Representative Caroline Nilsson-Troy spoke to over two dozen community members at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce event Saturday Coffee with District five legislators.
District five representatives David Nelson and Bill Goesling were not present.
Nilsson-Troy said one thing that excites her is the discussions on the go-on rates for higher education in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC).
“Every time they talk about the go-on rate and how important the go-on rate is, I always say 4-H, 4-H, 4-H,” Nilsson-Troy said. “Because 4-H members are twice as likely to go on to college, and girls in 4-H are twice as likely to go into STEM programs.”
For five years there has been a push for additional extension specialists and educators to work on STEM programs. None have been funded in the past, she said. For the first time, the funding has made it through JFAC for one position, according to Nilsson-Troy.
Nilsson-Troy said she is also fighting in the legislature to keep funding for the Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes (ECHO.) ECHO uses a guided practice model to provide best practice specialty care and reduce health disparities, according to its website.
The ECHO program began at the University of Idaho last March. It is led by UI and WWAMI, an education program UI hosts in partnership with the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“We started our first one in opioid addiction and treatment and it was very popular,” said Jeff Seegmiller, UI WWAMI Medical Education Program Director . “And immediately we have impacted every county in the State of Idaho. We are from corner to corner — bottom to top.”
Seegmiller said there is awareness that opioid addiction is challenging in this state. He also said that for many rural communities, which do not have resources to solve opioid projects, ECHO helps provide expert knowledge and information to these communities.
“The greatest challenge within our state is not necessarily opioids,” he said, “but behavioral and mental health are our biggest challenges.”
Idaho is ranked last in the U.S. for number of behavioral mental health providers per capita, according to Seegmiller.
A behavioral health ECHO was started that was so popular over 100 clinicians in Idaho had to be turned away because of capacity, Seegmiller said.
ECHO is currently being funded through grants, the WWAMI program and UI to try and keep the project going, but the program has asked for state funding from Gov. Brad Little, according to Seegmiller.
Seegmiller thanked Nilsson-Troy for efforts to help secure base level funding for the program.
Nilsson-Troy said on the budget side they are trying to secure more residencies for medical and behavioral focused doctors.
“We’ve funded home health visits through the public health districts and those have been very successful so we’re trying to keep those funded,” Nilsson-Troy said.
Louise Regelin of Pacific Northwest Kiwanis asked about bills that would make changes to transparency of reporting for members of the legislature during their time campaigning. Regelin said people don’t know who is supporting what, and that she believes filing reports should become more frequent.
Nilsson-Troy said she is aware that there is legislation regarding this, but she is not sure what it looks like. On top of this, Nilsson-Troy said she has drafted a bill that would hold candidates for public office to a higher level of transparency.
“I think it’s really important that we have a disclosure when we run for office. When I apply for work at the U of I or WSU, I have to disclose if I have any felonies,” Nilsson-Troy said. “What I’m concerned about is that in Idaho that are a lot of people running from small communities, small counties where there’s maybe a weekly paper (and) there’s certainly not an investigative reporter. We don’t know the quality of our candidates.”
Nilsson-Troy noted that this doesn’t mean you can’t have a felony and have learned from it, but said people have a right to understand that and not find out about it after officials are elected.
“If a job interview at an institution asks for that, I don’t know why this job interview wouldn’t ask for that as well,” Nilsson-Troy said. “It’s the longest job interview of my life.”
Community members will have a chance to speak with District five legislators again 9 a.m. during March 9 and March 23 at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @EllamaeBurnell