May 4, 2025 • 30 mins
Pacific Office Automation is offering a free community safety event this week where you can learn more about youth substance abuse and fentanyl awareness. IRL Social Skills is helping people with Autism and their families. ODOT's High School to Highways program offers on-the-job training for high school graduates.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. Pacific Office Automation
is offering a free community safety event this week where
you can learn more about youth substance abuse and fentanyl awareness.
We'll talk with the founder of IRL Social Skills, a
local organization that helps people with autism and their families.
Plus ODOTS High School to a highway program for graduating seniors.
(00:28):
Pacific Office Automation is hosting a free community safety event
on May seventh to address youth substance use and fentanyl awareness.
Andrews Agato with Pacific Office Automation joins us on Local Voices. Andrew,
what will the event include?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
POA is proud to host and conjointly sponsor with the
Song for Charlie and the New Drug Talk on Wednesday,
May seventh. We're bringing in panelists as.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Well as showing a video and having a Q and
A session as a community event to help inform the communion,
in particular parents about the risk of fentanyl, how to
identify fentanyl, and how to deal with the topic of
fentanyl and other drugs with their children and or their teenagers.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Tell us more about Song for Charlie's New Drug Talk.
What is that.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So the New Drug Talk is actually promoted for the
most part by community members Jennifer and John Epstein. They
lived in the Cedar Mill, Oregon area since nineteen ninety
six and they had two sons. Unfortunately, one of their sons,
Cal passed away due to fentanyl in twenty twenty. He
got a prescription drug from one of his friends which
(01:38):
he thought I believe was an ADHD type drug and
it turned out to be fentanyl and he had unfortunately
passed away. So the John and Jennifer Epstein have been
promoting and partnered with the Song for Charlie and their
local chapter and their message is the New Drug Talk.
So it's an accommodation with the national organization of a
Song for Charlie and then the local organization is there
(02:00):
New Drug Talk.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Who are the panelists who will be speaking?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So the panelists we're excited to have is Jennifer and
John Epstein will be a panelist and they'll be speaking.
We also have Joseph del Greco and he's with the Oregon,
Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program since twenty twenty
three and he works with the Drug Intelligence Agency. And
(02:23):
then we'll also have as a panelist Jenny Moore, who
works with an in Washington County to promote youth drug education.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It really sounds like a good opportunity for parents to
learn about the problems and learn about solutions.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It really is, and I would say the key part
of this is trying to inform parents and community members
how to potentially spot issues and how to have those conversations,
you know, with their youths or their children, so that
they're aware of the risks that are out there. Fentanol
is obviously a very sad.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Event, and unfortunately we're being confronted with it in our
communities and our family members. And I think some of
the information about fens and all or what to do
if it's encountered kind of gets overblown a little bit
in the media. So this is more for informational purposes
so that there's general awareness around it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Andrew, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Andrew
Saugato with Pacific Office Automation and details in their free
community safety event to address youth substance use and fentanyl awareness.
It'll be held Tuesday, May seventh, from eleven thirty am
to one pm. It includes lunch, and you can register
on their website Pacificoffice dot com. Autism is a focus
(03:36):
for US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
He says he's working to find the source of autism
by September. Autism specialist question whether that's possible given the
years of research that have already been done. There is
a local organization called IRL Social Skills that helps people
with autism in their families. Mar McLaughlin is a speech
language pathologist with nearly two decades of experience working with
(04:00):
autistic and other neurodiverse people ages two through adults. She
is the founder and program director of IRL Social Skills
and she joins us on local voices. Mara tell us
about what IRL Social Skills has to offer.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
IRL Social Skills we empower autistic and other socially struggling teens, adults,
and their families with the skills to make real world connections.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Tell us what is known about the cause of autism.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
There are some very interesting hypotheses that are current and
have to do with the neurological structures of the brain,
even in UTERL and so, and that's like kind of
(04:49):
emerging evidence. It's not caused by vaccines. We will see that,
and it's been thoroughly debunked and studied worldwide with millions
of participants in those studies. Other causes, you know, I mean,
it's a neurotype, so there's a strong genetic component. When
people look at their family trees, you know, at like, oh,
(05:12):
no one in my family's autistic. But then there was
my grandma who ate the same lunch every day for
thirty years. You know, there was that uncle that you know,
that great uncle who never left home, but he remembered.
He had everyone, you know, in the huge family. He
had everyone's anniversary and birth dates memorized.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, it's this My next question kind of goes into that.
Are there varying degrees of autism?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah? Absolutely, And you know it's called the spectrum for
a reason because there are varying degrees, and people on
the spectrum need a variety of support, you know, like
they may need lower supports, they may need higher supports.
It may depend on the day. There may be non
speaking into they may be minimally speaking, they may be
(06:03):
fully speaking. However, there are no easy autism diagnoses. In
an ideal world, everyone with an autism identification would get
therapy at least once a week for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, can you tell us about people with autism who
are employed.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Well, there's an eighty five percent unemployment rate for autistic people.
And those who are employed, I guess what, their employer
is really lucky to have them because they have a
reputation of being having excellent attention to detail. They're not
going to lie to you, They're not going to steal
(06:46):
from you. They are going to be really honest and direct.
