal purpose behind it. Many services are available to people living with brain injuries, but the ability to access them can be very difficult. The bill will establish a way for someone with a brain injury to easily access these various services throughout parts of Oregon. David explains why this bill was first drafted and what void it will be filling. If you would like to know more about this bill and support it with your signature, the site will be available.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHfrAjZrFNWKjm1GwQ3CaTZ5Zr5VdJ4_01QHdLA2eGatVIyA/viewform 

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In today’s episode, I sit down with Carrie Luke. She is a Behavioral Health Specialist at Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living. I wanted to bring her on due to her extensive knowledge of what trauma is and what it means to provide trauma-informed care. Many people face difficulties in their lives that are unique to them, and we each handle these obstacles in various ways. Carrie describes what trauma is and what it can look like for different people who might have a similar lived experience. No one handles trauma in the same way, so it is important for us to bring light to these different forms of trauma. The effects can be significant, ranging from Big T trauma to Little T trauma. Our environments and the people we surround ourselves with can cause lifelong impacts. Carrie shares her experiences handling trauma and different modalities to help address trauma. We discuss the harm that dismissing people’s lived experiences can have and the best way to present trauma-informed care.

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In today’s episode, I sat down with Steven Wolf. He is a Recovery Mentor and Peer Support Specialist over at Origins Faith. I wanted to speak with him because of his fantastic story. Whether it is drug or alcohol abuse, Steven has been through it all. Steven talks about substance abuse starting at a young age, and we discuss the personal reasons we both used drugs and what we learned from those experiences. We break down why someone might be using and how that affects us as individuals as well as how we feared disappointing our loved ones if they found out. Finally, Steven discusses his breaking point and how he did whatever was necessary to change his life. He started attending various meetings and getting involved in volunteer work. He is now a Recovery Mentor, where he helps those struggling with recovery and helps be a guiding hand in support of their position. He visits various people from different walks of life and even has a drop-in centers so that people have even more access to help. 

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In this episode of Voices in Action, we sat down with Timmie Turley. She is a trans woman who had to overcome incredible obstacles throughout her life. We spoke about her upbringing and how she grew up in a household as a boy and what was expected of “him” at the time. She recalls constantly feeling more comfortable wearing women’s clothing than she did wearing men’s clothing. Here, Timmie shares her experiences with hiding from herself, hiding from her family, being blackmailed by her ex-wife, and eventually coming to self-acceptance.

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In this episode, we meet with a community member who lost everything during the COVID pandemic, a life-altering event that has led to homelessness and addiction. Shawn Schneider shares his experiences and his knowledge about life after loss, personal resilience, and the road to recovery.

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In this episode, we discuss what life is like for someone who has been through the prison system. Sheila's story helps people understand what someone has to go through, from being mistreated to being seen only as a number, in the US prison system. She walks us through her journey from how she started a life of drug addiction to leaving prison with certificates from various Universities.

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In this episode, Amador Perez and Hillary Kennedy discuss the hardships faced by people who suffer from addiction. We explore not only the contributing factors faced by people with addiction, but the ways in which current legal and medical approaches to addiction can further harm our communities, families, and loved ones.

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In this episode with my guest speaker, Issak Garcia, we talked about and broke down what his experience was throughout schooling regarding sexual education. Graduating four years apart from Issak, I wanted to see if some significant changes occurred between that time and our differences. Where were we taught different things because of regional views and stances? Where did we expose to safe sex education at appropriate times? Was the information available to us when we needed it? Those are some of the questions we dive into to try and see what could change or needs to change to keep the youth informed and educated. The goal with this is to spread awareness and get people to ask the question “how do I stay safe,” “who do I ask,” and “where do I need to go to find out this information.” By asking Issak what his experience was, we could find what was missing in his education. We could point out what he saw people doing and how having or not having a proper sexual education affected those around him. We spoke about what he wishes he saw because he was able to experience that firsthand coming from a community with a few teen pregnancies and a lot of unsafe sex. I was able to share my experience when I was in school and be able to compare with one the differences and what worked and didn’t work. We both came to a similar conclusion in the end where we believe that there need to be changes made to help educate people, especially the youth, about safe sex, STDs, HIV, where to get prevention tools, and who to ask these questions.