They are going to have high productivity because of the
hyper focus, and it's really important for employers to get
past the interview and the ableism that is present in
(07:08):
the interview. We know that and this is recent data,
only nine percent of employers are going to hire someone
who has strong technical skills but weak so called soft skills. Yeah,
only nine percent. I mean, this is a person who
can do the job right, but they are you know, weird.
(07:31):
They have you know, uh, a social communication, social interaction
style that is different, and people you know, I mean,
the consciousness is rising, but oftentimes people still don't know
how to interact with this this potential employee, with this employee.
(07:55):
We also know that those who are employed struggle to
advance an employe. I've had people in my program who
specifically signed up because they had gotten looked over for
promotions and they were told it was because of their
social skills.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
What would you say to employers that you know that
would be looking to hire or maybe have an opportunity
to interview someone who is autistic.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I would say, offer accommodations for the interview. For example,
the interview questions written in advance, they get to see
them in advance to have it be a virtual interview. Right,
It's more comfortable because you know, the autistic nervous system
that is the brain and the body, the nervous system
(08:42):
is more sensitive. And so they're going into you know,
an office setting. Let's say it's loud, there's bright fluorescent lights.
That's the only thing that I can hear is those
lights going. You know, it's really distracting. I'm trying to, like,
you know, do all the right things so that my
my face is trying to do the right thing, my
(09:03):
voice is trying to do the right thing. Because people discriminate.
There are the thin slice judgments, right that people make.
And I am a huge proponent of training environments of
doing neurodiversity trainings for employers because when we talk about DEI,
(09:25):
neurodiversity is left out of that conversation and the and
when people typically think disabled, they're not thinking about a
hidden disability. They're thinking about blindness or deafness or mobility issues.
They're not considering neurodivergence and what that might look like.
And you know, given like the current what happened, what
(09:48):
is happening with RFK Junior and the AHHS, I mean,
there are a lot of people who are now being like,
we're not even going to get a diagnosis. We're not
going to get my child diagnosed because and then you
know what that means, they're not going to get services
that they need. You know what that means. It means
autism diagnosis. Right, it's going to go down. So then oh,
(10:12):
we've solved the problem wrong, right, tell.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Us about the neurodiversity movement. What is that?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So the neurodiversity movement is I mean it was based
in like a disability justice you know, historical context, and
there were you know, historically there were sit ins at
the Capitol, people in their wheelchairs being like, you know,
we need the Americans with Disabilities Act. We need curb
(10:39):
cuts on the sidewalk, right. And then there was a
person I think their name was, Their last name was
Singer is Judy Singer, who said, hey, there's there's neurodiversity,
and we need neurodiversity as much as we need biodiversity.
(11:00):
You know, you're not going to plant your field with
corn every year. You know you're going to run into
problems with that. You have to have diversity. And then
there was a really amazing book that was that came
out in twenty fifteen called NeuroTribes that was by Steve Silberman,
and there was really the neurodiversity movement before that book,
(11:24):
and then the neurodiversity movement after that book came out.
And he is now deceased, and he said he wasn't autistic,
but he had a lot of autistic friends. And sometimes
that's an indication, right, because Birds of a Feather and
that really kind of put some real strength behind the
(11:45):
neurodiversity movement. And it's there's and since there's been like
an explosion of books written, of podcasts started, and there
are there's a hashtag actually autistic and there are a
lot of people actually autistic researchers all over the world
(12:06):
who are saying, hey, you know this is we're here
and we actually know what we're talking about from a
lived experience standpoint. People who have you know, they're autistic,
they have children who are autistic of again varying support needs.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You mentioned ableism. What is ableism?
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Ableism is like racism, the belief, either like subconsciously or consciously,
that another person's you know, way of movement, way of being,
communication style is somehow aberrant and wrong. And yeah, and
this can be like internalized ableism. I mean, you know,
(12:49):
we meet someone who gives us like an inappropriate compliment.
You know, it's a truthful compliment, but it has to
do you know, from the neck down, and that might
be an autistic person who needs direct, explicit instruction to say, yeah,
thank you for the compliment. We don't compliment people on
(13:10):
their apparents at all at work, right, that's the rule.
But instead, you know, like, oh, the total creeper, I'm
going to go to HR and that person's going to
get summarily fired. So that's you know, an example of ableism,
you know, being like, oh, that person is weird because
all they want to talk about is trains, Well, you know,
what do you what do you know about trains? Like
(13:33):
trains are actually pretty fascinating, so you could actually learn something.
You could you just wouldn't be able to express them.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Sure, some people with autism are able to live on
their own. Others can't. We're the ones that can't. What's
that mean for the parents?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Yeah, there's significant downstream effects for the parents. You know,
parents are parents are looking at if they're if they're
child has you know, significant needs. They are looking at
a trust right that like a special needs trust. They
(14:10):
are looking at a group home. They are looking at
you know, some need needing some kind of respite care
and to know what is going to happen after they die.
I mean, parents lie awake nights thinking about that question.
And it's an important question. When you have a child
that has significant needs, you are going to be wanting
(14:32):
to look down the road and prepare for that. And
you also have to expect competence. You know, there's a
lot of like so called behaviors that come out with
autism because they haven't found a reliable way to express themselves,
and oftentimes they are in like they're in pain right
(14:56):
their nervous system is their sensitivity is such they're in
pain and then they can't express that pain and and
it's really really hard. I mean, there's a lot of
autistic self advocates who are verbal, but really the ones
that we have to look out for the most are
the non speaking ones, you know, the ones who are
(15:18):
the most vulnerable, the ones who are the most on
the fringes, you know, because when we take care of
them and we make sure that their needs are met,
and not only their needs but their families' needs, then
the outcomes then, you know, it's the rising tide lifting
all the boat.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
What services are available for teens and adults.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
There's not a lot of services available for teens and adults. Frankly,
people focus on early intervention and working with the little
ones preschool school age and if they're you know, if
there's there's a student they're in the public schools, they're
on an IP. They're getting like one minutes a month
(16:00):
on an IP for speech.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
We'll call it is.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Oh individual education plan. So that is for a student
who's in special education, who has additional needs beyond a
typically developing student, right, and those typical needs might be
social skills. You know, they might be social interaction, social communication,
because that's the autistic neurotype in a nutshell, sensory processing,
(16:29):
social interaction, social communication. Those are all the areas of need.
And what happens is that at the middle school the
service minutes on the IP are reduced, and then they're
reduced even further at the high school level, and then
(16:50):
if that student is eligible for the Community Transition program,
which is for eighteen to twenty one, there's still another
what's called services cliff at twenty one. Really that model
should be flipped and there should be more services given
at the middle and high school and post high because
our social demands increase as we get older and you
(17:12):
actually need more. And that's that's why I started IROL
social skills, because I was that person who was like, oh,
ninety minutes a month on an IP. How about three
hundred and sixty minutes a month? How about you know?
I have a homeroom with them, and I meet with
them every single day, and they start to form a
community because we need friends more than anything, you know,
(17:35):
and it's hard to make them and it's hard to
keep them. It takes work.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Tell us about misdiagnosed women and BIPOC people.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
So women have been historically undiagnosed and misdiagnosed because autism
was considered the province of little white boys. And even
to this day, I mean that's the preponderance of diagnoses.
So women and girls were just you know, they were
not diagnosed. If they did get a diagnosis, it was anxiety, depression,
(18:09):
narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder. People they used to
be institutionalized. Another thing that happens is that when women
are in there, like perimenopause, a lot of the symptoms
that they have been able to mask thus far come
(18:30):
out because because of hormonal changes. Yeah, so there's like
a there's an abundance of women getting diagnosed right now
with autism and or ADHD. They are usually co occurring
autism and ADHD. They're symptomatic of each other more and more,
(18:51):
and you know, twenty five percent of women with ADHD
have attempted suicide. And then we want to continue talking
to about BIPOC people. You know, they were also overlooked
because they weren't you know, white males, and what they
(19:12):
would get was a diagnosis or an eligibility in the
schools for emotional disturbance, and emotional disturbance is going to
get you in a more restrictive environment. Let's say like
a school that is you're highly supervised, you can't go
(19:33):
to the bathroom by yourself, and you're not getting the
intervention that you need, and that's like the school to
prison pipeline.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
set a goal to determine the cause of autism by September,
which many experts and autism have questioned, what are your thoughts, Oh.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
I think that rfk Junior's proposal is very dangerous because
it is it has it's a eugenics lens. Is trying
to say, oh, we can find all these autistic people,
we can put them on a list, and then we
can determine whether or not they are going to continue
(20:16):
to receive any kinds of services. Autism is a large
and growing population with complex needs, and agencies need to
work together to minimize the impact on individuals, families, and
really society as a whole. If we try to put
autism underground, it's already happening that families are refusing their
(20:40):
canceling appointments for their child to get diagnosed, or even
themselves as an adult because they're like, I don't want
that on my health record because now there's going to
be these violations of HIPPA just targeted out to autistic people,
and that really affects everyone because if they're going to
make a list of autistic people, they're going to make
(21:00):
a list of people with cancer and be like, oh,
you know what, you're too expensive. We're not going to
you know, cover you for Medicare anymore. So, yeah, there's
a lot of there's a lot of concern about that,
but really, you know, we want to minimize the negative
cascading effects and the downstream effects because autism is requires
(21:22):
services from the education, healthcare, and workforce development provinces. Giving
more support and better, more effective support that is evidence
based is going to improve outcomes for all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So if people want to learn more about IRL Social Skills,
how do they do that?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
They can go to my website Irlsocial skills dot com.
I have a social media presence on Instagram at IR
Social Skills, on LinkedIn at IRL Social Skills. I have
a YouTube channel, IRL Social Skills. Yeah, and we empower teams,
adults and families with the skills to cultivate real world relationships.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's mar McLaughlin, founder and program director of i r
L Social Skills that helps people with autism and their
families again. Their website is ir L Social Skills dot com.
The Oregon Department of Transportation as a program where high
school graduates can get paid on the job training through
the High School to Highway Program. Christopher McDonald with ODT
(22:28):
joins us on Local Voices Christopher tell us about it.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
The High School the Highway program is a youth pipeline
training program for surface transportation related jobs which is funded
by five oh four E federal funding. The Oregon Department
Transportation or o DOOT has over four thousand employees across
Oregon in a variety of roles, but one of the
most visible roles the public is our transportation maintenance specialists,
(22:54):
you know. And these these hardworking employees are the ones
that you see, you know, driving snowplows or figure the
road and more. You know, And historically we've had we've
had a difficult time filling positions in many of our
remote or rural areas, and many recruitments would simply fail
because we just didn't have any qualified applicants, and so
(23:17):
it was that issue that really guided our approach and methodology,
and so we figured that how we could try and
find youth that had established roots in those communities and
help them get the skills to be qualified for a
career and maintenance as opposed to trying to continue and
recruit qualified in individuals and trying to relocate those individuals
(23:40):
rural areas. And so far it's proven to be successful.
You know. But now with that said, most of our
trainees are in rural or remote areas, but we have
expanded it to now include larger towns and cities such
as ben in Portland. We don't really have a hard
time getting large Canada pools in our metro areas, but
we have had a hard time keeping talent due to
(24:02):
the cost of living in the current current job market,
et cetera. You know, but our trainings have the opportunity
to get the training, including their commercial Driver's license or
their CDL and really helps them get their feet under
them while they transition into the workforce. And I think
this is a great opportunity to work and learn outdoors
as a part of the team while while working closely
(24:26):
with the mentor.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Sure, how do they progress through job training? What job
do they start with? What's next? What about the pay opportunities?
Speaker 6 (24:35):
Okay, so you know, in addition to the on the
job training from their home crews, which again are all
over the state, our trainings will attend a week long
training program with the cohort of other trainees and bend
where we provide them with the fundamentals and then send
them back to their crews where they're going to continue
to get that on the job training. These training positions
(24:58):
are for one year, and our full time benefits eligible opportunities.
Our trainees get sick leave, holiday leave, medical dental vision,
and we also have an amazing employee assistance program which
offers many well being services free to our employees and
their dependents. And at the end of the twelve month
training program, they will already have one year towards retirement
(25:19):
and seniority and more so it's really cool, Unlike you
know some places where you go through training and you
wait till after your training before you can begin your career,
whereas this they both start at the same time. You know,
our trainees start making three eight hundred and fifty six
dollars a month and begin working towards getting their CDL
(25:41):
Learners Permit with the intent of having that CDL within
six months. After six months, when they have their CDL,
they receive a raise and then they make foury twenty
three dollars a month for the remainder of that program.
Six months is in the program is also happens to
be in January, so they will go into the winter
(26:02):
season having been trained on how to operate snowplows and
they'll be working to keep our roads safe for the
traveling public. So at about nine months, we provide wrap
around services where we provide coaching on how to best
apply for state jobs and we offer mock interviews so
they have those necessary skills to help make them successful
(26:23):
in interviewing. At the end of the twelve month training program,
they will then meet the minimum qualifications for a permanent
highway maintenance specialist position. Our highway maintenance specialist positions are
the backbone of odots highway maintenance program and are often
who we see and think of when you think of
ODA and they make up about a fifth of adot's
(26:43):
workforce and they are scattered to every corner of the state,
and our high school highway graduates will graduates will have
the opportunity to apply for a position in their region
or apply to other locations that are more desirable or convenient.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Now you touched on this a little bit earlier, but
where is the program offered?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
So this year's program, this is the second core, has
approximately forty spots available in every region across the state.
Most of those recruitments have already closed and so we're
currently reviewing applications and should start interviews soon. Some of
those locations include Ontario, Ukaiah, Austin, Penalton, Warm Springs, Mitchell, Lakeview,
(27:23):
Gold Beach, Sweet Home, mc Menville, Seaside Government Camp, Parkdale.
But now with that said, we still have some that
are still currently posted. We have the thirty fifth Drive
in Portland, Parkdale and Ashland. Those are set to close
on eighth of May. The Roseberg location is set to
(27:44):
close on the fourteenth, the Red Road in Portland and
is set to close on the fifteenth. And we're going
to be opening up one for Central Point any day now.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And how do applicants sign up?
Speaker 6 (27:56):
So opportunities are posted at ww dot dot Johns dot
com along with all of our current other jobs. Once
on the website, they should search for high school to
highway and apply by the posted deadline. What I would
say is, please be sure to apply for each location
that they're interested in, and then there is also recruiter
(28:17):
contact information on each posting, and I would say, please
don't hesitate to reach out to those recruiters if you
have any questions.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Have you talked with any of the participants from the
first group, and if so, what are their reactions.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
Yeah, yes, we have and the feedback has been overwhelmingly
positive so far. We had ten trainees in our first cohort.
We wanted to keep it kind of small as a
trial run to see what lessons could be learned. But
of those first ten, eighty percent remain now. Of those
eight remaining, three of those have already competed and received
(28:51):
permanent positions, so they probably lined those up and the
remaining five will have the opportunity to compete for permanent
positions as those come available soon. You know, managers and
coordinators have shared with us that these trainees were coming
in curious and impressionable and not requiring any sort of
retraining on how to do some tasks to O DOOT standards.
A person's first job and how they are managed at
(29:14):
that first job can really set the tone for their
entire career. So this is a great opportunity for us
to leave positive impressions and really help set the sales
for a potentially successful career with ODOT and hopefully and
also within the surface transportation industry as a whole.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
That's Christopher McDonald with O DOT and details about there
on the job training program called high School to Highway
for high school graduates. You can find the openings at
O dot jobs dot com. Thanks for listening to Local Voices,
I'm brad Board. You can hear past episodes on the
iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab. Local Voices is a
(29:51):
public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. Pacific Office Automation
is offering a free community safety event this week where
you can learn more about youth substance abuse and fentanyl awareness.
We'll talk with the founder of IRL Social Skills, a
local organization that helps people with autism and their families.
Plus ODOTS High School to a highway program for graduating seniors.
(00:28):
Pacific Office Automation is hosting a free community safety event
on May seventh to address youth substance use and fentanyl awareness.
Andrews Agato with Pacific Office Automation joins us on Local Voices. Andrew,
what will the event include?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
POA is proud to host and conjointly sponsor with the
Song for Charlie and the New Drug Talk on Wednesday,
May seventh. We're bringing in panelists as.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Well as showing a video and having a Q and
A session as a community event to help inform the communion,
in particular parents about the risk of fentanyl, how to
identify fentanyl, and how to deal with the topic of
fentanyl and other drugs with their children and or their teenagers.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Tell us more about Song for Charlie's New Drug Talk.
What is that.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So the New Drug Talk is actually promoted for the
most part by community members Jennifer and John Epstein. They
lived in the Cedar Mill, Oregon area since nineteen ninety
six and they had two sons. Unfortunately, one of their sons,
Cal passed away due to fentanyl in twenty twenty. He
got a prescription drug from one of his friends which
(01:38):
he thought I believe was an ADHD type drug and
it turned out to be fentanyl and he had unfortunately
passed away. So the John and Jennifer Epstein have been
promoting and partnered with the Song for Charlie and their
local chapter and their message is the New Drug Talk.
So it's an accommodation with the national organization of a
Song for Charlie and then the local organization is there
(02:00):
New Drug Talk.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Who are the panelists who will be speaking?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So the panelists we're excited to have is Jennifer and
John Epstein will be a panelist and they'll be speaking.
We also have Joseph del Greco and he's with the Oregon,
Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program since twenty twenty
three and he works with the Drug Intelligence Agency. And
(02:23):
then we'll also have as a panelist Jenny Moore, who
works with an in Washington County to promote youth drug education.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It really sounds like a good opportunity for parents to
learn about the problems and learn about solutions.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It really is, and I would say the key part
of this is trying to inform parents and community members
how to potentially spot issues and how to have those conversations,
you know, with their youths or their children, so that
they're aware of the risks that are out there. Fentanol
is obviously a very sad.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Event, and unfortunately we're being confronted with it in our
communities and our family members. And I think some of
the information about fens and all or what to do
if it's encountered kind of gets overblown a little bit
in the media. So this is more for informational purposes
so that there's general awareness around it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Andrew, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Andrew
Saugato with Pacific Office Automation and details in their free
community safety event to address youth substance use and fentanyl awareness.
It'll be held Tuesday, May seventh, from eleven thirty am
to one pm. It includes lunch, and you can register
on their website Pacificoffice dot com. Autism is a focus
(03:36):
for US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
He says he's working to find the source of autism
by September. Autism specialist question whether that's possible given the
years of research that have already been done. There is
a local organization called IRL Social Skills that helps people
with autism in their families. Mar McLaughlin is a speech
language pathologist with nearly two decades of experience working with
(04:00):
autistic and other neurodiverse people ages two through adults. She
is the founder and program director of IRL Social Skills
and she joins us on local voices. Mara tell us
about what IRL Social Skills has to offer.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
IRL Social Skills we empower autistic and other socially struggling teens, adults,
and their families with the skills to make real world connections.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Tell us what is known about the cause of autism.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
There are some very interesting hypotheses that are current and
have to do with the neurological structures of the brain,
even in UTERL and so, and that's like kind of
(04:49):
emerging evidence. It's not caused by vaccines. We will see that,
and it's been thoroughly debunked and studied worldwide with millions
of participants in those studies. Other causes, you know, I mean,
it's a neurotype, so there's a strong genetic component. When
people look at their family trees, you know, at like, oh,
(05:12):
no one in my family's autistic. But then there was
my grandma who ate the same lunch every day for
thirty years. You know, there was that uncle that you know,
that great uncle who never left home, but he remembered.
He had everyone, you know, in the huge family. He
had everyone's anniversary and birth dates memorized.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, it's this My next question kind of goes into that.
Are there varying degrees of autism?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah? Absolutely, And you know it's called the spectrum for
a reason because there are varying degrees, and people on
the spectrum need a variety of support, you know, like
they may need lower supports, they may need higher supports.
It may depend on the day. There may be non
speaking into they may be minimally speaking, they may be
(06:03):
fully speaking. However, there are no easy autism diagnoses. In
an ideal world, everyone with an autism identification would get
therapy at least once a week for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, can you tell us about people with autism who
are employed.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Well, there's an eighty five percent unemployment rate for autistic people.
And those who are employed, I guess what, their employer
is really lucky to have them because they have a
reputation of being having excellent attention to detail. They're not
going to lie to you, They're not going to steal
(06:46):
from you. They are going to be really honest and direct.
They are going to have high productivity because of the
hyper focus, and it's really important for employers to get
past the interview and the ableism that is present in
(07:08):
the interview. We know that and this is recent data,
only nine percent of employers are going to hire someone
who has strong technical skills but weak so called soft skills. Yeah,
only nine percent. I mean, this is a person who
can do the job right, but they are you know, weird.
(07:31):
They have you know, uh, a social communication, social interaction
style that is different, and people you know, I mean,
the consciousness is rising, but oftentimes people still don't know
how to interact with this this potential employee, with this employee.
(07:55):
We also know that those who are employed struggle to
advance an employe. I've had people in my program who
specifically signed up because they had gotten looked over for
promotions and they were told it was because of their
social skills.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
What would you say to employers that you know that
would be looking to hire or maybe have an opportunity
to interview someone who is autistic.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I would say, offer accommodations for the interview. For example,
the interview questions written in advance, they get to see
them in advance to have it be a virtual interview. Right,
It's more comfortable because you know, the autistic nervous system
that is the brain and the body, the nervous system
(08:42):
is more sensitive. And so they're going into you know,
an office setting. Let's say it's loud, there's bright fluorescent lights.
That's the only thing that I can hear is those
lights going. You know, it's really distracting. I'm trying to, like,
you know, do all the right things so that my
my face is trying to do the right thing, my
(09:03):
voice is trying to do the right thing. Because people discriminate.
There are the thin slice judgments, right that people make.
And I am a huge proponent of training environments of
doing neurodiversity trainings for employers because when we talk about DEI,
(09:25):
neurodiversity is left out of that conversation and the and
when people typically think disabled, they're not thinking about a
hidden disability. They're thinking about blindness or deafness or mobility issues.
They're not considering neurodivergence and what that might look like.
And you know, given like the current what happened, what
(09:48):
is happening with RFK Junior and the AHHS, I mean,
there are a lot of people who are now being like,
we're not even going to get a diagnosis. We're not
going to get my child diagnosed because and then you
know what that means, they're not going to get services
that they need. You know what that means. It means
autism diagnosis. Right, it's going to go down. So then oh,
(10:12):
we've solved the problem wrong, right, tell.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Us about the neurodiversity movement. What is that?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So the neurodiversity movement is I mean it was based
in like a disability justice you know, historical context, and
there were you know, historically there were sit ins at
the Capitol, people in their wheelchairs being like, you know,
we need the Americans with Disabilities Act. We need curb
(10:39):
cuts on the sidewalk, right. And then there was a
person I think their name was, Their last name was
Singer is Judy Singer, who said, hey, there's there's neurodiversity,
and we need neurodiversity as much as we need biodiversity.
(11:00):
You know, you're not going to plant your field with
corn every year. You know you're going to run into
problems with that. You have to have diversity. And then
there was a really amazing book that was that came
out in twenty fifteen called NeuroTribes that was by Steve Silberman,
and there was really the neurodiversity movement before that book,
(11:24):
and then the neurodiversity movement after that book came out.
And he is now deceased, and he said he wasn't autistic,
but he had a lot of autistic friends. And sometimes
that's an indication, right, because Birds of a Feather and
that really kind of put some real strength behind the
(11:45):
neurodiversity movement. And it's there's and since there's been like
an explosion of books written, of podcasts started, and there
are there's a hashtag actually autistic and there are a
lot of people actually autistic researchers all over the world
(12:06):
who are saying, hey, you know this is we're here
and we actually know what we're talking about from a
lived experience standpoint. People who have you know, they're autistic,
they have children who are autistic of again varying support needs.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You mentioned ableism. What is ableism?
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Ableism is like racism, the belief, either like subconsciously or consciously,
that another person's you know, way of movement, way of being,
communication style is somehow aberrant and wrong. And yeah, and
this can be like internalized ableism. I mean, you know,
(12:49):
we meet someone who gives us like an inappropriate compliment.
You know, it's a truthful compliment, but it has to
do you know, from the neck down, and that might
be an autistic person who needs direct, explicit instruction to say, yeah,
thank you for the compliment. We don't compliment people on
(13:10):
their apparents at all at work, right, that's the rule.
But instead, you know, like, oh, the total creeper, I'm
going to go to HR and that person's going to
get summarily fired. So that's you know, an example of ableism,
you know, being like, oh, that person is weird because
all they want to talk about is trains, Well, you know,
what do you what do you know about trains? Like
(13:33):
trains are actually pretty fascinating, so you could actually learn something.
You could you just wouldn't be able to express them.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Sure, some people with autism are able to live on
their own. Others can't. We're the ones that can't. What's
that mean for the parents?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Yeah, there's significant downstream effects for the parents. You know,
parents are parents are looking at if they're if they're
child has you know, significant needs. They are looking at
a trust right that like a special needs trust. They
(14:10):
are looking at a group home. They are looking at
you know, some need needing some kind of respite care
and to know what is going to happen after they die.
I mean, parents lie awake nights thinking about that question.
And it's an important question. When you have a child
that has significant needs, you are going to be wanting
(14:32):
to look down the road and prepare for that. And
you also have to expect competence. You know, there's a
lot of like so called behaviors that come out with
autism because they haven't found a reliable way to express themselves,
and oftentimes they are in like they're in pain right
(14:56):
their nervous system is their sensitivity is such they're in
pain and then they can't express that pain and and
it's really really hard. I mean, there's a lot of
autistic self advocates who are verbal, but really the ones
that we have to look out for the most are
the non speaking ones, you know, the ones who are
(15:18):
the most vulnerable, the ones who are the most on
the fringes, you know, because when we take care of
them and we make sure that their needs are met,
and not only their needs but their families' needs, then
the outcomes then, you know, it's the rising tide lifting
all the boat.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
What services are available for teens and adults.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
There's not a lot of services available for teens and adults. Frankly,
people focus on early intervention and working with the little
ones preschool school age and if they're you know, if
there's there's a student they're in the public schools, they're
on an IP. They're getting like one minutes a month
(16:00):
on an IP for speech.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
We'll call it is.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Oh individual education plan. So that is for a student
who's in special education, who has additional needs beyond a
typically developing student, right, and those typical needs might be
social skills. You know, they might be social interaction, social communication,
because that's the autistic neurotype in a nutshell, sensory processing,
(16:29):
social interaction, social communication. Those are all the areas of need.
And what happens is that at the middle school the
service minutes on the IP are reduced, and then they're
reduced even further at the high school level, and then
(16:50):
if that student is eligible for the Community Transition program,
which is for eighteen to twenty one, there's still another
what's called services cliff at twenty one. Really that model
should be flipped and there should be more services given
at the middle and high school and post high because
our social demands increase as we get older and you
(17:12):
actually need more. And that's that's why I started IROL
social skills, because I was that person who was like, oh,
ninety minutes a month on an IP. How about three
hundred and sixty minutes a month? How about you know?
I have a homeroom with them, and I meet with
them every single day, and they start to form a
community because we need friends more than anything, you know,
(17:35):
and it's hard to make them and it's hard to
keep them. It takes work.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Tell us about misdiagnosed women and BIPOC people.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
So women have been historically undiagnosed and misdiagnosed because autism
was considered the province of little white boys. And even
to this day, I mean that's the preponderance of diagnoses.
So women and girls were just you know, they were
not diagnosed. If they did get a diagnosis, it was anxiety, depression,
(18:09):
narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder. People they used to
be institutionalized. Another thing that happens is that when women
are in there, like perimenopause, a lot of the symptoms
that they have been able to mask thus far come
(18:30):
out because because of hormonal changes. Yeah, so there's like
a there's an abundance of women getting diagnosed right now
with autism and or ADHD. They are usually co occurring
autism and ADHD. They're symptomatic of each other more and more,
(18:51):
and you know, twenty five percent of women with ADHD
have attempted suicide. And then we want to continue talking
to about BIPOC people. You know, they were also overlooked
because they weren't you know, white males, and what they
(19:12):
would get was a diagnosis or an eligibility in the
schools for emotional disturbance, and emotional disturbance is going to
get you in a more restrictive environment. Let's say like
a school that is you're highly supervised, you can't go
(19:33):
to the bathroom by yourself, and you're not getting the
intervention that you need, and that's like the school to
prison pipeline.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
set a goal to determine the cause of autism by September,
which many experts and autism have questioned, what are your thoughts, Oh.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
I think that rfk Junior's proposal is very dangerous because
it is it has it's a eugenics lens. Is trying
to say, oh, we can find all these autistic people,
we can put them on a list, and then we
can determine whether or not they are going to continue
(20:16):
to receive any kinds of services. Autism is a large
and growing population with complex needs, and agencies need to
work together to minimize the impact on individuals, families, and
really society as a whole. If we try to put
autism underground, it's already happening that families are refusing their
(20:40):
canceling appointments for their child to get diagnosed, or even
themselves as an adult because they're like, I don't want
that on my health record because now there's going to
be these violations of HIPPA just targeted out to autistic people,
and that really affects everyone because if they're going to
make a list of autistic people, they're going to make
(21:00):
a list of people with cancer and be like, oh,
you know what, you're too expensive. We're not going to
you know, cover you for Medicare anymore. So, yeah, there's
a lot of there's a lot of concern about that,
but really, you know, we want to minimize the negative
cascading effects and the downstream effects because autism is requires
(21:22):
services from the education, healthcare, and workforce development provinces. Giving
more support and better, more effective support that is evidence
based is going to improve outcomes for all of us.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So if people want to learn more about IRL Social Skills,
how do they do that?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
They can go to my website Irlsocial skills dot com.
I have a social media presence on Instagram at IR
Social Skills, on LinkedIn at IRL Social Skills. I have
a YouTube channel, IRL Social Skills. Yeah, and we empower teams,
adults and families with the skills to cultivate real world relationships.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's mar McLaughlin, founder and program director of i r
L Social Skills that helps people with autism and their
families again. Their website is ir L Social Skills dot com.
The Oregon Department of Transportation as a program where high
school graduates can get paid on the job training through
the High School to Highway Program. Christopher McDonald with ODT
(22:28):
joins us on Local Voices Christopher tell us about it.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
The High School the Highway program is a youth pipeline
training program for surface transportation related jobs which is funded
by five oh four E federal funding. The Oregon Department
Transportation or o DOOT has over four thousand employees across
Oregon in a variety of roles, but one of the
most visible roles the public is our transportation maintenance specialists,
(22:54):
you know. And these these hardworking employees are the ones
that you see, you know, driving snowplows or figure the
road and more. You know, And historically we've had we've
had a difficult time filling positions in many of our
remote or rural areas, and many recruitments would simply fail
because we just didn't have any qualified applicants, and so
(23:17):
it was that issue that really guided our approach and methodology,
and so we figured that how we could try and
find youth that had established roots in those communities and
help them get the skills to be qualified for a
career and maintenance as opposed to trying to continue and
recruit qualified in individuals and trying to relocate those individuals
(23:40):
rural areas. And so far it's proven to be successful.
You know. But now with that said, most of our
trainees are in rural or remote areas, but we have
expanded it to now include larger towns and cities such
as ben in Portland. We don't really have a hard
time getting large Canada pools in our metro areas, but
we have had a hard time keeping talent due to
(24:02):
the cost of living in the current current job market,
et cetera. You know, but our trainings have the opportunity
to get the training, including their commercial Driver's license or
their CDL and really helps them get their feet under
them while they transition into the workforce. And I think
this is a great opportunity to work and learn outdoors
as a part of the team while while working closely
(24:26):
with the mentor.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Sure, how do they progress through job training? What job
do they start with? What's next? What about the pay opportunities?
Speaker 6 (24:35):
Okay, so you know, in addition to the on the
job training from their home crews, which again are all
over the state, our trainings will attend a week long
training program with the cohort of other trainees and bend
where we provide them with the fundamentals and then send
them back to their crews where they're going to continue
to get that on the job training. These training positions
(24:58):
are for one year, and our full time benefits eligible opportunities.
Our trainees get sick leave, holiday leave, medical dental vision,
and we also have an amazing employee assistance program which
offers many well being services free to our employees and
their dependents. And at the end of the twelve month
training program, they will already have one year towards retirement
(25:19):
and seniority and more so it's really cool, Unlike you
know some places where you go through training and you
wait till after your training before you can begin your career,
whereas this they both start at the same time. You know,
our trainees start making three eight hundred and fifty six
dollars a month and begin working towards getting their CDL
(25:41):
Learners Permit with the intent of having that CDL within
six months. After six months, when they have their CDL,
they receive a raise and then they make foury twenty
three dollars a month for the remainder of that program.
Six months is in the program is also happens to
be in January, so they will go into the winter
(26:02):
season having been trained on how to operate snowplows and
they'll be working to keep our roads safe for the
traveling public. So at about nine months, we provide wrap
around services where we provide coaching on how to best
apply for state jobs and we offer mock interviews so
they have those necessary skills to help make them successful
(26:23):
in interviewing. At the end of the twelve month training program,
they will then meet the minimum qualifications for a permanent
highway maintenance specialist position. Our highway maintenance specialist positions are
the backbone of odots highway maintenance program and are often
who we see and think of when you think of
ODA and they make up about a fifth of adot's
(26:43):
workforce and they are scattered to every corner of the state,
and our high school highway graduates will graduates will have
the opportunity to apply for a position in their region
or apply to other locations that are more desirable or convenient.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Now you touched on this a little bit earlier, but
where is the program offered?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
So this year's program, this is the second core, has
approximately forty spots available in every region across the state.
Most of those recruitments have already closed and so we're
currently reviewing applications and should start interviews soon. Some of
those locations include Ontario, Ukaiah, Austin, Penalton, Warm Springs, Mitchell, Lakeview,
(27:23):
Gold Beach, Sweet Home, mc Menville, Seaside Government Camp, Parkdale.
But now with that said, we still have some that
are still currently posted. We have the thirty fifth Drive
in Portland, Parkdale and Ashland. Those are set to close
on eighth of May. The Roseberg location is set to
(27:44):
close on the fourteenth, the Red Road in Portland and
is set to close on the fifteenth. And we're going
to be opening up one for Central Point any day now.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And how do applicants sign up?
Speaker 6 (27:56):
So opportunities are posted at ww dot dot Johns dot
com along with all of our current other jobs. Once
on the website, they should search for high school to
highway and apply by the posted deadline. What I would
say is, please be sure to apply for each location
that they're interested in, and then there is also recruiter
(28:17):
contact information on each posting, and I would say, please
don't hesitate to reach out to those recruiters if you
have any questions.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Have you talked with any of the participants from the
first group, and if so, what are their reactions.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
Yeah, yes, we have and the feedback has been overwhelmingly
positive so far. We had ten trainees in our first cohort.
We wanted to keep it kind of small as a
trial run to see what lessons could be learned. But
of those first ten, eighty percent remain now. Of those
eight remaining, three of those have already competed and received
(28:51):
permanent positions, so they probably lined those up and the
remaining five will have the opportunity to compete for permanent
positions as those come available soon. You know, managers and
coordinators have shared with us that these trainees were coming
in curious and impressionable and not requiring any sort of
retraining on how to do some tasks to O DOOT standards.
A person's first job and how they are managed at
(29:14):
that first job can really set the tone for their
entire career. So this is a great opportunity for us
to leave positive impressions and really help set the sales
for a potentially successful career with ODOT and hopefully and
also within the surface transportation industry as a whole.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
That's Christopher McDonald with O DOT and details about there
on the job training program called high School to Highway
for high school graduates. You can find the openings at
O dot jobs dot com. Thanks for listening to Local Voices,
I'm brad Board. You can hear past episodes on the
iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab. Local Voices is a
(29:51):
public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
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